Promote autonomy and accountability...

Throughout my career we were interested in the concept of self-managed work teams. Those consist of groups of employees who have the autonomy to plan, organize, and control their work, often without direct supervision. They are responsible for delivering service, making decisions, and managing their own processes. It wasn’t so much the autonomy as the shared responsibility and accountability that interested us. Because when employees join in owning the responsibility for business success, an exciting new sense of teamwork takes hold. We believed the benefits included increased productivity and efficiency, improved employee engagement and satisfaction, better decision-making, and greater flexibility and adaptability. But there were also challenges, including less than effective communications, lack of clear expectations, difficulty resolving conflicts, and resistance to change. The benefits were obvious and exciting – the issue was managing the challenges, which managers and supervisors needed to learn to deal with without infringing too much on the self-managing piece that the employees sought to own and perfect. I believe companies should  address this exciting issue by providing training to employees and supervisors, articulating clear vision and direction, providing role training, and supporting the employees with lots of positive reinforcement. It’s a new way to manage and a different kind of teamwork, both of which can help reinvigorate workplaces and help them compete. If you're interested, take time to learn more about self-managed work teams today.

 

Punit Renjen (born 1961): Indian American businessman who is chief executive officer of the multinational professional services firm Deloitte.

Open yourself up to trust...

Team members see everything – the good and the bad about their individual and group efforts. That comes from endless learning and practice, running their plays over and over until they get them right. Along the way, they get to know themselves and each other deeply. Learning to trust their knowledge of what’s expected and their intuition about behaviors both planned and unplanned. For a team to function effectively, its members must have the courage and confidence to confront one another when they see something that isn’t serving the team. That tightens their trust in what’s going to happen, reinforces their courage to speak up without fear, and their confidence in their plans. Whether in sports or business, the coach in the former and the leader in the latter must constantly encourage the openness to make this all work. Call it coaching or team building, it all results in the cohesiveness needed to succeed. Neither is technically a part of the team, but both have everything to do with keeping it on track. Having the strength to shape their moves and the finesse to move their thoughts. Then get out of the way and let them do what they do best today.

 

Patrick Lencioni (born 1965); American author of books on business management, particularly in relation to team management.

Find friends in all the right places...

The best times during my career in the gaming business were the 2 years before each of the property’s opened – called, not surprisingly, “pre-opening”. During that time, we hire and bring on the team, starting with the C-suite (24 months out), their direct reports (8-18 months out), followed by the department managers (4-8 months), supervisors 2-3 months), and employees, 2-8 weeks), in that order. Everyone who participated in those openings will tell you that during that time, the teamwork builds friendships that last a lifetime. When they’re developing policies and SOPs. creating training manuals, designing office space, ordering and putting away supplies, and interviewing and hiring employees. Together. At work long hours, networking, and making friends. Together. I’ve posted here in the past that at Bellagio we created a yearbook that included pictures and stories about the more than 10,000 employees who took part in that effort – if asked, most will show you theirs and all the comments and signatures they collected from their friends and co-workers. And most will fondly point to that book and the times it chronicled, as a high point in their lives and careers. Work can be that for people – our job as leaders is to create the environment and culture where that happens. Then it’s more than just a job. Start making that happen where you work today.

 

Natalie Katherine Neidhart-Wilson (born 1982): Canadian American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Natalya.

Don't forget to show your appreciation...

 

Today’s quote clearly articulates the special qualities of service employees – out there, on their own, face-to-face with customers. In a spot at that moment of service truth where and when it’s just them. Supervisors almost never see the service or get between the customer and employee. They must be knowledgeable, inspired, and willing to act on their experience and instincts. How often have you seen a comment card or received a post-service survey – those are common, and far too few customers take the opportunity to give their feedback. Especially when the service is good. Everyone seems anxious when the service is bad, but management appreciates it either way. What’s not as evident is the work happening out of sight of that service – where employees communicate with each other and engage in the kind of teamwork that makes for great service. And don’t overlook the importance of their eye contact, a smile, and a little personalization – too often customers fail to notice these little things nor appreciate how they impact the overall service experience. They’re made possible by those behaviors and that teamwork. Service employees, working alone and in tandem with others, are the backbone of our shopping, eating, and hospitality experiences, good and bad. Either way, give them some feedback today. 

 

Anna Mary Soubry (born 1956): British barrister, journalist and former politician who was Member of Parliament from 2010 to 2019.

Get organized...

I like to think of myself as organized – the clothes in my closet are organized by type and size, and the dishes I wash every day or take out of the dishwasher are put back in their cupboards in neat and orderly fashion. I’m a leader who uses checklists and was known to give my managers note-card holders to facilitate them doing the same. But I often procrastinate when working on assignments and fail to organize my office until forced to do so. I guess I’m what’s known as an enigma – what Webster describes as hard to categorize or difficult to understand. But my daughter, who like today’s author organizes personal habits and spaces for a living, is always reminding me to make plans, be prepared, and stay focused. Because with those in mind, it’s easier to be more efficient and effective. But it’s something you must work on all the time, constantly assessing if and how you’re using these concepts and tools, and forever reminding yourself of their importance. As leaders, it’s good to model these behaviors for your peeps. Better yet, this is a great topic to discuss in team and pre-shift meetings, talking it through, sharing best practices, and reinforcing each other. Or using as a team building exercise. There’s no end to the benefits of good planning and preparation, and focused action today.

 

Ruzanna Hernandez: A super busy mom, wife, public school administrator, small business owner, writer/author, and content creator focusing on efficiency, organizational skills, productivity, time management, planning, and self-development.

Check out her website: https://ruzannahernandez.com

Clarify your expectations...

It doesn’t get much clearer than this. And yet so many mangers and companies ignore this simple business proposition. Most of them support the concept of job descriptions as the foundation of letting employees know what to do, but how much effort do they put into keeping them fresh, using them as the basis of training and coaching, and building into them the results that are expected. My experience is that they are quick to list the duties and responsibilities in response to an HR request and are then satisfied when pointing to them on the shelf in their office that they’ve done their part for new employees. But the boss – the head of the company, needs to remind them to keep and use them continually as the basis of performance management, and that requires the inclusion of specific objectives and measurable results that can be reviewed and discussed regularly, not just annually. Because people with clear written goals accomplish more than people without them. Put that in your policies, hold managers accountable to actively using them, and get the most out of your people today.

 

Brian Tracy (born 1944): Canadian American motivational public speaker and self-development author.

Create a learning environment...

The "10,000-hour rule," popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, suggests that it takes roughly that many hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery of a skill. Others suggest that it takes less time, like 20 hours, to become reasonably proficient in a skill. Most, however, would argue that it’s the quality of the training and practice that most affects the amount of time it takes to become proficient. And others say it has a lot to do with coaching, mentoring, and supporting employees by their direct supervisors and managers. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between relative to the hours needed and that a combination of all these elements is what it takes to become competent and confident. All that said, it’s important that employees be given the right amount of training to make them proficient and productive – because the faster they do that the better they’ll be in supporting their company’s objectives. The proof is in the quality and overall acceptance of whatever it is the company produces. Creating this type of professional approach is what great companies do. Make sure your employees are as good as they need to be by giving them an effective learning environment today.

 

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 – 1851): English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction.