Leadership
Published: November 18, 2024 | Updated: 18th November 2024
Post budget, organisations of all sizes have been working out how to navigate their way through next year’s double whammy rise in NI and the National Living Wage. Clearly, there are no easy answers. Without a doubt, however, business leaders will need to be as good at getting the best out of people as they are at managing the numbers.
More from less
The chances are that many organisations will have to make do with less people, and therefore the team members that remain absolutely need to perform at their best. That includes leaders themselves. Leaders need to be as confident and capable in the people management and people development side of their role as they are in the functional side.
Think about your team, how many of them are consistently performing at a 10 out of 10 against their up-to-date job description and the behavioural expectations of them in their role?
If they aren’t at a 10, what’s getting in the way?
Ask yourself these questions to establish what might be going on:
If your mental response to these questions is ‘I think so’ or ‘they should do, I’ve told them enough times’, it’s time to check for sure. Continuing to replay your message, loudly and repeatedly won’t cut it, start asking open questions to pull their energy and thoughts towards you, rather than keep pushing yours out. In short, become a great manager coach.
Build confidence
Confidence is key when it comes to performance. Giving feedback is an important part of this. Take a moment to catch people doing things right (Blanchard). The ratio of positive to constructive feedback should be 5:1. It’s easy to think ‘well, that’s just their job, that’s what they’re supposed to do’ but taking it for granted is a missed opportunity. Show you’ve noticed, giving specific behavioural praise for the things that make a positive difference to your business. If people understand exactly what they are doing that makes a difference, they’ll do more of it. Most people want to do a good job.
Believe it or not, receiving constructive feedback also builds confidence. People can tell when you’re displeased with them, even if you don’t tell them, it leaks out in your behaviour. This can knock confidence and take up bandwidth as they either worry about what they’ve done wrong or go around feeling undervalued. Take the guesswork out of it and nip things in the bud, rather than letting people continue to repeat their error. If you find giving constructive (a.k.a. negative) feedback tricky, learn more about how to do it well. It doesn’t have to feel difficult for either party. It’s totally possible for it to be a 2-way, collaborative conversation that feels ‘constructive’.
Don’t go it alone
There is an opportunity here, without frightening people, to help employees understand the challenge your organisation faces and to get their ideas on how to increase revenue and/ or decrease costs. I’ve witnessed many a sceptical manager being surprised by their team members’ willingness to get involved and help come up with solutions. Don’t give up if the first time you invite your team to do this their ideas feel too basic or infeasible. Without quashing ideas immediately, help your team understand the business better, so the quality of their ideas increases each time you ask. Yes, this takes a small investment in time but just imagine the real powerhouse you could create by combining the whole team’s effort and brain power.
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For more leadership tips, read through our past Leadership Matters articles on Hampshire Biz News. And as always, if you would like to bounce any ideas or undertake coaching, mentoring, or training with our team of leadership and employee engagement experts, please get in touch.
