With stats showing over 75% of the U.S. workforce is unhappy with their job(s) you have to begin to wonder why they stay. Where is the value for them in maintaining the misery, not only for themselves, but most likely, the ripple impacts their family and friends? Money and/or family, is the response I most often hear in regards to folks who consciously show up to a job they don’t like, and often full on hate. One, your family and friends want you to be happy. Two, there is most likely a job out there for you that you’d enjoy and would pay what you need to live a happy life. Three, if you are not looking for a better job, you can not find a better job. And four, perhaps there is someone out there that would really dig the job you are in. Summary: If you are at the table and not contributing, give up your seat to someone who will. You can’t find the right fit and fall into the right slot without shaking things up a bit.
Inclusion
One of the greatest hurdles to productive group implementation is one of the easiest to solve, listening. Was everyone heard is a major indicator in whether or not the product of a decision will be implemented and the percentage of support it will receive. When we look at the model of group decision making – orientation, discussion, decision making, and implementation – it’s easy to identify where verbal contribution factors in. So the path is clear. The challenge is the engagement piece. Is everyone’s voice being heard? Is everyone being asked to contribute. Even if someone does not have something to contribute, the request and offer for them to contribute is critical, as is the sense of inclusion. Whether one decides to contribute or not, has less impact on outcomes than whether or not they felt included. A sense of inclusion is paramount to the decision to support the outcome. What’s all of the above mean? Want to tank your project quickly? Have someone who was involved in the project bad mouth it.
Performance Matching
Performance matching is a common phenomena within the workplace. It consists of group work and/or area work resulting in a consistent outcome pulled lower by the poorest performer. What does it look like? Say two teams are working at opposites sides of the building on the same task. The groups outcomes will tend to match that of the least productive members, pulling down the overall group output. How do you guard against a failing dynamic and downward norm setting? Implement internal and/or external incentives for high performance and include a competition component involving another group. Studies have shown when team competition enters the equation, the downward norm no longer exists.
Action + Accountability Trumps Ongoing Mind Numbing Discussion
Think. Discuss. Act. Be Accountable. That is all you need to succeed. There is a direct correlation at a point in ongoing discussions showing reduced productivity and positive outcome. Early collaboration and action has a cost benefit.
Action Trumps Ongoing Discussion
Action trumps ongoing discussion. Think about the issue, have a meeting or discussion to find the best course of action and then move on it. Failure to pull the trigger and then relapse into ongoing consensus and meetings is the path to an ongoing loss of productivity and ROI. Be active, be accountable.
How To Be Professional
How to be professional… Workplaces can be full of all types of thinking, both good and bad. The challenge with over 75% of the national workforce being unhappy at their current jobs comes when you see how that spirals out throughout the workplace dynamic/culture. So how do you protect yourself and remain professional in a world that has a large percentage of disengaged workers? I suggest two things. One, if you do not hold the target, the arrow will be less likely to come your way. That is to say, your integrity is what you have going into and leaving a job, guard it and don’t open yourself up to the engagement of counter-productive activity. Two, focus on facts and quality within your workplace, and the specifics of your job. Don’t get distracted. Facts and quality are solid. Regardless of workplace politics facts and quality are two items that will support your integrity day in and day out. The bottom line here is people on average don’t enjoy a negative atmosphere, but do often participate in it. So note to self, you can’t change what you feed.
Survival of the Fittest? Competition vs. Cooperation
Survival of the Fittest? Competition vs. Cooperation? Our culture has the propensity to value competition over all else. Often rooted in the Darwin alleged theory of survival of the fittest. I’m not sure how Darwin’s theory morphed into the manner of how we often flippantly interpret it. I am however sure that interpretation is off base when it comes to the workplace. Cooperation and adaptability is what Darwin was focused on. Darwin himself only mentioned survival of the fittest twice. In contrast he mentioned the concept of love/cooperation/adaptability (call it what you want) ninety-five times. He was correct. Cooperation will win every time when you look at the big picture. And in the workplace it will create a more productivity, higher return on ongoing efforts and perhaps even re-engage the over 70% of employees out there that are actively disengaged in their jobs. That is a lot of unproductive dollars going to wages for unproductive work. Creating a culture of cooperation increases your culture of adaptability and will result in increased ROI, increased employee retention, higher productivity, etc. It will maximize both time and results.
Leadership
Leadership is about commitment to others and process. It is not about convenience.
Why Personality Assessments
What is the value of personality assessments? A minimal and comparatively low-end investment can unleash employees latent qualities or abilities which can be developed into ongoing greater success for the organization as a whole. Employees feel engaged in personality assessments. Why? Because it is an element that triggers the feeling of one’s own importance in the company. Testing allows employees to temporarily shift from the worker bee dynamic that is so prevalent within the workplace to the queen/king bee mentality . What type of assessment is best? It is all subjective. Professionally I recommend DiSC as it is not as open-ended and can better hold focus allowing for a better bird’s-eye view when trying to determine the overall quantitative and qualitative outcomes.