The “vicious circle for leaders”
is something that is very familiar to me. I have seen it quite often in other
organizations that I have worked for, not necessarily because employees were
not skilled enough, it was because leadership was inconsistent with
expectations and often had conflicting priorities. This forced employees to be
unconfident in their decision making and competencies. In my current
organization it has happened but with me in the leadership position. When I
first arrived at the building I currently work in I found the skill and job
knowledge levels of most managers as very low. Naturally, I found myself ‘in
the weeds’ from day one at the building and have yet to come out. This may be
acceptable for new managers, but the problem with this is that the managers
have been in their positions for some time and they have false perceptions
about their job knowledge and skills, so when I became heavily involved into their
business they were not very open to it. Now, because of my involvement, they
almost rely on me to help them with tasks they should be doing on their own. I
started to re-educate all the managers, set expectations with them, and now I’m
holding them accountable to be able to do their jobs without me interjecting.
The effects on an organization
when this cycle takes place are negative. The intent of the manager may be
good, but the employees loses confidence, loses empowerment and motivation, it
hinders creativeness and ingenuity, and employees could lose respect for
managers who micro manage too much. In addition, it could create a situation
where employees become too dependent on a manager, so when they are not present
for any reason the results are not the same. For example, if a team performs
well when a manager is involved and does not produce the same results when they
are gone, the employees become dependent on the manager and a sustainable plan
is not present.
An ideal cycle for a leader and a
follower could look like:
- Leader reiterates expectations
(Recognition or feedback)
- Follower takes initiative to
meet or exceed expectations
- Leader is afforded opportunity
to give employee space
- Leader adopts a hands-off
approach
- Follower’s confidence stays
constant
I think that this cycle could
last anywhere from a few months to a year. The expectations setting phase could
serve as an annual or quarterly review where the employee is rewarded for
performance or given feedback for not meeting expectation. This is assuming
that if the employee does not meet expectations after that first phase, they
will not be around to complete the other phases.
No comments:
Post a Comment