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Write You - What Makes a Great Working Environment?
Whenever I speak out against lousy service I feel I’m performing my civic duty.Unfortunately, all too many service providers think I’m a Johnny Damon, a team switcher, a traitor to the corporate cause. They wonder how can I be sincerely interested in helping consumers if my consulting income is provided by companies?Of course, that’s a naive question. We drink from the same well, because we’re all consumers.When service standards are high, companies prosper and the economy grows, not only because of job creation and a more robust tax base. It grows because consumers are confident.They’re confident enough to spend, because they anticipate they’ll get value, and that includes proper treatment and the right help when they need it.Have you ever noticed how the releasing of consumer confidence numbers can rock Wall Street? Investors know that when confidence plunges, spending dries up. People cut back, and the economy as a whole recedes.Consider y
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regula
Business, what a marvelous thing! It has helped to create a nice lifestyle for many of us. Business can build fortunes and produce great joy, it can also cause monetary problems and produce anxiety as well as sadness and of course it can lead us into every emotion in between.Why does this invention called business or commerce or whatever moniker you may want to call it so often cause us to be driven into such turmoil?Certainly money seems to have a lot to do with it. And power, control, expression, inventiveness, goals, vision, trappings, recognition, a desire to help others, and a bunch of other intangibles that also appear to fall into the equation. Depending on your point of view each one of the items I’ve listed has either a positive or negative connotation, or both.So why does it seem that we spend such an inordinate amount of our time in business trying to figure out how to communicate with other people in order to accomplish what we want?Maybe it ha
In a great working environment the mission is being accomplished and morale is high. It's the "user" side of the two key leadership objectives: accomplish the mission and care for your people.
Most people know exactly what I mean by a great working environment. They may not be able to list characteristics, or point to research, but they've usually experienced one. So have you.
Think about a time in your life when it was great to come to work. If you're lucky there are lots of them. If you're really lucky, now is one of those times.
What was it like then? I'll bet you were excited about the work you were doing, and you knew that it was appreciated. You almost certainly felt that you were being treated fairly and that you had some control over what you got to do.
There's been quite a bit of formal research into the factors that make up a great working environment. Here's a quick summary of what the research tells us make for a great working environment.
* Interesting and Meaningful Work
* Clear and Reasonable Expectations
* Frequent and Usable Feedback
* Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
* Consistency (Predictability)
* Maximum Control Possible Over Work Life
In my training classes, I often do an exercise where participants identify the times when they were in a great working environment and what that was like. The language is often a bit different from the formal research, but the same things come up over and over again.
Interesting and Meaningful Work
People want to do work that's interesting and meaningful. They want what they do to be enriching for them and important to others.
Different people define interesting in different ways. For some people, it means that they're learning a lot, having lots of personal growth. For others, the most important thing is that there are lots of different situations to deal with or lots of different problems to solve.
Sometimes "interesting" is not so much about the work itself as it is about the people you work with. This self fulfillment comes from being part of a team, an elite group, or just a bunch of folks you like working with.
It's also important for the work to have value to others. The "others" can be the whole world, or just your customers or the people you work with.
Clear and Reasonable Expectations
People like to know what's expected of them. They like to know the rules of the game.
Expectations need to be clear. At the supervisory level, that may mean laying out detailed, step by step procedures. At the management level expectations may come out of discussions with several people. At the leadership level, slogans and other brief statements that people can use as a "test" of their plans or actions are usually the most effective.
Don't underestimate the values of frequency, simplicity, and memorability when you're communicating expectations. You have to communicate the important things over and over in memorable terms.
In fact, repeating things is one way of telling people what's important. Slogans are great for this. So are devices like pocket reminder cards with simple messages or messages in table form.
Use your regular forms of communication, like newsletters, emails, sales bulletins to reinforce your leadership message. Reinforce your written communications of expectations with oral communications. Reinforce your formal communications with informal ones.
Remember that you need to state expectations for the performance you want, but you also need to be clear about the consequences of performance that's beyond or not quite up to standard.
Frequent and Usable Feedback
People like to know how they're doing. Feedback is how they find out. To work, the feedback must be frequent (lots of small course corrections) and usable.
How frequent is frequent? The answer, which sounds something like a cop out is: "As often as necessary?"
Some people want and need a lot of feedback. Other people prefer to be left alone most of the time to do their work. You have to know who needs what and in what situations.
The idea is to make lots of small course corrections on the way to the clear target you've established with your expectations. Lots of small adjustments are almost always easier and more effective then a few giant ones.
Feedback also has to be usable. Time your feedback so it reaches people when it is the most helpful. In most situations, that means you want feedback as close to the performance as possible. If you can set up a system so people can get their own feedback, so much the better.
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regular
Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is increasingly discussed and written about in today’s knowledge-based economies. Although there are currently no internationally agreed-upon definitions of e-commerce, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) defines e-commerce transactions as: the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organisations, conducted over computer-mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on or off-line. The concept of e-commerce extends into communications, promotion, customer service, statistics, and usage patterns. However, often overlooked when examining e-commerce acceptance or failure is the social and cultural impact of conducting conventional business transactions over the Internet.The absence of an agreed-upon definition for e-
* Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
* Consistency (Predictability)
* Maximum Control Possible Over Work Life
In my training classes, I often do an exercise where participants identify the times when they were in a great working environment and what that was like. The language is often a bit different from the formal research, but the same things come up over and over again.
Interesting and Meaningful Work
People want to do work that's interesting and meaningful. They want what they do to be enriching for them and important to others.
Different people define interesting in different ways. For some people, it means that they're learning a lot, having lots of personal growth. For others, the most important thing is that there are lots of different situations to deal with or lots of different problems to solve.
Sometimes "interesting" is not so much about the work itself as it is about the people you work with. This self fulfillment comes from being part of a team, an elite group, or just a bunch of folks you like working with.
It's also important for the work to have value to others. The "others" can be the whole world, or just your customers or the people you work with.
Clear and Reasonable Expectations
People like to know what's expected of them. They like to know the rules of the game.
Expectations need to be clear. At the supervisory level, that may mean laying out detailed, step by step procedures. At the management level expectations may come out of discussions with several people. At the leadership level, slogans and other brief statements that people can use as a "test" of their plans or actions are usually the most effective.
Don't underestimate the values of frequency, simplicity, and memorability when you're communicating expectations. You have to communicate the important things over and over in memorable terms.
In fact, repeating things is one way of telling people what's important. Slogans are great for this. So are devices like pocket reminder cards with simple messages or messages in table form.
Use your regular forms of communication, like newsletters, emails, sales bulletins to reinforce your leadership message. Reinforce your written communications of expectations with oral communications. Reinforce your formal communications with informal ones.
Remember that you need to state expectations for the performance you want, but you also need to be clear about the consequences of performance that's beyond or not quite up to standard.
Frequent and Usable Feedback
People like to know how they're doing. Feedback is how they find out. To work, the feedback must be frequent (lots of small course corrections) and usable.
How frequent is frequent? The answer, which sounds something like a cop out is: "As often as necessary?"
Some people want and need a lot of feedback. Other people prefer to be left alone most of the time to do their work. You have to know who needs what and in what situations.
The idea is to make lots of small course corrections on the way to the clear target you've established with your expectations. Lots of small adjustments are almost always easier and more effective then a few giant ones.
Feedback also has to be usable. Time your feedback so it reaches people when it is the most helpful. In most situations, that means you want feedback as close to the performance as possible. If you can set up a system so people can get their own feedback, so much the better.
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regula
A few decades ago, nurses across the country and around the world wore uniforms. Typically, these professionals were noted for their solid white dresses, starched white caps and white uniform shoes. And all nurses conformed. Whether it was the country nurse who made rounds with the doctor or the nurse in the largest city hospitals, white was the recognized color and there were few variations in the style of clothing.Those days are gone. For nurses and those who use their services, there are two words to be said - Good riddance. But what caused the change and what are the new options?The change may have been a simple matter of fashion making its way into the industry, but there were probably some general mindsets about health care that also played a role. Over the past few years, it's come to be accepted that the attitudes of those who are sick, their families and their caregivers play a role in the potential for recovery. Sick people simply don't need to be reminded tha
Clear and Reasonable Expectations
People like to know what's expected of them. They like to know the rules of the game.
Expectations need to be clear. At the supervisory level, that may mean laying out detailed, step by step procedures. At the management level expectations may come out of discussions with several people. At the leadership level, slogans and other brief statements that people can use as a "test" of their plans or actions are usually the most effective.
Don't underestimate the values of frequency, simplicity, and memorability when you're communicating expectations. You have to communicate the important things over and over in memorable terms.
In fact, repeating things is one way of telling people what's important. Slogans are great for this. So are devices like pocket reminder cards with simple messages or messages in table form.
Use your regular forms of communication, like newsletters, emails, sales bulletins to reinforce your leadership message. Reinforce your written communications of expectations with oral communications. Reinforce your formal communications with informal ones.
Remember that you need to state expectations for the performance you want, but you also need to be clear about the consequences of performance that's beyond or not quite up to standard.
Frequent and Usable Feedback
People like to know how they're doing. Feedback is how they find out. To work, the feedback must be frequent (lots of small course corrections) and usable.
How frequent is frequent? The answer, which sounds something like a cop out is: "As often as necessary?"
Some people want and need a lot of feedback. Other people prefer to be left alone most of the time to do their work. You have to know who needs what and in what situations.
The idea is to make lots of small course corrections on the way to the clear target you've established with your expectations. Lots of small adjustments are almost always easier and more effective then a few giant ones.
Feedback also has to be usable. Time your feedback so it reaches people when it is the most helpful. In most situations, that means you want feedback as close to the performance as possible. If you can set up a system so people can get their own feedback, so much the better.
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regula
When one first becomes interested in working online, one of the first things that is usually done is a search on Google for something like - "Working From Home". The number of listings that come up are astounding. (I just tried it and got about 794,000,000 results.)Wow.There are a an almost infinite number of opportunities out there. I won't be a pessimist and tell you to watch your back, but I will say, "Tread carefully."Before signing up for an opportunity, do research on the company, history, credentials, etc. The best way that I know of to do this is with online marketing forums. The members of these forums are internet marketers themselves, and are there to help others who are already in the industry or just getting started. You can post a question and you will get honest answers on whether the opportunity is valid, not or even if no one has heard about it. (If that's the case by the way, I would skip it.)In fact, I would
Remember that you need to state expectations for the performance you want, but you also need to be clear about the consequences of performance that's beyond or not quite up to standard.
Frequent and Usable Feedback
People like to know how they're doing. Feedback is how they find out. To work, the feedback must be frequent (lots of small course corrections) and usable.
How frequent is frequent? The answer, which sounds something like a cop out is: "As often as necessary?"
Some people want and need a lot of feedback. Other people prefer to be left alone most of the time to do their work. You have to know who needs what and in what situations.
The idea is to make lots of small course corrections on the way to the clear target you've established with your expectations. Lots of small adjustments are almost always easier and more effective then a few giant ones.
Feedback also has to be usable. Time your feedback so it reaches people when it is the most helpful. In most situations, that means you want feedback as close to the performance as possible. If you can set up a system so people can get their own feedback, so much the better.
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regula
As one of his conditions of membership, he is required to have passed an examination in accounting and related fields of study. The recognised company should also as have the power to exclude from membership those persons found guilty of negligence in the performance of their duties or of conduct that is discreditable to their profession.The accounting officer is required to: determine whether the financial statement are in accordance with the accounting records, determine the accounting policies applied in the preparation of the financial statement and report to members on the above matters.When the accounting officer is a member or employee of a corporation, he must state this fact in his report. In performing his duties the accounting officer has, in accordance with the Close Corporations Act, right of access to the accounting records and other information of the corporation and is entitled to obtain any necessary explanations from members. If, during the performa
Work on your communications skills so you deliver feedback in the most effective way possible. Learn about different ways that people process information, and match your communication to their preferred style. Learn about Social Styles and other ways that help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
Fairness (Consequences = Performance)
People want to know that they (and others) are being fairly rewarded based on their performance. This is one of those words that requires definition. Otherwise, it becomes one of those words that everyone agrees with, but no two people have a common definition for.
For us, fairness means that the consequences of the performance are determined by the quantity and quality of the performance. One of the people in my class put it in almost Biblical terms: "The good shall be rewarded and the underachievers shall be punished in accordance with their results."
This ties back to reasonable expectations. It depends on regular and usable feedback.
Consistency (Predictability)
Consistency means predictability. Subordinates want to know how their supervisor will react in a given situation. Consistency also relates to predictability in terms of performance.
Your people want to know how to predict your reaction in different situations. If they can't, they worry about whether or not to trust you.
According to some management studies, consistency (predictability) is the single most effective standard to establish with your own leadership behavior. It's actually another form of communication. It's a way of walking the talk.
Leadership by example means that you act out the values and principles that you say you and others stand for. To quote Howell Raines on Bear Bryant: "Coach Bryant had an idea about how a man ought to act and if you watched him, you could figure out what it was."
Leadership by example means that you consistently pay attention to the important things, consistently reward good performance, consistently see that rewards and punishments are meted out fairly.
Maximum Control Possible over Work Life
People want to have a say about things that affect their life. You can make that happen for them by giving them as much control as possible over issues that affect them at work.
Obviously that varies from person to person and situation to situation. Some people like to be left alone. Others want to see you frequently.
Some people are qualified to make lots of decisions about their work. Others need to develop their skills a bit before they can do the same.
Some people work hard and make an effort to do the job. Others slack off.
It's probably a good general rule to allow individuals as much control of the basic decisions about their work as they are capable of handling and willing to handle. In today's flatter organizations, this is easier to do from an organizational standpoint, but it's hard for many of us from a personal standpoint.
Part of your job as a boss is to create a great working environment for the people who work for you. It's not easy, but the result can be both high morale and high productivity.
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