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What Makes a Great Working Environment?
We know a lot about what a great working environment is. A
great working environment is a work situation where 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 luck 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. That's what the research tells us,
too.
Over the years, there's been quite a bit of research into the factors that make up a
great working environment. Here's a quick summary of what the research and my own
experience tell us make for a great working environment.
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 folks, 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. The 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 our customers or the folks I work with.
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Clear and Reasonable Expectations
People like to know what's expected of them. It's like setting up 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 folks. At the leadership level, slogans and other brief
statements that folks can use as a "test" of their plans or actions are usually
the most effective.
Don't underestimate the value 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 that they're important. Slogans
can be great for this. So can using devices like pocket reminder cards with simple
messages or messages in table form.
Use your regular forms of communication--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.
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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 folks 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.
Feedback also has to be usable. Time your feedback so it reaches people when it does
the most good. 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 you
help you communicate with people in the ways they most like to be communicated with.
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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.
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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--a way of walking the talk.
Leadership by example means that you uphold the values and principles that you say you
and others stand for. It means that you, consistently, pay attention to the important
things, consistently reward good performance, consistently see that rewards and
punishments are meted out fairly.
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Maximum Control Possible
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 folks 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 folks 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.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 12/31/00
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