Posts Tagged Workplace
The Bane of Sytems / Processes
I came across this picture in one of the forwarded messages in my inbox and it reminded me of situations employees find themselves in so often.
To me, this picture depicts situations where companies burden themselves and their employees with cumbersome processes / tools for simple tasks. Don’t all of us agree that many of the organizations we work with have a little too much of systems / processes and tools? 10 forms for joining the organization, 20 for leaving. And between those two, a multitude of unwieldy processes to follow, forms to fill and redundant tools to use. We could do a lot with simplification - minimalistic organization structure design, minimalistic processes etc. But, how to make this a reality?
Add comment November 12, 2008
The Managerial Rub-Off Effect
I have been musing about the “managerial rub-off effect” for a long time. Essentially, the hypothesis is that if you have a great manager, it would have a positive rub-off on you, and you would manage your team well in turn. What it means is sub-cultures get easily created within an organization by managers and there could be positive and negative aspects to it based on how managers manage. Here is a simple matrix to explain what I am talking about:
Optimized: Managers who have great bosses create high levels of engagement within their teams
Concern: Managers who do not have great bosses, in turn are not able to create high levels of engagement with their teams
Striving: Talented in terms of people management - these managers create highly engaged teams, despite not having great bosses.
Sub-optimal: Despite having a great boss, these managers are not able to pass on the “rub-off” effect to their teams. Possible talent issues, poor selection of teams, need for coaching?
In one of my drill-downs into employee data, I found that in almost 65-70% of the cases there is a direct linkage between how a manager is managed and how he manages. This clearly indicates the power of managers to create sub-cultures within organizations (with positive or negative weaves). This makes a strong case for senior managers to lead by example when it comes to people management and thus, foster a productive and engaged workplace.
1 comment June 2, 2008
