Leadership in todays workplace

Do you think you need to lead people differently these days different from the good old days?  I have been a manager and leader for over 35 years.  I have concluded after working many years and hearing about many organizations that people follow leaders differently today. Mistrust of authority is as high as it has ever been in workplaces today. Employees are simply skeptical of their leaders because leaders are not helping employees ; nor supporting employees within their organizations. Respect is all too often conditional, often – quickly dashed when employees feel that the leader let them down. Leaders are often challenged in today’s workplace by self-sabotage. Self-sabotage takes many forms like poor attendance, excessive tardiness, intentional poor quality workmanship, and finally the use and abuse of FMLA. Personal issues today invade the workplace. Human resources has become an active organization of risk avoiders, and policy creators which handcuff common sense management.  Moral reasoning is at an all time high; used to justify irrational, unethical behavior. Getting even with unjust or unfair authority not only is prevalent in almost every good action adventure movie but that is the judgment of the employees in many workplaces. So managing others is harder, different, and becoming more frustrating.

So what do we need to do as managers and leaders in this new world? First, we need to look at training and development not as a cost but has an investment. We’re willing to invest millions in machines but pennies in people.  Your front-line supervisors should be the most trained and skilled leaders. Your front-line supervisors should have an active coach and mentoring program for their success. Front line supervisors need to understand there always on stage. People are always watching more than listening! What they do today speaks volumes about today but speaks volumes about the culture they develop over time.  A simple rule do what you say you’re going to do by no later than 48 hours after you say you will do it. If you can’t make sure you go back and follow up and say why not.  In a previous article; I’ve mentioned the core four values of admired leaders. Front-line supervisors must be honest, be able to articulate and have a common compelling vision, competent in the business they operate in, and be able to inspire others by telling the story of the compelling vision. Create opportunities for the front-line supervisors to explore what values drive their satisfaction. Through discussions supervises come up with a joint common values manifesto. If we treat supervisors as an investment to be nurtured, to be developed by providing them learning for growth what kind of greatness could be achieved within organization? If you are not spending the right amount of time with your supervisors you can anticipate higher employee turnover, a poor working culture, absenteeism and attendance with lost hours equivalent to 30% of your total hours worked.  What business can remain competent and competitive with such maladies?  Of course the choice is lead and manage in the New World or suffer in the New World. The choice gets more difficult has we delay the development of people who supervise.