Leadership and the future in team care: what really works depends on you.
by Regina Steinas - Partner Director R4ACORS
published on the comunicaRH portal on 06/16/2021
https://comunicarh.com/a-lideranca-e-o-futuro-no-cuidado-com-a-equipe-o-que-de-verdade-funciona-depende-de-voce/
The leadership already realizes how much the teams and the leadership itself have changed or will have to adapt to the new times, mainly due to the urgency of home office or hybrid work and that after this crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic (CoronaVirus Disease 19), it could become a definitive way of working for many areas and companies.
With so many changes and so fast, in this competitive and complex market, how were the management and leadership skills, now required for a new work model, which will certainly still change and/or improve to meet this environment that uses more and more of digital technology and with many and varied tools, information and possibilities to obtain more knowledge.
As for leadership in organizations today, they assess and reflect on these changes in order to have a differentiated management to maintain a facilitating and motivating environment and to retain professionals who are currently being much more sought after by companies. And, because some get excellent results and others have a lot of problems with their team, whatever the size of the company.
Many difficult situations happen and require, on a daily basis, an assertive, positive, differentiated, more humane, inclusive leadership, with a strong performance with planning to achieve the objectives and expected results, which often depends on the team as a whole, here including the leadership itself, they can change and surpass the results or not.
Despite all the innovation, technology and new skills that professionals must develop, there are some that are basic and will continue to be the firm and strong path to excellence in people management and leadership in this complex and differentiated world in which we live, in home office, hybrid or not. Each one can define which factors are most essential depending on the company's culture and how much these factors will be valued, disseminated and truly internalized in the work environment. Reflecting on oneself, understanding how much the leadership and the team are aware of themselves, that is, the level of self-knowledge of each one is a fundamental step in management.
Anyone who is or was an executive in any organization in any area, and especially in Human Resources, knows that not everything that is said, read or heard becomes true on a daily basis, as most of the time the leadership is more busy or pressured with business results and ends up leaving for later a closer look at the team's care, which is the basis and pillar for achieving the expected results or surpassing them.
I will not comment here on questions about strategies, definition of objectives and action plans, which are extremely important and are part of people and business management and, without them, they cannot get anywhere. As the Cheshire cat (the laughing cat) from Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) said: if you don't know where to go, any path will do.
The main and basic success factors of leadership and its teams, in my executive experience:
1. COMMUNICATION AND FEEDBACK IN PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Some may ask: What do you mean the two together?
These are factors that, whether worked together or not, can improve or destroy a team and its outcome, especially in times of crisis or stress.
Communication between areas, in the team and in the leaders, is still one of the main problems in organizations today, and it is still unclear whether it will one day cease to exist, since companies are the people who work in it.
Feedback is a performance management tool, which can benefit from good communication between the leadership and each team member, which if done properly, substantially improves the overall result:
❖ Develop an assertive and very clear communication with your team and your team.
❖ Identify the communication style of each member of the team, including your own:
➢ Passive: difficulty expressing your needs and fighting for what you believe.
➢ Aggressive: the opposite of passive. Aggressive people give their opinion safely and directly, but they can often cause discomfort to others because of their self-confidence.
➢ Passive/aggressive: This is the so-called manipulator with combined passive and aggressive characteristics. It always presents indirect ways to communicate.
➢ Assertive: this is a facilitator in relationships, especially in conflict ones, and creates a connection between people. You can solve problems objectively, express your ideas and if you don't agree and if you think it's necessary, refuse to do any activity/project.
❖ Listen to the team and jointly evaluate the suggestions.
❖ Understand how the team positions itself in relation to the work, as this is where the strength of the team, together with the leadership, is able to develop faster processes and surpass the results.
❖ Know how to say no, when opportune or necessary.
❖ Resolve conflicts instead of creating conflicts between employees on your team or in the company.
❖ Get to know each of your team members regarding their individual and professional values, behavioral profile, way of thinking and working.
❖ Create a more open and trusting relationship with the team, to have a faster and more practical work.
❖ Promote individual and team meetings (online or face-to-face) to address the most difficult problems and situations and guide them towards assertive and joint decision-making.
Good communication is beneficial for feedback in performance management. The trust and partnership of the moment brings lessons and excellent results for everyone and for the company. Demystifying the stress of feedback should be a leadership objective, to facilitate the moment when employees and leaders need to adjust, without complicating what can be very simple and positive. It's worth reflecting and making this a reality:
❖ Give your employee constant feedback when monitoring each activity to achieve the expected results, as the goals are not only annual or semi-annual, they are daily.
❖ Guide, teach, learn when this is an important moment in the relationship and improvement of communication between the leader and each one of the team members.
❖ Plan and control the time you should dedicate to each one of them. The good result in the feedback, only depends on the leadership and its clear communication with each one of the team and without fear.
❖ Good feedback happens if your employees have defined together with the leadership all the goals they need to achieve and/or have the autonomy to define, discuss and approve with the leadership.
❖ Understand the company's business strategies and clarify those in your area to better clearly define the planning, activity strategies, results of each one of the team, in order to subsequently carry out the necessary feedback in order to leave this meeting with more energy to continue and work to achieve/exceed the goals of each one of the team, yours and the company.
❖ Ask your employees what they could improve in their day-to-day work and feedback. This is a way to engage, strengthen relationships and trust.
It doesn't matter if the team works in home office, hybrid or in the office, the process can be a little more laborious, but it remains the same, it only changes the medium. Make it easy for the team and be more patient with interference and control everyone's participation.
2. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND EXPERIENCE (Employee Experience & Employee Engagement)
What are they and what does one have to do with the other?
The EX “Employee Experience” or Employee Experience and the EE “Employee Engagement” or Employee Engagement are very important for the company's results and for the CX “Customer Experience” or Customer Experience. the provider of services or products, will also depend on how its employees feel, are treated and see the company and how they treat customers.In short, one feeds the other.
The EX "Employee Experience" deals with the employee's journey in the company, as long as they know it and decide to enter the recruitment and selection process for a vacancy and everything they feel and see along this journey, contributing or not to the creation of a stimulating and inclusive organizational environment, favoring diversity, encouraging sustainability and engagement so that they challenge themselves in a healthy way and improving productivity, turnover rates, until the day you leave the company.
The EE "Employee engagement" indicates the level of commitment to the company and depending on the result, the company can improve and invest in a number of important factors identified and as a result improve the organizational culture, integrate professionals more, develop plans and strategies to achieve better well-being and improve commitment, as this is what sustains the organization in the long run.
Taking care of these two important "Es", we can call them that, each one of them feeds the other so that the company is defined as "employer branding" or employer brand that generates a positive perception as a workplace, differentiating itself from the competition by attracting market talent , retaining professionals and as a result the customer's positive view of the organization of their services and products.
The leadership is responsible for this entire context, creating a solid and transparent relationship with its teams and strengthening the employee's experience to remain in the company and strengthen the relationship from person to person. Professionals, in most cases, leave the leader and not the company, according to several surveys of organizational climate or employee engagement. HR, an important strategic part of the organization, will provide full support to enable and implement advanced tools and technologies to facilitate and strengthen leadership knowledge for this challenge.
If the company environment is a rewarding experience for professionals and if they are satisfied with the leadership, with the roles they play, this is the chance everyone has to achieve and/or surpass the results and the path to be able to offer services and products that meet the market.
If the leadership really wants to be and have an inclusive and satisfying work environment in the company, here are some important points to reflect and implement in their area and in the company with the support of the Human Resources area:
❖ Onboarding
➢ In more structured companies, the employee, when hired, undergoes alignment of the organization's policies, rules, values and culture.
➢ Implement a process in the area that demonstrates care for the employee, be clear about the area's and the company's objectives, present the work of everyone on the team and what is theirs, how they can grow in the company and how they can contribute to success of all. Nothing to show just the worktable, nowadays the work screen.
➢ With the majority in home office or hybrid work (office and home office) we must pay attention to what we said earlier about communication, because here begins your best journey and your greatest difficulty, reflecting on how to deal positively with all of this .
❖ Space and work environment
➢ Whether in the office or home office, the physical structure must be the best possible to enable the execution of tasks, technology to participate in work meetings, tools and integrated systems.
➢ If employees understand that the company is concerned with their well-being, they tend to produce more and better.
➢ The risk of not having adequate working conditions is the beginning of a demotivation process, compromising the commitment to the objectives, low productivity and the possibility of professionals leaving the organization.
❖ Recognition and Career
➢ Giving natural and true compliments, honoring and rewarding will motivate the team and improve the relationship.
➢ Be clear about your team's career possibilities, even if the company does not have a defined job and salary plan.
➢ Get to know each one of your team regarding "soft skills" and "hard skills" (behavioral and technical skills), that is, have the behavioral profile assessment and preferences and what are the points you should reinforce for each one .
➢ Have defined a development plan for your team.
➢ Constant feedback.
The company's HR is the area that will provide support for these issues.
❖ Improve the employee experience
➢ Discover new ways to simplify work, studying, listening and learning from your team every day, as it will improve productivity and engagement.
➢ Define the area's strategies and objectives together with your team, you will see that unusual and different situations will be better resolved. The team together with the leadership create many opportunities for the business.
❖ Balance work and well-being for you and your team
➢ Encourage and include in your plans the concepts of “wellness” and “wellbeing”.
■ Wellness (physical well-being): represents the habits of eating, physical activity and quality sleep that generate positive health outcomes.
■ Wellbeing (general wellbeing): is the holistic meaning of a well-lived life, where five elements of wellbeing contribute to it (Gallup global survey): professional (likes what you do every day), social (has significant friendships in your life), financial (well manages your money), physical (has energy to do things), community (likes where you live)
When leadership manages to create an environment where its team feels valued and realizes that there is care for them, they start to have confidence and a good relationship with their leaders, they become more committed to the company and produce much more results and are happier . Pay attention to two very critical factors that maintain credibility in leadership: Perceived competence (talent, skills and knowledge) and Reliability (leader values and trust).
Nothing is easy when it comes to leading, contrary to what many people think that being there, everything will be just joy. None of this, because leadership has more responsibilities and these go through the entire organization in its competitiveness strategies and in retaining professionals who are truly important and committed to the development of products and services and customer retention.
But nothing is impossible, every achievement starts with the decision to try and keep trying.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more than they are, you are a leader."
(John Quincy Adams - (Braintree, July 11, 1767 – Washington, DC, February 23, 1848). He was an American lawyer and politician and the sixth president of the United States, ruling from 1825 to 1829).
