Leadership
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Do you have a high performing leadership team?

No matter how skilled and talented your individual leaders are, in this challenging time of uncertainty and change, their ability to collaborate and communicate as a team will be key in your overall business success.

In the current environment, with supply chain shortages, a constrained and highly competitive labor market, and gloomy global outlook, all your business leaders will need to work together to be responsive, proactive and ensure they make the right decisions for your business’s future.

Coming together is a beginning,

Keeping together is progress,

Working together is success.

Henry Ford.

So how well does your leadership team work together? Now is a good time to reflect upon the overall success of your group and take the right steps to ensure you have a high performing team to see you through these tough times.

Is your team?

  1. Clear about their group goals, which are tied to your business priorities?

Making sure they are all clearly headed in the same direction is an important starting point. Try asking your leaders individually what they think the team’s goals are – if they’re in sync, you should get similar answers from the group.

  1. Clear about their individual defined responsibilities aligned to these goals? 

What does each individual contribute towards these goals? To get your team really firing every leader needs to be clear about their role, the impact it has and to be excited and motivated towards doing what they can to help the team.

  1. Able to communicate clearly and respectfully?

The best place to test this is to observe your team in difficult discussions. Is everyone’s voice heard? Do they respect each other’s opinions and really get to the heart of the matter? Too often leadership teams shy away from tough discussions or allow the loudest voice to dominate. Without everyone’s voice being heard you can’t be sure you have reached the best possible solution, so respect and effective communication is critical.

  1. Trusting of each other, appreciating individual differences?

No two leaders are the same and no two leadership teams are the same. This diversity can be what makes your team really hum, but only if harnessed properly. A high performing leadership team trusts each other enough to be themselves, take risks, share ideas and support each other in hard times

  1. Able to celebrate their success as a team?

A business win is a win for the whole leadership team, and this should be recognized, especially in these unstable Covid times. Wins are hard fought and may not come often and it is important your team feel proud of their efforts and inspired to keep going.

Putting the focus on your whole leadership team’s combined efforts, success and effectiveness rather than individuals will strengthen your culture, improve the leadership team’s engagement and help alleviate stress as they feel more supported within your business.

For over 25 years Positive People have been helping businesses grow their leadership teams through an understanding and appreciation of individual differences as well as improving relationships. Our MBTI assessments and leadership team building sessions enable your leaders to work through differences of opinion and conflict successfully and take the necessary steps to be a high performing team.

Contact us today to learn more or checkout our website for more details.

 

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Sick Leave Changes – are you prepared?

What’s changing?

Minimum paid statutory sick leave entitlements will increase from 5 to 10 days as of 24 July 2021, effective from an employee’s next sick leave anniversary date. The maximum roll-over amount of unused sick leave remains unchanged at 20 days.

What do I need to consider?

You will have already considered any implications from a payroll perspective and no doubt you will be updating your employment agreement templates accordingly (if not and you need help, please let your Positive People consultant know).

It is also a great opportunity to stop and reflect on the sick leave management framework you have in place and ensure that your people leaders are well equipped in dealing with sickness absence.

How can I help my leaders?

  1. Reporting: Make sure you have a good system in place so leaders can:
    • view accurate, timely information
    • consider absence trends (e.g. particular shifts/days of the week)
    • identify if an employee is getting close to their maximum paid entitlement
  1. Sick leave management: Be clear with your leaders about the steps they should take when addressing sickness absence issues and the thresholds (likely unique for each scenario to reflect all the circumstances) for moving into more formal discussions. Your framework could look something like this:
    • Absence reports (see item 1) are reviewed by leaders and their manager every quarter to identify any areas of concern and determine the best approach
    • Return to work ‘check in’ discussions (see item 3) occur after every period of absence
    • Leaders are provided with guidance/coaching on how to have the ‘check in’ discussions and how to manage the more challenging situations e.g. requesting medical certificates, employees taking unpaid leave when sick leave is exhausted, considering changes to work/hours in consultation with the employee
    • Communicate with employees how sickness absence will be managed via your house rules or procedure
  1. Regular discussions: It is good practice to have ‘check in’ discussions with employees consistently on their return to work to:
    • ensure that the individual has recovered and is fit to be back in the workplace
    • identify any work-related issues that might need attention e.g. workload / interpersonal issues
    • provide an update on anything that might have occurred at work in their absence
    • foster positive, two-way communication and
    • demonstrate that you genuinely care about employee wellbeing
    • flag if there is a possibility you will move into more formal discussions.

Next steps

The vast majority of employees will continue to use their paid sick leave entitlement in a fair and honest manner, and there is no reason to suggest that this will change. Just be sure that your leaders are competent and confident to manage sickness absence in a fair, reasonable and supportive manner.