Performance issues? Staff lacking motivation? Absenteeism problems?
What do all these things have in common?
Yes, they are to do with your staff, and yes, they impact on business performance, but more often than not they are caused by a gap in leadership skill.
As an HR consultancy we are often called in to help when things have gone wrong, when managers are at the end of their tether and small problems have escalated to something significant. While these problems can be solved, by the time they have reached this stage they end up costing time, money and can be very disruptive to your business.
We find that many of these problems could have been nipped in the bud early on by some clear constructive feedback, open dialogue and coaching, and saved everyone a lot of trouble.
We understand that this can be difficult. Leadership can be complex, tough conversations are hard, and we are all busy people. It does, however, pay off in the long run when you have less of the “big” people problems to deal with.
“The pessimist complains about the wind,
The optimist expects it to change,
The leader adjusts the sails.”
John C Maxwell.
The key to this is having well developed leaders who have the skills and confidence to handle any conversation, give regular feedback and can solve people problems before they spiral out of control. Taking a pro-active approach and ensuring that your leaders have these skills will pay off through improved team performance.
Leadership development can take many forms and involve the transfer of knowledge and learning a variety of skills.
If you want to encourage early intervention and stop problems before they escalate, we recommend ensuring your leadership development covers the following areas:
- Giving (and receiving) feedback – Changing behaviour is most effective when it is done as soon as the behaviour occurs and at the first example. Feeling confident to give clear, forward focused feedback often is an essential leadership skill for early intervention. Equally important is being able to receive feedback, so that your leaders can amend their leadership style to get the best from their team.
- Setting expectations and holding teams accountable – How can your team deliver what you expect when they don’t know exactly what that is? This is a step which is often missed with team members and can result in confusion around delivery. Alongside this, understanding how to have conversations when your team miss a mark, in a way that is supportive and outcome focused, will keep things heading in the right direction.
- Building trust – Staff are more open to feedback and perform better when they trust the person they work for. If they question your motives and feel they can’t rely on you it makes it difficult to have honesty and openness in the relationship. Without these problems occur.
- Having courageous conversations – Small things are easy to discuss, big things or regularly occurring issues aren’t. This is often why leaders shy away from addressing some topics until it’s too late. Learning how to make these conversations a safe space, managing emotions and handling conflict will encourage your leaders to step up to the plate for these conversations when they need to.
- Managing change – Many issues arise from change, and in today’s world, change is inevitable. A proactive approach to communication and planning will mitigate these risks, reduce problems and, ultimately, make your changes more successful.
Bear in mind that leadership skills are significantly different to technical skills.
You may have the most capable operational team in the world, but if they aren’t bringing their team on the journey your business results will suffer. If you want your leaders to be pro-active with managing their team, get pro-active around giving them the skills to do so.
Positive People have over 30 years creating leadership development programs which deliver tangible results and are best fit for your needs.
Call us now on 09 445 1077 or click here.