Highly engaged teams are the gold standard of business success. The advantages are numerous and varied, including greater sales and profits, decreased expenses, fewer sick days, and fewer defects. All of which have a significant influence on your company’s bottom line.
Unfortunately, far too many businesses are unwilling to provide adequate resources for fostering highly engaged teams, yet developing highly engaged teams does not need much more work and the return on investment is worth it. Here are seven easy methods to increase your income by enhancing team engagement.
Step 1: Make it easy to understand.
The one thing that always surprises me is how many initiatives and departments I am involved with turning around that lack a clear goal. How can people possibly be engaged, much alone be highly engaged, if they do not understand the goals and objectives?
The clarity of direction and a clear understanding of what success looks like are required for teams. This implies your company cannot have too many objectives since when everything is a priority, nothing is prioritized, and your employees don’t know where to focus.
Step 2: Allow them enough space.
High-performing teams require a lot of freedom in order to succeed. When your teams have the tools they need to succeed, the greatest thing you can do is get out of their way and let them succeed. Micromanagement is one of the most disempowering things I’ve ever seen; it destroys trust and confidence at an alarming rate. It indicates a lack of confidence, which is critical for any success. It doesn’t imply that you shouldn’t check up on them from time to time; instead, do it depending on the length of the project.
Step 3: Create a secure environment
People are more likely to take risks and try new things when they feel secure in their surroundings. To encourage this behavior, you must first establish a safe environment in which mistakes are accepted and anticipated. It doesn’t imply that people are free to do whatever they want; rather, it encourages them to make intelligent risks where the probability of success is high and the consequences of failure are minimal.
Step 4: Allow them to be successful.
While engagement is wonderful, even the most enthusiastic employees will become dissatisfied, irritated, and demotivated if they don’t have the tools to succeed. Check to see if your teams have everything they need to be successful, and if they don’t, give it to them or change the goal or objective. Humans are afraid of hard work rather than failure; as leaders, it’s our duty to place them in a position where success is possible.
Step 5: Make your objectives seem desirable.
Tell your teams what’s in it for them and how they will benefit if you can’t make your objectives aspirational. When asked to define their company’s purpose, leaders who are committed to the long-term future of their organization have a lot more to say than those who aren’t.
The greater the cause you can attach to your goals, the more engaged your people will be.
It might be due to working for a more powerful, more resilient organization that will develop and provide greater possibilities in the future. If it’s just about making your investors richer unless they’re shareholders as well, no one will be really engaged.
Step 6: Give assistance.
Let your staff know that you’re available if they need assistance. They should feel safe asking for your help, and just knowing it is there will increase their confidence. Perhaps they won’t utilize it; but just having it there will assist them a lot.
Step 7: Reward them for their efforts.
One of the keys to encouraging continuous performance improvement is to offer praise and recognition. What gets recognized tends to be repeated, and when we notice highly engaged teams and give them positive feedback, this encourages them to stay engaged and become even more so.
When individuals believe that their efforts are acknowledged, they tend to have a greater sense of momentum and motivation. Also, keep in mind that appreciation begins at the bottom with actions rather than waiting for people to achieve success before telling them you appreciate them.
If you follow these seven easy steps, you’ll be well on your way to forming highly engaged teams that will significantly raise the quality and quantity of your outputs, as well as provide a path to improved profitability, expansion, and customer satisfaction.
Have you ever had a bad-tasting dish that caused you an aversion to that food altogether? But quite often, you can’t put your finger on that one ingredient that ruined the taste of the whole dish. It becomes nearly impossible to figure out what caused that food aversion.
Just like that, a well-set plate of an exquisite-looking dish cannot be credited as delectable if all ingredients don’t compliment each other well. Even if one of them is bad tasting, the customer will lose his appetite for the dish. Your Customer Support (CS) team is just like that. All of the individual ingredients must be flavorful so that, in the end, a delicious dish could be presented.
But don’t worry! There are several metrics to measure your team and assess the overall performance of everyone in the team. You can detect where there’s a need for improvement or which individual is putting in a complete effort and is dedicated to offering exceptional customer service.
But first, you must create certain standards by employing performance metrics. So, take the help of the following nine metrics to measure customer support team performance and then enhance it to make your customers’ experience a memorable one.
Average Resolution Time
One method of evaluating how well the customer service representatives are performing is to record the average time it takes for them to resolve a customer complaint permanently.
This is an accurate measure of productivity, as this metric determines whether the agent is good at resolving customer complaints and can deal with them quicker rather than building on to the problem and dragging it for longer.
Just follow this formula to reckon the Average Resolution Time (ART)
ART = (Total Reply Time) / (Total Number of Requests)
So, to appraise the performance of the customer service agents, you must keep track of how many requests are correctly addressed and how productive your agents have been. The higher this number, the more efficient and diligent your agents will be.
Conversation Reply Speed
Ask yourself this question: after how long did my agent respond to the follow-up questions raised by the customer? The speed at which the customer service representative responds to any sequential concerns presented by the customer after the initial response determines the productivity and performance of the agent.
If you take too long to respond, the customer would get annoyed and probably leave a bad review or would no longer engage in business with you.
Requests escalated to Higher-Ups.
This is an important metric that you keep track of. If a request is escalated to a superior, then it means that the agent has failed to address the concerns of the customer. You may believe that this is the endpoint that every customer service agent should dread and avoid at all costs.
So, this metric precisely determines if a representative is good at his job or not. The higher the number of these requests, the more probable it is that the agent isn’t qualified or competent enough to cater to customers’ requests or needs.
Number of Complaints Regarding a Customer Service Representative
It is highly likely that a single individual is unable to entertain the concern of customers. Some people are just not naturally drawn towards resolving customers’ issues, and this can gravely affect their performance. Look to your customer satisfaction surveys for this information and then make a plan.
So, by evaluating this metric, you can judge whether an individual is cut out for this job and is he/she is able to address customers’ issues properly or not.
Time Taken to Offer Initial Response
If you aim to offer the best customer service, you must keep a meticulous record of your initial response time. The higher this number goes, the more irritated the customers will get.
Representatives must be on their toes when it comes to addressing customers’ concerns. The customers must be instantly put through to the right person or the respective department through tools like skill-based routing, so they don’t have to wait unnecessarily.
Customer Service Rating
This metric is the best indicator of how well your individual customer rep’s performance has been. This number shows how the customers viewed and marked the performance of the agent. This rating can be garnered by customer feedback, comments, or the star rating.
Sales made after Contact
The objective of the customer service team should be to address customers’ concerns so they are satisfied with the product or service and continue to increase the sales of the organization.
So, if the agents are performing well, or are providing related cross-sells or upsells of the product, then the sales would increase, and more revenue will be generated. So, this metric takes effective customer service as a determinant that affects sales. Consider these sales as a good indicator or tool to measure your customer success team.
Rate of Successful Resolutions
This rate is a major defining factor in the performance of each customer service agent. This rate shows how well individuals have performed and how successful they have been in resolving customer complaints and issues. Having an agent who doesn’t handle many requests but has a significantly high successful resolution rate is worth having in the team.
You can only deliver exceptional customer service if you know exactly what your customers are expecting from you, and you don’t have to be a mind-reader for that. Stay close to your customers and make them feel heard and valued. Just track the above-mentioned metrics periodically, and this way, you’d be able to appraise the performance of your customer service agents and the experience offered to your customers.
After a long day at work, the last thing that you want to do is spend hours on the phone with your customers. This is where CRM systems can come in handy! But what exactly does CRM stand for? And why should every business have one on their team?
A customer relationship management system (CRM) can help a company manage all of its customers in relation to the different stages they’re at with your organization – whether it be lead generation, prospecting, retention, or upselling/cross-selling products based on previous purchases. A CRM will provide information about each person’s interaction history so that interactions are more personalized and timely responses are given accordingly.
With a CRM system, you’ll be able to manage the customer experience from start to finish and provide better service for them each time they contact you. It’s not just about customer service, though; these systems also allow businesses of all sizes access to valuable reporting and data insights that help strengthen business processes.
A CRM system can help you keep track of customer preferences, deal with any problems that may arise, and provide better service in general. You can use these systems to see how well employees are performing as well! It’s a win-win for everyone involved – your customers get exceptional customer experience and you also have more accurate reporting on the performance of your team.
There is also a lot of data that CRMs can provide with reports. For example, from a sales and marketing point of view, you can see how many customers have opened your emails and clicked on links or visited websites recommended in the email. You’ll be able to measure if these efforts are successful and it will give insight into what type of content should be included in future marketing campaigns. Conversely, from a support and operations point of view, you can track response rates and key KPIs like First Call Resolution (FCR) and more using a CRM.
A CRM system also helps to keep track of your employees. You’ll be able to measure how much time is spent on what tasks, which will ultimately help you make decisions about where resources need to go for increased efficiency and productivity. This data can also provide insight into who the best customer service reps are and if there’s a problem with any individual on your team. The CRM can help you understand what areas you need to focus on with your training and where they’re strong or weak.
The CRM is typically the primary tool for customer service reps and managers. You’ll be able to see what they’re working on, how long it’s taking them to respond or close cases, if a client has complained about something in particular, etc. It can also help you with succession planning as well since you’ll have access to performance data over time.
A CRM system can provide insights into where training needs are needed so that employees know exactly what they should focus on when going through various iterations of tasks/modules during training sessions. However, a key area where a CRM shines is strategic planning.
You’ll be able to see trends where the company needs to invest more in certain aspects of their business and also find out about what customers are saying. This is a great tool for creating reports that show how effective your team has been so you can plan accordingly on improving different areas which may not have succeeded as well as others.
Using a CRM to Improve Retention
A CRM system helps with customer retention by providing insights into what it takes for them to get back in touch, how they found out about your company’s product or service, etc. You’ll know if there are any issues or concerns from past cases that need attention, since this will all be cataloged and stored for future reference. This is important in order to maintain a strong customer base and build upon previous successes.
Investing in a CRM
If you’re thinking about using a CRM system, then there are a few things you need to consider. The first is how much time do you have to invest in using the system? If you have a large customer service team, then you’ll need to set aside a lot of time to learn the system and get it up and running. You’ll also need to invest in training your employees on how to use the system and what they should be doing.
Next, you’ll need to decide if you’re going to use software or a cloud-based system. Software-based CRM systems are typically more expensive than cloud-based CRMs. That being said, you’ll also have the ability to personalize the software solution to a greater degree, since you’ll be able to add in features that are specific to your business.
If you’re in the business of selling products and services, then you’ll need a system that helps you manage your business operations – in this instance I’d recommend a solution like HubSpot. They offer functionality that’s a lot closer to more expensive SaaS solutions like SalesForce, but are simpler to use and configure, especially for a smaller team.
However, if you’re in the business of customer service, then you’ll need a system that helps you manage your customer relationships and improve customer service. In this instance, I’d point you in the direction of Freshdesk. While you could use HubSpot for this, Freshdesk is better and more focused.
A CRM is an essential tool for any company, no matter how big or small. It’s also instrumental in helping companies improve customer experience with better service and reporting tools to measure success.
Introversion and Extroversion plays an important role in
understanding human personalities.
Introversion is the
lack or apparent lack of interest in other people and instead focussing in
one’s mental self. Introverted people tend to be reserved and shy and prefer
alone time to group time. An introvert focuses their energy on reflection and
tends to be quiet in group interactions.4
There is this notion
that introverted people are hard to socialize with and some people will have a
hard time interacting with them just from the notion.
Extroversion is the opposite of introversion. It is the
state of somebody being gratified by interaction with other people rather than
focusing their energy in their mental self.
There are lots of
misconceptions about introverted and extroverted people. Some careers that
involve lively interactions with other humans such as politics, musicians,
lawyers etc are seen to be suited for extroverted people while other careers
that mostly involve deep thinking and reflection like philosophy, science,
engineering etc are seen as suitable for introverts. However, this is a very
false notion. Barack Obama, for instance, with his charismatic speeches and
lively interactions with people is a well-known introvert. Same with Julia
Roberts – the famous award-winning actress. Meanwhile, other historical figures
that may pass as staunch introverts like polymath Benjamin Franklin and
philosopher Socrates were known extroverts.
In business and
organizations, you can use the introversion and extroversion of your employees
to your advantage when you understand them. In this article, we are going to
look at how organizations can use information about introversion and
extroversion of their employees to their advantage.
Working with an Introvert
Once you realize
your employee is an introvert, there is a way you should handle them and work
with them to ensure high productivity and harmony. Below are some of the ways
you can work with your introvert colleague or employee.
Make them aware in advance
Introverts are
people who love reflecting and deep thinking. They are well-organized people
and want to prepare for everything that comes their way. They don’t like being
caught by surprise. It makes them more comfortable and since they are shy
people, prepares them for what is to come.
Embrace technology
Introverts are more
into themselves than into other people. An introvert will work better by
themselves when and if they can work by themselves. If you can pass information
to them electronically like via online chats, do it. You don’t have to subject
them to the unnecessary stress of them having to attend meetings and
‘unnecessarily’ interact with people when they would rather just get the
information through an electronic device.
Perfect the art of patience
Introverts are less
likely to share information with other people than extroverts (and normal
people who are neither introverts or extroverts). An introvert will take time
to warm up and share their ideas with the group. You might thus not get much
feedback from an introvert while discussing ideas with them. This doesn’t mean
that they aren’t paying attention. It doesn’t mean they have nothing to say
either. Being patient with an introvert means that you’ll get more out of them.
Give them space
This is closely
related to being patient. Introverts don’t
just only take longer to warm up to the group, they might not warm up at all if
not offered the opportunity to. Sometimes, the type of opportunity they get
might also not be perfect enough to enable them to warm up. It is thus
important to follow up to the introvert in your group just to confirm if they
hard anything to say. Friendliness is key.
Working with an Extrovert
Just like with an
introvert, there are challenges that come with working with an extrovert. Here
are some tips to take to ensure you get the full productivity of an extrovert
when working with one.
Let them be extroverts
Being an extrovert
might be fun for some people but sometimes one might find them unbearable.
Statements like ‘he/she talks too much’ comes to mind.
It is good to
understand that, that is their nature and sometimes be patient with them even
when you feel they are talking too much. Just let them speak. This makes them
feel part of the team and inspires them to share more and never feel unwanted.
Always be assertive
As much as you’ll
allow your extroverted employee or workmate be an extrovert, make sure you
demarcate some boundaries. It is good to understand that extroverts don’t tire
from speaking and mind end up taking all the time and all the limelight making
other people feel useless. Make sure the extroverted teammate leaves some time
for the rest and learn how to politely interrupt them when they go beyond the
boundaries you demarcated.
Ask Questions
Introverts think
deeply and reflect on whatever they have to say before they say it. They thus
will only voice an idea that they’ve already refined and might not need much
clarification. Introverts also tend to draw keener ears when they speak since
everybody understands they only speak when they have something important to
say.
Extroverts on the
other hand voice any idea that comes into their mind and you might have to
separate the chaff from the grain to get what they really intended to put
across. It is thus important to ask questions when an extrovert speaks for
clarity and a better understanding of what they have to say.
Managing extroverts and introverts
If you are a
manager, it is 100% unlikely that you’ll end up with a group full of extroverts
or a group full of introverts. In fact, it is 100% unlikely you’ll have two
people with exactly the same level of introversion or extroversion. As a
manager, it is important to delegate tasks based on your understanding of your team’s personalities. It is, for instance, more prudent to
delegate the task of making a presentation to an extrovert while a project that
requires keen attention to detail should be given to an introvert to lead.
Since the
recent past, we have been thinking of open floor plans as a tool to inspire
collaboration and communication in the workspace. What is an ‘open floor plan,’ one
might ask? We may define it as being a generic term used in architectural and
interior design. This can be any floor plan which makes use of large and open
spaces. It minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices. However, companies are coming to recognize what
employees have known for a long time. That is, open floor plans actually reduce
productivity. We believe that meaningful work
requires acute focus and concentration. Karen Lachtanski makes a great case for the need for ‘remote working.’
Distractions
Derail Productivity
We realize
that knowledge-based activities such as writing and software coding need high
concentration. We can cite the example of
Lachtanski, who had worked for a small startup company where a cowbell was rung to celebrate
every time it secured a big order. While we cannot deny that it was a
great team motivator, problems were swift to come to the surface. And especially so when one of their web developers
asserted it to be detrimental to his ability to concentrate. According
to him, it took him about 30 minutes to refocus after the interruption.
To
corroborate this, we can look at the research undertaken by the University of California, Irvine. The study shows that it takes an
average of 25 minutes to return to a task after a distraction. This compels us
to take a moment to think about how many distractions we face in a day. When we consider how many people are wearing headphones in the
office, we can guess its effects on collaboration and communication.
For many of us, working away from the
office, whether at home or in a quiet place, is steadily
becoming the norm. In fact, many companies and individuals are participating in
a Global Work from Home day on April 10.
How
to Convince Your Manager Remote Work Is Necessary and Better
We feel that, sometimes, the benefits of remote work aren’t
immediately evident to managers or the higher-ups. Below we have put
forward a few recommendations to make its case.
We should frame the conversation with the benefit in
mind. We need to make it clear that we want to provide quality work and need a quiet
space to do our best work.
We have realized that the
offer to work remotely on a trial basis (one or
two days a week) works wonders at getting the conversation started. The trial period is to prove that we can be more
productive than our peers. We can achieve this
while working from home by setting evaluation dates and defining what success
should look like. Supervisors are left to consider the utilities and the value of the service provided
in their own terms.
We should discuss the
collaboration tools which we will use to stay in touch with our manager, the
team, and others.
We find that communication is of the greatest
importance to prove that we can be trusted to do the work. Communicating what
we have accomplished can be very helpful. It is valuable to have similar
projects that were completed in the office as
examples to compare to.
We should establish the working hours if they are
different than normal office hours. We stress the need for transparency and
diligence in attendance. Proper steps should be taken
to ensure rewards, as is stated in this post by Morzaria.
We find that it is necessary that we
explain our remote office situation. We need to clarify if it is at home or in
a co-shared space. We should discuss how we will
handle company materials and assets in a responsible and secure way. To
be efficient, we need to share pictures of what our workspace would look like.
We agree that remote working might
not be right for everyone. Yet, we believe that
when it is, everyone wins in one shape or form. And
we do feel that it a valid concern for most managers to wonder if allowing
remote work for one person means it should be
allowed for everyone. There are many
reasons why working from home is not viable for everyone.
In the
present day, we discover that graduates, when entering the workforce, are
looking for alternative work styles. At the same time, retaining talent and hiring the best
talent is a growing concern for companies. This means they are looking at ways
to change the office workplace.
We do
recognize the difficulty of the older companies for whom accommodating work
from home requests can be a major shift from what they had been doing earlier. There can be situations where
managers may not have the discretion to say yes even to a trial. In such cases,
we advise the discussion of the proposal to be shifted to the HR and other managers. It is incredibly helpful if one’s company views them as a valued employee
who contributes in a professional way. In
companies where remote working is a new concept, it is trust which forms the
basis for the realization of the concept. For instance, when one needs a
doctor’s appointment, we advise doing so near
the end of the day. The employee should work from home instead of returning to
the office. We find that it is crucial to talk
about what we were able to accomplish during that time at home and suggest doing it more often.
One’s manager can be the kind who
wants to see concrete data. In the case of such
scenarios, we suggest showing them the research mentioned earlier along
with the results of a 2-year Stanford study by professor Nicholas Bloom.
This TEDx talk in 2017 shows
the remote workers’ productivity and longevity in terms of
working hours, with their employee attrition being 50 percent less than
telecommuters.
Additionally, the company benefited from needing less office space. Further ways to effectively combat employee turnover or churn rate is discussed in depth in
this article.
Finally,
we cannot fathom how one can override the benefits of an employee who worked
longer, was more productive, and was less likely to leave. As a matter of fact, remote working
is surely and steadily
becoming the norm. Eventually, we will find that requesting the need for it will no
longer need negotiating with such detail.
Are you aware of your core values or the
core values your organization has? Have
you ever tried to know them or have implemented them in your life?
Whether your answer to these questions is a
yes or a no, we need to understand the importance of core values and the need
to implement them in our lives.
Core values are an essential part of any
human or any organization. Core values
are a belief or a principle that helps a person or an organization to give
central importance to a view. We always
misinterpret that benefits are only until our families, schools, and social
work. But we tend to, not realize it’s importance in the corporate world.
These core values help us to know the
highest priorities and beliefs of that organization. They help the employees to follow the vision
that will be presented to the world. Your core values will form an ora around
you and will make you fundamental to attracting, being the best and
automatically this will make you contribute the most towards your organization.
These core values are the ones which form a foundation for your organization.
A maximum number of employees do not
realize that these values can benefit them.
If you believe that these core values will
not have any benefit to what you do, these are a few benefits that you can get
by knowing and implementing these values to your life and your work.
This helps to improve the engagement of the employee. This also helps to improve how committed, energetic and focussed an employee is towards his or her work. All of these factors generally increase satisfaction and workplace morale. It will make work more fulfilling.
You will have to establish a relationship between the company and the employee, involving employees to select what those core values are that needs to be discussed. Involving employees will increase the number of who will know the core values. It is important to communicate them to everyone.
Stress and job are today linked very quickly because of the workload that one has. For a person who does this work with full heart and satisfaction, his work can never be a load for him. Though all employees have to face a situation in our job which is not at all pleasant, we get stuck to it and are unable to find a way out of it. Core values might not bring a solution to you but will surely show you the best way to come out.
Today
the number of people believing in core values is decreasing day by day. The importance of ethics and values are not
only missing from their professional space but has started to decline in their
personal space. People are becoming money minded and are ignoring these ethics.
They do not have any interest in the core values of their company.
Apart from what we have mentioned above, organizational behavior plays a vital role in a business set-up as well as in management. Organizational behavior is the study of how groups, individuals and structure effect and get influenced by different behaviors in organizations. The knowledge gained from the study of organizational behavior is applied to groups, individuals and structure to improve or make functions more effective in organizations.
Organizational behavior is one of the most critical elements
that support management in organizations. Managers can understand different
behaviors of individuals in an organization and what groups, individuals and
structure are doing as well as predict their actions and realize the effects
and causes among relationships in a business setting. With management
functions, businesses also use different resources to achieve their goals and
objectives. The resources are arranged in
four groups namely human, physical, financial, and information resources.
Human Resource
Human resource can be defined as the people that operate an organization. A human resource is an employee or a single person within an organization. Human resources are all the staff in your organization. Human resource can also be defined as the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as benefits, compensation, hiring and recruiting employees, performance management, onboarding employees, training, advising managers about the impact on people of their planning, financial, and performance decisions on the employees in an organization.
Physical Resources
Every company should have physical resources. Some companies need more physical resources than others. Physical resources are tangible items in an organization, and they are essential for a business to function. The items have value, take space and are used in operating the company. All types of businesses need physical resources. Businesses that are product-based use physical resources to provide goods for sale and to operate the business. Businesses that are service-based use physical resources to deliver services such as having tools and space to work in order to deliver the services.
Financial Resources
The financial resource is the money available in business in
the form of liquid securities, cash and credit lines. An entrepreneur should
secure enough financial resources before going into business. This helps the
entrepreneur to be able to operate and promote success sufficiently.
Information Resources
Information
resources are vital for businesses. For businesses to be
successful, they need information. A combination of external and internal
business information resources can provide the background
needed to evaluate current business performance and plan for future
progress. It is essential for managers to know the types of information that is
crucial for business in order to plan for getting, analyzing and using
information effectively.
When managers understand financial, human, physical and
information resources, they can use it and compose the functions with four basic functions
(organizing, planning, controlling and leading) with the purpose of getting effective results from the organization.
Managers will follow that to show how to apply the above basic resources and functions to the
organization and its goals.
Planning is the process established to determine the future
position of an organization and decide on how to achieve goals within an
organization. Organizing is the process of designing jobs. Leading is the
process of motivating workers and resolving conflicts within an organization.
Controlling is; comparing, correcting and motoring performance with the
objectives of the organization.
The Role of Managers
Managers have a role
of performing effective functions and roles in an organization. Managers have
interpersonal roles, and these include the figurehead, the liaison, and the
leader. Managers also have the roles of
making critical decisions in an organization. They act as the disturbance
handler, the entrepreneur, the negotiator, and the resource allocator. These
are very important roles in decision
making.
Making high-quality decisions in an organization can be
productive. Managers also have an information role. This includes monitoring
information, dissemination of information and breaking down of information for easy understanding by the
junior employees. Information is therefore very
important in an organization, and the behavioral processes help managers
to get the right information.
Negative Effects of Behavior
Understanding behavior plays an
important role in management. However, some behavior can affect management
negatively. Several problems affect managers negatively,
and managers should pay more attention to these. One of the main reasons that
cause difficulty in organizations is deviant. The deviant workplace may include
hostile behaviors and sabotage, insult, theft, and gossip. The organization
should put in place proper firing and hiring policies to control such behavior
and ensure the organization is running smoothly. A prevention plan should also,
and this includes training managers to identify problems early and set up clear
rules with respect to threat, violence,
harassment and more. Job satisfaction can improve productivity in an
organization, but it can also be a negative influence because employees can
feel too comfortable and become sluggish.
Conclusion
It is important for everyone to understand the relationship between organization and management when discussing leadership. It also helps managers to face challenges within an organization and find out the best ways to deal with the challenges. Managers should have a thorough grasp of the theory and practice it. It is also important for managers to be able to administrate and face global challenges, manage diversity, improve services, empower people, provide job satisfaction and deviant workplace. From this information, organizations can run smoothly and gain more benefits through components, perceiving roles and their effects in organizations.
As managers begin to study organizational behavior, they will be struck by the fact that they can apply what they have learned immediately to the problems they encounter at work. Managers will be gaining a broad view of organizational behavior disciplines, and they will also find different ways they can alter their management philosophy to reflect the knowledge newly found in the study of organizational behavior. The more the knowledge about organizational behavior grows; the more managers will become skilled in understanding and analyzing the behavioral implications of the problems facing their organization. Before we look at the necessity of managers studying organizational behavior, let’s first look at the organizational behavior theories.
Human Relations Behavioral Theory
This theory states that organizations function well when the staff feels empowered and valued. The theory is based on studying the productivity of the employees under different circumstances of work. Human relations behavioral theory also states that the staff in an organization are likely to increase efficiency and productivity if they feel validated and satisfied at work.
For example, things such as free lunch could help employees feel content and secure because their company meets their needs. When the staff believes that management cares about their needs and wants, they feel a sense of loyalty, and this boosts their productivity in return.
Decision-making Behavioral Theory
This is the most applied theory to supervisors and managers because they can make more of their decisions that affect their company. Decision making behavioral theory states that people within an organization can only make decisions based on the available information. However, the information must be complete and accurate for the decision to achieve a specific goal.
The person making the decision should have the ability to sort through the process and information correctly. Inadequate or insufficient information leads to bad decision making. Also, managers who are not strong in information synthesis are likely to make bad decisions.
Servant Leadership Behavioral T
The servant leadership theory has gained a lot of influence over the past few decades. The theory states that the leaders in an organization will achieve success only if they become servants of their employees. Leaders wield influence in an organization, unlike servants. They are therefore able to create the principles and vision that drives the company forward. The servant leadership theory allows executives to view all work protocols and processes from the point of view of their employees. If you own a company, then your primary job is to view the needs and the wants of your employees as more important as your needs and wants.
This simply means that you provide employees with all the
necessary resources for them to achieve performance standards that you have
established for your company. Servant leadership behavior can help you create a
stronger bond with your employees, but it is important to remember that your
main focus should remain on the wants and needs of your employees and not on
their feelings. Managers who focus too much on the feelings of their workers
may be restricted from making hard decisions and from providing honest
critiques of their work.
Benefits of Organizational Behavior to Managers
There are many benefits of knowing organizational behavior
for leaders and managers in any organization. We have listed the three main
benefits for you to understand.
Organizational behavior also helps in managing human resources within an organization. It helps to develop a work-related environment within an organization. Organizational behavior can help in the creation of a motivated atmosphere within an organization. It also assists in functional behavior within an organization such as increasing the effectiveness, productivity, efficiency, etc. of different operations. Organizational behavior helps in reducing dysfunctional behavior in a workplace such as dissatisfaction of employees, employee absenteeism and tardiness.
Organizational behavior is very important in the process of training employees. Employees with the right backgrounds get hired to do relevant jobs in an organization. However, often the background is not enough to ensure that there is effective performance over time.
Organizational behavior affects the training provided to employees internally through resources. Employee training is focused on strengthening and improving the existing skills, regulatory requirements or learning about new technology that can impact how work is done in an organization and staying updated on changes in the environment that can change how employees do work.
Engagement
Managers and employers are concerned about developing a
conducive environment where employees can feel connected to their work and to
the mission of the company. Managers are also concerned about their ability to
offer ideas and insights to help improve the production and the work
environment. The work rules in an organization affect the engagement as well as
the culture.
Conclusion
Organizational behavior is an important subject. It helps leaders and managers to understand, and plan for an individual’s actions. Organizational behavior is the study of perception, attitude, and moral ethics of individuals in an organization.
First, we will look at the definitions of the two words.
Who or What is a Boss?
A boss can be defined as a person who has and exercises authority or supervises workers.
A leader, on the other hand, is somebody with the ability to lead or create a following and inspire and motivate people.
Generally, a boss tends to be more of a manager and a leader. A boss must have some authority over some people to get the title while a leader doesn’t need to.
A leader has positive connotations. The moment anyone gets the ‘leader’ title means he is respected and appreciated by those who follow him and draw inspiration and motivation from him. We, however, note that the word boss comes with negative connotations. A boss is generally seen as someone who is controlling and doesn’t care about other people’s feelings.
Managers, for instance, are supposed to not feed their emotions when doing their job. Managers are supposed to dismiss when they should, give a pay cut when they should, be hard on the workers when they should. A leader is however like a good teacher who gives inspiration and motivation. A leader listens to his/her juniors. He/she can break the rules just to endear themselves to the juniors.
A manager can’t do that and doing that could see them make some really bad losses. Normally, I like to compare a leader to a grandparent of a child and a boss/manager to the mother of the child. Most of the time, grandparents are nice to grandchildren. They smile at them, play with them, tell them stories, and many kids love being around them. A parent, however, has to discipline the child. Once in a while a parent has to show a stern face, give a stern warning, ground a child, and in some countries and among some people, they even have to spank them. It is thus quite a challenge of a task trying to be a boss and a leader at the same time.
It is, however, possible to be a boss and a leader. In fact, whenever a boss is described as good, he’s already a leader because you can’t be a good boss and fail to exhibit most of the characteristics of a leader.
We are thus going to look at some characteristics of a leader and how a boss can use them to become a good boss thus becoming a good boss and a leader at the same time.
Don’t have Favorites
Good leaders care about the emotions of their followers. They use emotions to create inspirations and attach themselves to their juniors. This means good leaders avoid doing things that may hurt some of the workers. One of these things is being unfair to particular individuals. Luckily enough for the bosses, you don’t really have to run on emotions to achieve this. You can completely run on logic and still be able to be impartial. Of course, as a human being, it’s quite impossible never to have a favorite – the point is – never show it.
Always Remember your Employees are Human.
In business, managers are advised not to run on emotions. This has led to many managers completely disregarding the feelings of their employees. Some bosses only focus on production – anything else is out of the question. You can, however, pick this leadership trait of being human without compromising your work standards and production. Happy workers are more productive than unhappy ones. Treat your workers humanely, and they’ll be happy.
Listen to your Workers’ Ideas and be Open to Change
One characteristic of a good leader is the capability of listening to their workers or juniors or followers and trying out the ideas they come up with. However, leaders interact with their juniors way less than their bosses, and this is a tricky thing to try out like a boss. We, therefore, advise bosses to moderately listen to their juniors once in a while. This creates an environment of harmony and a feeling of belonging among the workers.
Accountability Shouldn’t be Limited to your Workers
A leader is someone who motivates and inspires. A leader can lead by simply being there and not actually interacting with their followers on a one on one basis. A leader just makes themselves the golden standard which he/she wants his/her followers to emulate.
A boss however also has the responsibility of instilling the discipline he/she expects in the workers. Many bosses end up just shouting orders and giving punishments to their juniors without even looking at the person. A good boss who wishes to be a leader should make sure they live up to the standards they intend to instill in their workers. If you want a corruption free organization, don’t be corrupt. If you want a clean environment, be clean. Always be accountable for your mistakes and never project mistakes you did to your workers. You’ll be shocked how you’ll have an easier time implementing your standards when you live up to them yourself.
Be Polite
Leaders create a connection with the people. To have people follow you, you must inspire them. You can’t inspire people if they fear you. Bosses, on the other hand, need to create a professional environment with their juniors which in many cases can’t be compromised with too much familiarity. Familiarity breeds contempt. However, a boss loses nothing by being polite.
You can exhibit leadership qualities by being polite when you speak to your workers. Sometimes always barking orders projects you as insecure and trying too hard to stamp your authority.
Support your Team
This leadership quality doesn’t necessarily mean you hold your worker’s hand. You can simply give them guidance where necessary and acknowledge their hard work.
Remove Obstacles for your Team
Good leaders make it easier for their followers to progress. Good leaders can accept temporary discomfort for the benefit of their followers. Generally, managers are forced to limit the choices of their workers. For the sake of productivity and meeting deadlines, managers may be forced to increase the working hours of the workers and be strict on reporting time for instance.
A good boss, however, can try their best to remove obstacles for his workers rather than increase them. Providing a better working environment, improving their working conditions and generally showing care is a good step. A small task like ensuring the computers used by the workers are always in good condition can see you go a long way.
Don’t Just Ask, Demonstrate
Good leaders can be good leaders for just being there and being themselves. They don’t have to make orders or ask for anything to be done. They create a kind of lifestyle such that just being there inspires the workers to do something.
Many bosses just bark orders without understanding what the workers go through. Some workers may be going through challenges and may not exactly understand what they should do – a boss wishing to be a good leader demonstrates rather than ask or order. Once in a while pick that tool and start working with your workers.
Avoid Micromanagement
One prominent characteristic of a good leader is the ability to trust and have faith in his/her followers. Some bosses, however, don’t understand that it’s the people under them that make a company successful. They act as if they are the only ones who know what they are doing in the company and would want to supervise every little thing happening in the company.
A good boss delegates duties to juniors. This improves their self-esteem and respect for you.
Develop People Rather than Using Them
I once worked for a construction company and was the supervisor of the casual laborers. One day I noticed that the workers had left some of the tools outside the store. I took them back to the store. My immediate boss came and found me opening the store and was very mad that I was doing a casual laborers job. I explained to him that they had already left, but he barked and insisted I should have called one of them back because he pays them to do that job and they must do it. I later realized many bosses have a similar mentality – they pay their workers and thus must use them as much as they like.
That’s really a bad approach to business. A worker is a human being who just like you also wishes to progress in life. Developing your workers earns you respect and makes you an example surrounded by successful people who respect you. Good leaders support, they don’t use.
I’ve spoken earlier about OB and how it is used within businesses, but I thought that it might be useful to be a lot more detailed. So, over the course of this year expect regular posts on this topic which you can use in your own learnings.
Organizational behaviour can be defined as the study of how people interact within groups. This study is generally applied in an attempt to come up with more efficient business organizations. The main idea of the study of organizational is that organizations can apply a scientific approach to manage their workers. Generally, the theories of organizational are used for human resources to maximize the individual output of people from group members.
A Breakdown of Organizational Behaviour
There are different philosophies and models of organizational behaviour. The focus on these different areas of study is:
Increasing job satisfaction,
Improving job performance,
Encouraging leadership and promoting innovation.
Managers may adopt different management tactics to achieve the desired results. These tactics may include modifying compensation structures, reorganizing groups and changing the evaluation of performance.
Brief History of OB
The field of organizational behaviour dates back to the late 20s when a company called Hawthorne electric company set up experiments. The experiments were designed to discern how environmental change changed employees productivity.
Between 1924 and 1933, various studies were
conducted by Hawthorne electric company. The studies included the study of the
effects of different types of breaks on the productivity of employees. The most
famous finding from the studies is what
is known as the Hawthorne Effect, the change in people’s behavior when they
know they are being observed.
Some people have argued that the focus on the finding is to ignore a wider set of different studies that would be credited for the development of organizational behaviour as the human resources professional and as a field of study. The idea of looking at behaviour and productivity in an organization scientifically with the aim of increasing the quality and amount of work an employee can do was backed up with the idea that employees were not resources to be used interchangeably. Instead, workers are unique regarding their potential fit with the company and their psychology.
Organizational behavior has focused on
different topics. During the 1940s, organizational behavior focused on
management science and logistics. The emphasis was mainly on statistical
analysis and mathematical modeling to find the best answers for problems that
were deemed complex.
In the 70s, theories of institutions and
contingency, as well as resource dependence, organizational ecology, and
bounded rationality, came to lead the study as the field concentrated more on
quantitative research. These sets of theories and findings helped organizations
to understand how they can improve decision making and business structure.
Since the 70s, a good amount of work being done in the field of organizational behaviour has based on cultural components of organizations, and this includes gender roles, class, cultural relativism and gender roles and their unique roles on productivity and group building. The studies take into account the ways in which background and identity can inform decision making.
Focusing On The Academic
You can find academic programs that focus on organizational behavior in business
schools. You can also find them in the
schools of psychology and social work. They draw from the field of leadership
studies, anthropology, computer models and ethnography and use qualitative,
computer models and quantitative as methods of exploring and testing ideas. One
can study different topics within the field of organizational behavior
depending on the program.
Organizational Behaviour in Practice
Human relations professionals and
executives can use organizational behavior to understand better the culture of
the business and how the culture can hinder or facilitate
employee retention and productivity. Executives and human resource managers can
also use organizational behavior to evaluate the skills of candidates and the
candidate’s personality during the hiring process.
The knowledge or theory application from the field of organizational behaviour can be narrowed down to the following sections:
job satisfaction,
personality,
leadership,
reward management,
power,
authority, and
politics.
There is no single way of assessing the suitable way of managing any of these things, but researching organizational can be used to provide topics and guidelines to follow.
Job satisfaction theories are different, but some people dispute that a satisfying job is composed of compelling work, concrete reward system, satisfactory working conditions, and good supervisors.
Personality plays a significant role in the way people interact with groups and do work. You can know the personality of a person through a conversation or a series of tests. Knowing the personality of a person can give you an idea of whether they are the perfect fit for the particular environment you want to hire them into. You will also know how best you can motivate the employees.
Authority, power, and politics depend on each other in an organization. It is therefore essential to understand the appropriate ways and adhere to the rules at the workplace, and the general ethical guidelines in which the elements are used and exhibited are the main components of running a cohesive business.
Why Managers Should Study Organizational Behaviour
The pressures on firms continue to mount, and companies around the world need to utilize their resources in the best way possible.
The success of every organization depends on the effectiveness of the management of the employees. The people’s behaviour in an organization is governed by feelings, ideas, and activities. For businesses to effectively manage people, it is vital to perceive their needs. However, the behaviour of people can differ from one individual to another. This makes it impossible to come up with standard solutions to the problems in an organization.
For this reason, it is crucial to consider the social and psychological aspects when designing solutions to solve different issues in an organization, and that is why managers should study organizational behaviour.
OK – its great to have friends at work. In fact I think its a necessity – there are very few of us who would do this (or any) job for no pay and as such work is just that … its work. If it was easy and always fun it would be called PLAY. So with that being said, having someone to talk to at the water cooler is a good idea … however … there is a difference when you are a manager! There is a line that shouldn’t and mustn’t be crossed and that is the line of professionalism. So how do you lead these people without seeming like an unapproachable monster? Well here are some hints and ideas for you:
Be honest – there are obviously things that you can and cannot share with your employees – terminations and reviews to mind! – but as long as you make it clear to your staff that there are some things that you cannot answer that should suffice. Let them know that in whatever you are telling them you are being as honest and as candid as you possibly can be. Remember if you get caught in a lie, it’s not only going to impact the employee that you lied but everyone else also once they hear about it … after all if you could lie to one of their peers about something, whats to tell them that you’re not lying to them also?
Communicate ALWAYS – talk to your team. Constant and continual feedback on performance is imperative. They need to know how they stand in the company and in their team, what they can do to improve and if they’ve done something wrong this is even more important. Most employees are in the job to do the best that they can do – there have been very few instances in my career that an employee just didn’t care and actively campaigned to get terminated (that’s a story for another day!) – and its up to you to tell them how to do this. In addition to keeping your staff informed and motivated however this has a direct impact on you – do you remember my previous post about Performance Appraisals (if not, click here) – trying to do a year end performance appraisal without giving the employee feedback throughout the year is going to be extremely difficult unless you’ve decided to grade them at the highest possible level. If you’ve not been telling them what they can do to improve and trying to help them to do this they have every right to rip you apart in the review meeting!
Now where do you go to blow of steam? Lets be honest (which I always encourage – see point 1!) managing is a hard job. If you’re in a difficult situation with your company or a member of your team you sometimes need to be able to say things that are outside the scope. This is where your manager comes in and if you have a large enough and established enough company – your peers – come in. They will be able to assist you in your decision making process and give you clear unbiased opinions on any decisions that you are concerned about. If you’re not comfortable utilizing that framework – heck ask me! I’ll give you a completely unbiased opinion and off course there are also tons of networking related groups available online that you can frequent that will be able to provide you guidance in your field too.
Leadership and management isn’t easy … well managing badly can be very easy … its becoming a great manager that takes work. I hope you choose to make the effort.
