Stark choices

Inconsistency from a boss is not only hard to handle, it can ruin your business. The way around this is simple…

Delving from the hand book of screw ups, I cannot ignore a lack of consistency as a great way to confuse and de-motivate your teams. I recall many occasions when due to my lack of consistency I did just that. And of course blame others when you make a mistake and miss a deadline!

With this inconsistent approach people didn’t know where they stood and what was expected of them, because it often changed. It is incredibly confusing for people if they do not know who you are; of course it’s a bit hard to communicate this succinctly if you do not know yourself. So that’s the first place to begin, some self awareness.

So for all of you who are either emotionally unaware or just don’t care, I have created a guide based on my experiences from the past to help you to continue to confuse and upset your teams.

7 ways that de-motivate and upset your teams

• Always change your expectations, ones that of course you haven’t clearly communicated to create maximum confusion and upset.
• Create a culture where people do not feel valued, seen or heard. Remember to over talk often.
• Develop unclear expectations regarding your employee’s performance; better still don’t communicate expectations at all.
• Create lots of procedures and rules, catch people not following these rules. Remember to change them without informing anyone.
• Provide criticism instead of constructive feedback. Always catch them doing something wrong!
• Tolerate poor performance (your own included) so that your high performers feel taken advantage of.
• Never follow through on behaviours and actions on things that you feel are not important to you.

I can guarantee that if you follow the guide above you will have a high turnover of staff, and your competitors will be smiling….

And for those of you who want to do it differently, try these 10 tips.

• Value and acknowledge contribution. Feeling valued, seen and heard is a basic human need.
• Remember to acknowledge what people do well, and really take time to ensure that they hear you. Catch them doing things right.
• Take a coach approach to management. Empower your people to find their own solutions.(This means putting your ego and knowledge and your way of doing things aside)
• Provide your team with input and choice in how they do their work. Encourage them to have voice and to be creative.
• Encourage responsibility and leadership by allowing people to come up with their own solutions.
• Create an environment where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities. Tolerate learning errors by avoiding harsh criticism. Begin the conversation with an acknowledgement then address the mistake.
• Get out of the way occasionally so other can grow; this will create and promote job ownership.
• Develop goals and challenges for everyone in your team.
• Provide lots of encouragement and acknowledgement.
• Make appreciation and gratitude a part of your repertoire.

Choose one of the tips from above and use it today, all day!

Have fun.

For more Second Time Around, click here.