In conjunction with the topic of how to bring internal stakeholders of an organisation on a chosen brand journey, I am teaching Eastern Institute of Technology commerce students the difference between achieving cooperation by managing expectations (i.e. nurturing) versus forcing compliance by enforcing legal contracts.
Here’s how a poorly-equipped business owner who lacks people management skills (and who prefers to “control” others rather than empower) will deal with an employee situation where the employer believes the employee is breaching their formal terms of employment engagement…
Step One – enforce the provisions of the written Individual Employment Agreement
Step Twp – further enforce the provisions of the written Individual Employment Agreement
Step Three – continue to enforce the provisions of the written Individual Employment Agreement
In contrast, this is how a well-equipped business owner – who is predisposed to managing people in an open, honest/ mature and empathetic way – will deal with the same situation…
Step One – engage with the employee in order to talk through why they are behaving in the manner that they are – behaiour that the owner construes to be in conflict with their expectations and the role requirements
Step Two – educate the employee so that the employee is made aware of – and becomes familiar with – the employer’s expectations, in order that the employee is given every opportunity to modify/ improve their behaviour
Step Three (if deemed necessary at all) – only after all reasonable attempts to modify/ improve the behaviour of the employee have been applied on the employer’s part – yet have failed, look to enforce provisions of the relevant written Employment Agreement
What’s the underlying difference in approach taken above ? Fundamentally, the difference boils down to a mind-shift from wanting to “control” to instead wanting to constructively “manage” the activities of other people. The workplace culture of the former is typically underpinned by fear, whereas the cultural fabric of the latter is woven from threads of empowerment and enablement. Consequently, the productivity of the former workplace is generally less than what it is in the case of the latter workplace.
If you want to draw the best from people, then do so by providing encouragement and empowerment. An employer who has a “control” mindset typically sees employees as people who work “for” them; whereas an employer who has a “nurturing/ empowering” mindset instead typically sees employees as people who work “with” them. Which mindset best characterises your leadership style ?
And if you’re wondering what long-term impact each of the aforementioned styles of management has on employees, put this conversation in the context of a family. If parents tend to be overbearing and controlling – and punish their children routinely, what happens to the development of the child ? Answer: they fail to become independent with the capability and willingness to think for themselves – and their sense of self-value is subdued. Whereas if instead parents raise their children in an encouraging manner – where the child is required to increasingly think and make decisions for themselves – such children will instead develop a strong sense of independence and self-worth. The former child, once an adult, is likely to have an expectation of being subservient to (i.e. work “for”) an employer; whereas the child mentioned latterly is more likely to see their work role as one of working “with” others in order to achieve common goals.
It is critical that employers start to understand the impact that they have on the lives of other people. Only through cultivating this understanding can employers develop their leadership/ management practices so that they more positively impact the lives of those people who they engage to perform whatever activity/ function. It is a choice to do so…or not.