Collaboration Between Management And Employees
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 21, 2012
Lately I've written a lot of posts about dreams and goals on a couple of blogs of mine. Just last week I wrote one titled Fulfilling The Goals Of Others. I had thought it was just me, but then I was reading a post by a guy named Dan Bobinski who wrote a post the day before mine (which I didn't see until a couple of days ago) titled What Your People Really Want. Some of what he said resonates greatly with me, but in some ways he went in a different direction.
For instance, he talked about a major survey which concluded that worker's biggest gripe was management putting policies into place without seeing what the employees want. It concluded that around 75% of employees would give input to ideas and that they would support management more if they were allowed to participate in the process.
He then talked about management needing to establish an environment of collaboration, nurturing trust over time so employees know that they're being respected, and will in turn give their all to companies instead of feeling like they mean nothing and often deciding to leave. And we all know it's the really good employees who leave that we don't want leaving.
I thought it was a brilliant piece and I wholeheartedly agree with its premise. Nothing says that managers have to do it all themselves. There's always a benefit to having multiple eyes looking at a process, especially if many of those eyes actually do the work, or are the biggest group impacted. It doesn't mean that everything they say will be correct or even beneficial, but if you've given them the tools to learn and the opportunity to grow in the past, most of the time you're going to get solid advice which will either improve something or keep something from going horribly wrong.
My dad was famous for saying that employees should see management as the enemy, and I've always disagreed with that. However, in many places I've consulted I've seen exactly that kind of relationship, and know how detrimental it is to getting things done. If employees don't think you care what they think you lose their respect, and no one gives their best to someone they don't respect.
I'll ask you the question this way; what do you have to lose by allowing your employees the chance to offer suggestions? You might learn some things, whether it's that your employees are pretty sharp or that you need to educate them better on what it is they do. To me, it's a win-win.
To some extends, I agree with your dad’s quote, but I think it depends what kind of power manager have. I have worked with managers that take everything very personally, obviously a weak one without much knowledge. For another company that I have worked, there was often rotation between managers and employees with another manager over the manager. I don’t like this strategy either as this may cause troubles and destroy team, especially if there is a “two face” employee. On your question, I think it should be this way, often expertise of employee for particular part of work can be on higher level than manager.
Carl, my dad was career military, over 26 years, so sometimes he looked at things in that fashion. I think that there needs to be a balance between devotion to the company and protecting oneself, and my history has taught me that. Loyalty really only belongs to individuals and not corporations unless you’re the top dog; that’s scary to say but I really believe it because they will fire or lay you off without a clue in a moment’s notice, even if you’ve given them years of great service.
And that’s why I say managers need to be strong and need to work well with their employees because in the long run it’s the relationship with a good leader that determines just how much each employee will give of themselves.
You are right, Mitch. Balance is the key, yeah I know about your dad career from some of previous posts and I think I have previously mention one of the military principles that I have learned – it doesn’t matter, if your commander hate’s you, it is more important, team unit members to respect you.
I prefer a situation whereby people work as a team and share ideas freely, for someone may be ranked lower in a company but the ideas they have could be what the company needs to go to the next level. I am part of an organization where this kind of practice is enforced and I must admit that it really bears fruits, and it is really fun when everyone is involved.
Thanks for sharing Henry, and I love when teams work that way also. Everyone can be a great contributor to a process.