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Ignite! Newsletter - June 2007 (a) |
How can you
Improve Performance
at All levels?
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| Improving Performance at All Levels in Your Organization |
| Are you aware of these disappointing statistics: Only 20% of workers feel that they work in an environment that allows them to be their best. Moreover, research from The Ken Blanchard Companies indicates that only a small percentage of employees reach their full potential after joining an organization. In fact, in organizations without a solid leadership development strategy in place, the majority of employees are only developed to 65-70% of their potential productivity, according to self-assessments by company leaders. |
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| How Can You Improve Your Organization's Performance? |
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To improve your organization's overall performance, begin by enhancing the performance of individual managers and team leaders within the organization. All employees need help in reaching their goals, and it is the manager or team leader's job to provide the direction and support people need to succeed. The amount of direction or support that a leader should provide depends on the employee's development level for the task at hand. There are four development levels: |
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Enthusiastic Beginner:When first beginning a new task where they have had little, if any, prior knowledge or experience, most individuals are enthusiastic and ready to learn—but at a low competence level for the task. Such a staff member should be led by a Directing style. They need to know what to expect and how to do the task at hand.
Disillusioned Learner: As the development level of an employee increases, his or her competence and commitment fluctuate. When people begin to learn a task, they find the task is either more difficult to learn than they thought it would be, or less interesting. Thus, they become disillusioned, which decreases their commitment. People who are disillusioned need Coaching—high direction to continue to build skills as well as high support to address their low commitment.
Capable, but Cautious, Performer: As competence continues to improve, most individuals go through a self-doubt state where they question whether they can perform the task on their own. Their boss says they're competent, but they're not so sure. These alternating feelings of competence and self-doubt are indicative of a higher level of development. Here a Supporting style is most appropriate. These individuals need to be listened to and encouraged but do not need much direction, since they have demonstrated that they have the competence to do the task.
Self-Reliant Achiever: Finally, at the highest level of development, employees demonstrate high levels of competence and commitment. The corresponding leadership style to use is Delegating—giving the employee increased autonomy for doing the job he or she has demonstrated both competence and commitment in doing. |
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| How Can You Improve Your Team's Performance? |
Many managers have little knowledge of group dynamics. They concentrate more on managing individuals rather than on building effective teams. This is a mistake since most managers spend 50-90% of their working time in some type of group activity. Groups or teams are the backbone of organizations. Yet, groups or teams can—and often do—fail if the manager who organized the group didn't understand the function and potential of the group or how it should be best managed.
Groups and teams, like individuals, also have stages of development. Roy B. Lacoursier, author of The Life Cycle of Groups, did extensive research on team behavior. He found that in the same way that someone progresses from being an Enthusiastic Beginner all the way to being a Self-Reliant Achiever, so does a team proceed through stages of development.
1. First, there is the Orientation period. Everyone is excited and ready to charge forward.
2. Next comes the state of Dissatisfaction. Everyone is initially enthusiastic about their new group until they sense that it isn't working too well. Teamwork involves more cooperation than is usually anticipated. At this stage, team members feel they are wasting their time by being brought together in the effort to achieve a goal.
3. The third stage is Resolution, during which the team members work out this dissatisfaction and come together as a cohesive group.
4. The fourth level is what Lacoursier calls the Production stage. At this level, the team achieves some harmony and begins to perform.
5. The fifth and final stage is Termination. At this point, the group or team comes to an end.
A manager must be ready to anticipate and handle each of these stages of team development. Otherwise, the team won't really function as well as it could. This means providing a lot of direction in the early stages of the team's development and then moving into more of a delegating leadership style as the team is able to manage itself.
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| Better Performance through Better Leadership |
| Research over the past couple of decades has made it clear that successful leaders adapt their leadership style to the needs of the situation. The key to being a better leader is knowing when to use each style and then being able to lead accordingly. Managers looking to improve their ability to lead people to higher levels of performance must learn to adapt their style to match the development level of the people they are managing. This proven approach will help managers lead people, teams, and their organizations to their full potential and best performance every time. |
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