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“There is perhaps an increase in people’s frustration and inability to cope with rapid changes taking place in the world today in all dimensions, from social norms to business practices”. Srikumar Rao
The current economic slow-down along with regulations and healthcare requirements has forced an overload of change on businesses today. Even more puzzling, there are four generations of workers and the youngest are reporting to work with less experience and more entitlement, a conundrum for our times. What questions can you ask that will take the mystery out of managing your changing, challenging workplace? You’ll know when you read this article.
Your company may have just let some people go, cut back in services, or frozen salaries to adapt.This is change and it alters our ego as it alters our circumstances. It generates a loss of self, power, influence over circumstances and perceived value. It means we have to come-to-grips with what we don’t know and learn new ways of doing things. For these reasons, people resist change in the workplace just as they do in everyday life.
If you are a business owner or manager today you might be feeling loss because of change and are looking for the shortest way out. The best way out is not short-term but to accept change and begin to look for possibilities by asking real questions about where the company is headed.
Here are the first 4 of 7 mysteries for business leaders to unravel that will help them manage today’s changing workplace:
Mystery #1: Can owners and managers identify generational similarities that improve teamwork and productivity? Similarities in generations center in universal human needs. All generations want to feel valued, empowered, and engaged at work although we treat these needs differently. Gen X and Gen Y often demand more flexibility in their jobs while Traditionalists and Baby Boomers have the same need but are less vocal about it. They have sacrificed, suffered, and lived to brag about it. Understanding how older and younger employees handle their needs differently will reduce office stress and help all employees work better together.
Mystery #2: Can employees be trusted or is the temptation to cheat and steal stronger? Members of all generations want to be trusted at work and want their leaders to believe they will perform their jobs as productively and efficiently as possible. (This Boomer believed that she had to show she was productive and that someone important had to notice.) Companies blocking access to the internet is often done under the guise of lack of bandwidth but the real issue is usually lack of trust (Meister & Willyerd, 2010).
Mystery #3: Will your budget allow for the personalization of employee learning so that all can initiate it when they need it and know they are developing their careers at the same time? This is asynchronous communication that Boomers are less able to get their heads around. It’s easy with today’s technology. Imagine individuals accessing and reviewing 10 minute teaching points as needed and Interactive Learning Environments with open, intra-office chat, feedback and problem-solving.
Mystery #4: Can your organizational leaders be enthusiastic, inspiring and supportive of employees? You would probably love for your employees to describe the company this way but not know how to make it happen. Some of the best at change management like this today are Bill George, Stephen M.R. Covey, Tony Hsieh, Srikumar Rao, and Simon Sinek. They make it clear that company leadership must dig-down to what they give that helps people, customers and employees and why it is theirs to give. Once you discover this for yourself, sharing it with your employees will inspire them and make them enthusiastic for work.
And, if you discover the answers to these unknowns, you will regain your change-resisting loss of self, power, and influence over circumstances and find clarity and confidence for managing a changing workplace.
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Source by Tinker Barnett
