Too often I see the extremes: on the one hand, cut-throat operations that have little care for those who don’t put in 15+ hours work a day or dare to have a home life, whilst on the other hand, the so called “caring” employers who simply remove any form of monitoring or accountability, allowing people too often to do as they please.

For some reason, “softly softly” organisations appear to feel that avoiding issues of non-performance or lack of commitment is acceptable and even appreciated by staff! On the flip side, I see people sidelined, left behind and eventually pushed out for lacking the so called “right attitude”.

In both cases, the so called “leaders” are only fooling themselves.

We spend the majority of our adult life in organisations and I feel we should start off with some facts as I see them:

• Enjoyment - people would rather enjoy coming to work than dread it
• Entrepreneur – I believe everyone has it in them to contribute, to add something and everyone starts off wanting to do so
• Expectation – people deserve to know what is expected of them and how they fit in
• Every role – if their role does not contribute to the organisation, then it’s better to question why and deal with it
• Everyone - if you have a workforce of 64 people, then 64 people should be involved, consulted and rewarded
• Excellence – if you don’t want to strive to do an excellent job in everything you do, then go and do something else!
• Explain – people must be told what is happening – good and bad – with the organisation and their contribution
• Educate – always invest in helping people improve their skills and contribution

I believe the right way is to create an environment where everyone buys into the “Cause”, where you continually strive for excellence, where everyone has a part to play and knows what it is, where everyone is helped to develop themselves – maybe even enjoy doing it!

Surely it’s better than the alternative?

They can’t be bothered to pay attention when speaking to you?

You know the kind of people I mean….

You are speaking with them or in a meeting and they can’t stop reading their email, taking a phone call or generally trying to show how important and popular they are.

In my experience, the truly important (and memorable) people allow time to speak, make you the focus of the time they are spending – show YOU some respect.

The others are too busy feeling insecure and worried they might miss something…..

Just think about it next time…