How was your leader today?

A friend of mine has a job in a local community. She is head of Human Resources. She has lots of transactions with her leader on a daily basis. The leader happens to be quite aggressive.

Last week my friend fainted from stress and was taken to hospital with a stroke that paralysed half of her face. My friend is very dutyful and may be a sensitive woman but this incident is without discussion pure terror. The incident happened at work during daytime. And this is not the first time employees meet terror from this leader. Local newspaper has had several articles about the horrible leader. No colleagues stod up helping my friend. Nobody did a thing. Lots of people knew about it and nobody stopped the leader from repeated actions.

This terror is not OK
This is not OK at all. We can’t accept a leader with a temper like this, a behaviour this aggressive and a series of consequences like this. I suggest that time has come to introduce a leaders license.

I know that lots of companies are able to control their leaders
But what if they are not? Then somebody must check them regularly. And the most economic solution is to ask the employees.

Hunting license, drivers license and leaders license
A hunter and a driver needs a drivers license. So does a leader. A license that works for months - maybe a year. But the license can be taken away at any time. By who? By the employees. Appoint your employees to be the driving teachers of your leaders. 

And here’s how we can check the leader every day, week, month or year.
Many systems can be relevant as a feedback system. It can be complicated or simple. I will mention the HappyOrNot system which is widely used in shops all over the world. A HappyOrNot terminal or app (install it on employees smartphones) has four buttons. One can be activated as a feedback to this question: 

How was your leader today? 









When feedback is ticking in, the keypersons that takes care of the leader analysis can check all feedback on a daily basis and report to the leader in question plus top management. Don't do feedback analysis once a year. Remember that you can't steer your car by correcting the steering wheel once a year. You have to correct it all the time. It is the same story with leadership. In order to maintain a high level of team spirit and high productivity and work joy and lots of energy the leader must listen to feedback and adjust behaviour - all the time. If the leader does not understand the feedback she or he is receiving she or he must seek understanding from empolyees. Easy and simple and not expensive.

The leader must use lots of effort to invite all employees to feedback as much as possible underlining the importance of every click. 

How was your leader today?
Is it really possible to gain feedback day after day out of these 5 words? Oh yes. But there should come more underlying feedback out of the four smileys. 

That means, that the leader and the team must talk about the feedback and what it really means. Smileys are anonymous but verbal feedback is not. The leader must allow employees to talk in pairs and trios about the smiley feedback and what the leader should be able to stop doing, do more of and don't change. 

What do you see?
When a feedback report is released it is shown to the team. The question you have to use is: What do you see? Some answers may occur. Then you follow up with your next question: What do you also see? Keep on asking the very same question over and over again. If one team member is a bit quiet then ask: What do you see, John? (it his name is John). Take good care of every single answer. Write it down on a flip and make sure to use it.

Next feedback session
Do the same as above but also follow up and review on the first feedback. How about that? Did it work? Has anything been adjusted? Has a change been registered by your 'driving teachers' - your employees? Good or bad?

Change: Leader from hell turns to leader from heaven
A leader is not a leader because every employee has to stress around. A leader is a leader because every employee has to joy around. Joyful employees are curious, creative and accountable. Joyful employees has a need for increasing their skills. 

Back to the Leaders License
Who is going to issue a Leaders License to whom and why? Well, you know where to go when you are a hunter and you know where to go when you need a Drivers License. So a number of consulting companies should be certified to issue a Leaders License. And the employees are the driving teachers. So be prepared to design the Leaders License asap. 


Michael Meinhardt
LEADERSwarehouse.COM 
☎ +45 71 92 55 63 ✉ info@LEADERSwarehouse.com


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