Workplace Culture by Design
To Get in the Flow, Reinvent Transparency
What are your strengths in practicing transparency across your organization?
Knowing the answer is key to understanding who you are as a company and how sustainable performance can be achieved within the network of complex relationships that is redefining the nature of work.
With an abundance of information at their fingertips, consumers have more choice and control over their experiences than ever before, opening the door to many more products and services.
The ability of this wealth of information to increase “customer personalization” raises expectations from customers and employees alike. Your organization’s level of transparency can impact both the quality of a customer’s experience and your employees’ ability to contribute really great work.
Reinventing transparency is key for forward-leading organizations as the nature of work continually changes due to customer and global market shifts, innovation, and a sharper understanding of information and the paths along which it flows.
As a leader, what does reinventing transparency mean to you? What can you do differently in areas such as sharing financial information, strategies, and goals with your workforce? Is this sufficient for tomorrow’s needs? Are your people practices reinforcing openness and honesty, or are employees carrying the heavy burden that comes when secrets have room to breed?
The world of work is changing at an exponential pace. As leaders, we can no longer expect that a workplace culture defined by rigid rules, tight policies, and innovation limited to a single department will be an appropriate response to shifting circumstances.
Customers need just-in-time responses and follow-up. Middle managers need the ability to make data-driven decisions that empower the organization to do the right thing at the right time. Members of a multigenerational workforce expect change and want to be included in the process. Remote workers need to know they can count on their colleagues and management to support their need for information, and access to experts within the company to accomplish great work.
While opening up our workplace and leadership to transparency may sound logical, some pitfalls are common as companies begin to embrace higher levels of accountability. Building a thriving workplace requires a leadership culture that can continually reinvent transparency in a way that honors your organization’s mission, vision, values, and people.
Tomorrow’s leaders must encourage open dialogue that can make working together in an interconnected workplace community a benefit to the company and its customers.
What are your thoughts regarding workplace transparency? Please share your comments below.
To learn more about ways you can enhance transparency and advance your workplace strategies further, contact us today or click here.
©2012 All rights reserved. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the founder and president of The Infusion Group™. A trusted partner in creating new possibilities in talent management and workplace culture design to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, and society. How may we help you?
Photo Credit iStockPhoto/joshblake
What Story is Your Workplace Telling Others?
Founder, Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is honored to be featured in this month’s issue of
Women With Know How Magazine. The full article (with permissions) is available here:
Successful companies have more than great products and services. Their performance stems from a clear vision, established strategic priorities, and the ability to act on objectives rapidly. World-class organizations, large and small, go beyond. They cut through an overcrowded marketplace with a distinct competitive differentiator: their people.
Every connection that is made with customers, clients, and relevant stakeholders extends the story of your workplace. How your associates communicate, care, and connect with customers reflects their innate talents and leaves a lasting impression. It can also make the difference in whether co-workers invest more discretionary energy, creativity, and extra effort or simply submit the minimum.
An energized leader recently shared with me: “I can’t ever imagine leaving this company. I love working here.” After many years of working in health-care technology, this Generation X leader discovered his hidden talent potential, refocused his work/life priorities, and made a decision to align his values with the technologies that he found most intriguing and with which he felt he could deliver the highest customer return.
Smiling, he proceeded to share the many ways in which his new workplace was knocking his socks off by enabling him to connect with customers and collaborative colleagues to come up with new approaches to solving business challenges with leading-edge design technology solutions that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. As a result, his company is blazing new trails in helping its clients achieve extraordinary results.
Before the shift, the narrator inside this Generation X leader’s head was playing the role of “Passionate Geek.” Imagine if he continued to listen to the old narration that said, “You don’t have what it takes to be a relationship-builder in IT. You’re a techie.” If he had stayed tuned to that, he would have delivered far inferior customer outcomes and possibly passed on contributing valuable ideas, energy and innovation that could help his company’s clients achieve success.
As women business owners, you have a unique opportunity to create more empowering workplace stories by following four intuitive steps:
- Become aware of your current stories. Tune into the commentary that runs through your mind as well as your workplace conversations. Often, leaders are moving in a number of directions and miss the story entirely. It’s especially important to be tuned in when you’re experiencing adversity and significant change.
- Assess the stories that are being told. Are the stories representing the reality of your workplace? Or are the stories offering insight into past perspectives that may be based in fear? Are these past perspectives holding your workplace back from connecting with clients, customers, and co-workers?
- Decide to act on truth. As leaders, you can continue to live based on past experiences, or you can bring people’s talents together and collectively move closer to those stories that reflect current truths.
- Create a new story. You can be active participants in your workplace stories, and you can let go of those that hold you back. The words of your employees, your choices, and your collective actions matter — they mean more to your clients (and employees) than you think! They can affect the outcome, remarkably.
Reflecting on the differences between the Generation X leader’s new workplace and his former employer, I was curious what his perspective might be. His reply? “My new workplace provides me with the support and tools to care for our clients, while trusting me to make the decisions that can create and deliver the best story (and solution) to help them be more successful.”
©2011 All rights reserved. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the founder and president of The Infusion Group™. A trusted partner in creating new possibilities in talent management and workplace culture design to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, and society. The Infusion Group™ brings together a portfolio of workplace services to achieve personalized business strategies for clients in the new world of work. For more information on achieving greater workplace potential, please visit www.theinfusiongroupllc.com.
It Still Pays
Co-Founder’s Jerk-Free Policy Gives Employees and Clients Something to Celebrate
In today’s evolving workplace and uncertain economy, finding reasons to celebrate can sometimes seem like a stretch. But even in hard times, one organization that knows the importance of talent and people offers plenty to celebrate by maintaining a jerk-free workplace.
Photo Courtesy: iStockPhoto
The concept goes back many years, to when Frank Moran, co-founder of what’s now the nation’s 12th-largest CPA firm, Plante & Moran, PLLC, was adamant that the firm wouldn’t hire or tolerate jerks. Managing Partner Gordon Krater, who was hired at Plante & Moran in 1980, right out of college, recalls being intrigued by the “jerk-free” policy in the firm’s employee manual. To this day, the concept of a jerk-free work environment infuses Plante & Moran’s hiring practices.
As more companies seek ways to create a winning workplace culture and build toward the future, they see the value in ensuring a positive environment in which collaboration helps foster people’s best work. This is often achieved by establishing clear expectations in people-management practices about the desired behaviors that support organizational values. A collaborative leadership structure that upholds these standards is key to creating such an environment.
Common attributes of a jerk-free policy may include:
- Purpose Statement
- Core Values (including Respect for Individuals)
- Outline of Applicable People-Management Practices
- Behavior Expectations Written in Clear Language
- Reporting and Investigative Process
- Benefits
Does It Pay?
Plante & Moran has been on Fortune magazine’s “Best Places to Work” list since 1999. Back then, the firm’s staff numbered 900. Now it has 1,600 employees and has opened several more offices in the U.S. and overseas.
The value for many organization’s achieving Fortune’s “Best Places to Work” recognition is often high, ranging from increases in employee and client satisfaction, reputational capital, better shareholder returns and volume of highly qualified talent pools.
Despite growing continuously and expanding service offerings, the firm has preserved its professional-leading staff retention rate and unparalleled client satisfaction levels. In recent surveys, 100% of clients said Plante & Moran staff were competent in their fields of discipline; further, nearly 100% of clients said Plante & Moran could use them as a reference and that the firm was proactive in meeting their needs, according to a press release.
Plante & Moran and a growing number of organizations, including Success Factors, Red Door Interactives, and others, are demonstrating a commitment to jerk-free practices and a healthier workplace culture.
It look’s like taking a bold action on having jerk-free workplace has allowed Plante & Moran employees and leaders to stay focused on doing what matters most, and doing it well.
For additional resources on how to optimize your workplace in the new world of work, visit our new community, become a member – - by registering here, it’s FREE!
© 2011 All Rights Reserved. The Infusion Group LLC. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the President of The Infusion Group, LLC, a people management consulting and coaching firm located in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. Optimizing workplace solutions, www.theinfusiongroupllc.com Follow: @TheInfusionGrpLLC To request reprint permission, please contact the Infusion Group™
A Whole New Meaning to Office Repairs
An employee’s face looks up as his iPad slowly slips from his fingers; crashing on the floor below. 
Scattered, plastic remnants are all that remain. Can it be fixed?
A manager and an employee look across the table at each other, stunned into silence by the bitter and harsh words exchanged during a review. Can it be fixed?
Many things in the workplace can be fixed and repaired. But some wounds may be laying deep, some setbacks too shattering and some rifts too wide to be infused back together. Experiences such as ethical dilemmas, unsettling turnover, a betrayal, and even physical and psychological abuse can leave management and workers permanently wounded. As resilient professionals, people live and go on with their work; forever changed.
One high powered executive discovered this in the course of preparing for a divisional transformation. Before her time in that division, a colleague had died (six months earlier) leaving behind many who were still in the grieving process. Managers no longer knew how to manage their team, for their team was changed by the loss of their friend, colleague and boss. The executive quickly acknowledged that a different change approach was vital, and that the division would need time as they went through the grieving process. Instead of driving her initial approach, she assessed and embraced the reality that her newly acquired division was profoundly changed by the death. She chose to embrace them for who they had become.
Meeting them where they were, she offered resources for support, encouragement, and time to heal and discover meaning through a new beginning for themselves and their division. Can it be fixed? In this instance, no, but other alternatives to finding new workplace meaning can be found in the intangibles – impacting the quality of people’s life can be achieved, resulting in growth.
In the U.S. alone, 53.5 million workers1 have been impacted by workplace bullying. Though outwardly moving on, for many there remains an internal fear for their physical and emotional safety. It takes an intuitive and emotionally intelligent leader to embrace the people side of transformation to help their organizations restore security and achieve renewal.
Healing and growth can be found and nurtured under the right leadership. When leaders and employees come together and establish high-quality relationships, create open lines of communication and take responsibility for cultivating and upholding a culture of trust, individuals witnessing unethical behavior that may have even led to a colleague’s suicide can gain the courage to contribute vibrantly.
There is no “quick fix” strategy that will produce a viable, emotionally healthy workplace. However, like this executive discovered, the strategy for shattered equipment and lives and souls in the new workplace is not about a bandage. It’s about being granted the honest and secure gift of starting over, investing in relationships, learning and becoming anew.
As transformational leaders, in what ways do you extend security in your workplace?
To learn more about cultivating a thriving workplace, please visit.
©2011 All rights reserved. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the President of The Infusion Group ™ LLC, a next generation people management consulting and executive coaching firm based in the Raleigh/Durham, NC area. To receive the latest tips and resources for building thriving workplaces – Infusing Solutions @Work!, sign up here. For reprint permissions, please write to: contact@theinfusiongroupllc.com
1 The Workplace Bullying Institute – www.workplacebullying.org
Photo credit: iStockphoto
Building Relationships
Here’s a great article from Success Magazine in an interview with Jeff Gordon on
Building Relationships,
Why Does Going Google and Facebook add Social Meaning to the Workplace?
One of the largest business developments in 2010 was in social media and it is expected to 
continue to grow according to most industry experts. There’s a significant amount of energy in this area that focuses on network growth, tools, analytics and marketing. Between the Google searches, blogging, tweeting, photo sharing and video uploads such as YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, JobBeam, LiveVideo, a number of interesting trends have developed along with a healthy dose of skepticism as to the real value and social meaning these tools, and some similar technological variations, add to the changing workplace. Ignoring the key social media trends and the context in which they can flourish may leave some managers and organizations left behind in a new era of competition.
Over the last 10 years we’ve experienced rapid internet growth, expansion of broadband access and reach of global audiences. The extension of marketing’s reach through blogging and access to talent has allowed for exponential capability and power in bringing ideas, products and services to market. From a workplace context, it’s now second nature to access the web through our preferred devices and embrace data, business intelligence, information and people. The social meanings that these platforms provide are rich connections, diverse learning, collaboration, and a sense of community. Intangibles such as real time feedback, creativity, validation and relationship building are the central operating system of social media.
Consider the data points identified below. Is there any wonder why social media technologies have exploded when they provide easy access to people and information? Can today’s worker capture the same experience of productivity and access to information in order to produce a 
remarkable work product through the workplace intranet, traditional filing cabinet or a similar mechanism? If your intranet is robust perhaps they can. As business leaders consider sustainable growth strategies and their ability to attract and retain talent to execute, the managerial question at hand is, “How is meaningful value being created?”
Business leaders understand the key benefits of implementing social media technologies. However assessing the meaningful value and comparing it to IT security risks reveals significant potential threats of disrupting and or terminating major operations. These are key considerations as organizations consider going social. On Friday, January 28, 2011 Egypt shutdown the internet entirely as reported in Wired due to protest activity and discord. Very quickly businesses in Egypt and abroad were impacted.
People First. Technology Follows.
Going social can help deliver the promises of collaboration and innovation in the future. Ensuring that new opportunities are embraced and a real return on investment can be secured requires disciplined leadership action and evaluation of the challenges and implications to the workforce.
According to Dictionary.com Google is defined as a search for something on the internet or to check credentials. Facebook (v) is defined as a search for a person’s profile. Both of these definitions highlight an important action; search.
Search + Connect = @Social
Even without social media technology platforms these types of google searches occur between co-workers in the workplace every day; face-to-face. Through social media platforms companies can connect rapidly and gain access to extensive networks of experts. It would appear that expanding the use of social media platforms would solve many challenges for businesses, especially in the area of communications.
Trust is a significant factor in the quality of information exchange, idea generation and customer interactions. Although technology may drive greater transparency and reduce some level of organizational conflict, there are additional steps leaders must take to resolve underlying cultural issues.
Workers are sometimes unwilling to ask each other for information or share it. Asking another co-worker or colleague across the enterprise may be considered embarrassing and a threat to one’s self esteem. Employees and managers may not want to be perceived as ignorant or incompetent in their jobs. The challenge for workers is often that the information needed is held hostage in overcrowded intranets, realized or unrealized bottle necks of structure, unorganized files, or the inability to access key decision makers. Concern regarding perceptions made by others may present a problem in the often political culture of the workplace.
Taking a holistic and honest assessment of the organizational culture and the implications these technologies have on the current and future workforce are critical to successful transition. Technology alone will not solve the highly toxic behavior and tactics of withholding information, nonparticipation or the discrediting of others which carries over to online behavior. The preparing of the organizational culture for social media is paramount for delivering on strategic promises.
Competing in the Future
Organizations that can rapidly align and adapt their culture for the next era of competition, whether face-to-face or through social media, may create remarkable business outcomes for employees, customers and share holders.
In addition companies might consider reinforcing the following social computing guidelines:
- Participation and responsible engagement is to enhance innovation, dialogue and contribution.
- Organizational brand can be remarkably represented by its workforce.
- Establish Standards of Conduct Guidelines and Smart Social Media Policies.
Companies can begin to leap forward by taking several actions to improve their overall talent management strategy by:
- Conducting a strategic talent review and aligning business strategy.
- Pulse Check – discover the workforce insights that may derail your innovation promises and execute on pro-active solutions.
- Developing business centered and people management competencies for leaders.
For more information on a strategic talent review, click here.
Deliver on social promises. Watch SocialNomics video by author Erik Qualman: Social Nomics Revolution Refresh
©2011 All rights reserved. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the President of Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina based The Infusion Group ™ LLC a next generation people management consulting and coaching firm. Visit http://www.theinfusiongroupllc.com and discover the latest resources to help your workplace thrive!
When Raising the White Flag on Ethics Meets the CEO
Arriving at the executive suite, Sarah sat anxiously waiting to meet with the CEO while he finished an important phone call. As Sarah heard his voice cease and the click of his phone as it was placed on the receiver, she took a few deep breaths in a faint attempt to calm her heart and settle her racing mind. A myriad of questions had flooded her thoughts ever since she had received his unexpected request for her presence that Friday afternoon.
Within moments, the door to the CEO’s office opened and with a genuine apology for keeping her waiting, he invited Sarah into his office. Sarah observed the CEO as he made his way over to his desk rather than offering her a seat in the guest area. Sarah knew a serious conversation was ahead.
The CEO proceeded to thank her for adjusting her schedule to see him under such short notice and arrived quickly to the point. Holding up a white envelope from behind his desk, he asked Sarah if she recognized the letter. Having seen it at that moment for the first time, she replied in earnest, “Sorry, I do not recognize the envelope.”
The CEO explained that a Board Member had received a letter from an employee who described the details of an unsettling workplace experience with a powerful member of management. The alleged abusive behavior had unexpectedly placed the organization and other employees at risk.
The CEO looked up and began to share something that would change Sarah’s career forever.
He said, “Sarah, this is the letter the Board Member sent to me. I requested to meet with you to personally extend my appreciation. Because of your integrity and commitment to hold our leadership team accountable, I was able to inform the board member of the actions we’ve already taken to address the issue. These actions include the release of the member of management in question, and managements’ response to restore a respectful and safe work environment.” Sarah stood looking rather surprised and humbly responded, “Thank you sir, but I was just doing my job.”
The CEO quickly affirmed by saying, “Yes, that’s true you accepted the responsibility that comes with being a leader. The reality is many leaders want to do the right thing. However, given the challenge they often give more credence to their fears, whether warranted or perceived, and decide to take a less than direct approach if they even act at all. The fear of putting themselves on the line and facing the possible repercussions hold too many leaders and employees back from doing the right thing. You’ve demonstrated the highest level of integrity and we value that from all employees and especially our leaders in this company. Your act of courage to stay on top of the issue, objectively examine all of the facts and make the difficult decisions in order to protect the welfare of employees and our customers is admirable. I know you must have agonized having to recommend releasing a top performing manager. It was a difficult decision. Our customers and employees count on us to make the right decisions and to do so in the best interest of the organization. You have demonstrated your commitment to our customers and our core values, and for that I and the board are deeply appreciative.”
There are many people like Sarah sitting in front row seats to ethical issues in workplaces everywhere. They, along with other workers, see the clear line between right and wrong. When organizational shifts and promotional opportunities occur, that clear line may become clouded giving way to actual or perceived fears when actions fall far short of integrity.
When actions fall below the line corporate reputations are not the only intangible asset at risk. According to the 2009 National Business Ethics Survey where misconduct has been observed employees are only 61 percent likely to be highly engaged with the company. In sharp contrast 85 percent of employees exert high levels of engagement in a positive ethical culture. High levels of misconduct and greater perceived pressure to cross ethical lines directly correlate to lower levels of employee engagement. Employees’ perceptions of company ethics impacts overall employee engagement.
When questionable practices and ethics are challenged in your workplace, how will you respond? Consider the following:
- Continue to encourage open dialogue, two-way communication, and have in place a clearly defined process for reporting ethical concerns.
- Reinforce your commitment to ethical standards and talent management practices with your colleagues, customers and vendors.
- Reward those individuals who bring issues forward. Regardless of how uncomfortable the situation is and reinforce a commitment to responding swiftly, assess, respond, and provide follow up accordingly.
- Foster and promote an environment that focuses on long term growth and sustainability while resisting the mentality of revenue at all costs regardless of how goals are achieved.
Be the organizational leader who prevents, listens, responds and acts!
Have you experienced a similar challenge in the past? If so, how has this made you a more effective and caring leader or high performing professional?
©2010 All rights reserved. Judy White, SPHR, GPHR, HCS is the President of Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina based The Infusion Group ™ LLC, a next generation people management consulting and executive coaching firm. For more information, go to www.theinfusiongroupllc.com
Workspace Design: An Extra Management Tool that Can Inspire the Workplace
Organizations and their leadership teams rethinking their core innovation strategy and ways to strengthen their creativity tool kits may want to consider the elements that often surround their work environment for answers. How might adapting the workspace better enable connectivity among professionals and encourage physical and psychological well-being where creative brainstorming and collaboration can grow?
The changing nature of work and span across borders provides leadership with unique opportunities to evaluate work space as business models emerge in the coming decade. Depending on the organization’s approach to Talent Stewardship and the individual functions, organizational design structure, communities of practice, and the space where employees go to do their best work may provide additional areas to inspire, engage and collaborate.
Google has been largely recognized for its’ incredibly fun and stimulating environment through use of color, lighting, design, and music. Visit the Google Complex Inside GooglePlex
DreamWorks Animation, Herman Miller Inc., Innovation Park at Notre Dame, SAS, and other forward thinking organizations who have made people a central investment in strategy; ensure that in a deadline pressured, competitive environment that a highly-productive and enjoyable work environment remains at the forefront.
How might physical space be linked in to the organization’s vision and business strategy moving forward? How can the workspace more fully embrace the organization’s brand to nurture professional relationships and spurn fresh ideas more boldly without busting the bank?
Achieve greater ROI
Rethinking space doesn’t need to hurt profit margins. In fact, as organizations consider business objectives and how the future work can get done, the ratio between the expenses to operate a space vs. actual compensation most often is far less than the impact of labor costs over time. Improving workspace design provides more opportunities for professionals to nurture team relations and achieve greater ROI by capitalizing on collaboration rather than trying to recapture lost opportunities.
Bringing the Workplace Back to Life
Leadership might begin by asking where the organization’s culture is today and where it needs to be in the future. How is space currently reflecting the company’s vision for the future? How might you better utilize the physical work environment as a key lever toward enabling smoother execution on strategy? How can you bring the workspace alongside some of the trends in technology?
Below, are a few additional suggestions to consider as you explore new ways to unlock creativity:
- What are the needs of you workforce portfolio and teams within the division and across the organization?
- How might slight enhancements like partnering with an area art museum to rotate collections within your workplace, help to reduce stress, improve effectiveness and connect (people)?
- Would a corporate garden within a business park foster collaboration among your workers and form new alliances in the community?
Enabling collaborative workspaces internally or on campus grounds where face-to-face interactions and/or visual connections can occur in virtual forums can unlock areas for workers to be inspired, social and refreshed. Herman Miller brings their campus to life through delicate water landscaping and natural habitat, triggering a positive mental boost when walking in between buildings.
This approach provides workers time to catch their breath and slow down between meetings and tasks while renewing the mind.
Like General Electric, whose strives to bring good things to life, empowering leadership to rethink workspace from the peripheral may soon discover how space can reduce barriers; create connections reflecting one’s culture and workforce thereby inspiring their workplace back to life.
©All rights reserved.
Empowering Employee Performance
In high-trust workplaces, it’s not always about what we know and the result we achieved that fosters good performance. It’s how we as 21st Century people leaders empower those around us and enable them in making trustworthy decisions that will impact the future. The committed actions taken to execute on those decisions and engaging others in the process can turn good decisions into great ones!
During the Great Depression, rather than succumb to the overwhelming financial pressures demanding the world’s attention, a furniture design company decided to focus on building up the organization’s strength; people and focused on creating a quality workplace culture through relationships that would enable the flow of creative design in producing the most distinguished furniture in history. That was a good decision even in spite of the mounting criticism this CEO endured. Many years later, that decision turned out to become a dynamic decision because of what the organization and its leaders had to do after making those early decisions.
Today, Herman Miller Inc. is one of the most distinguished and highly-respected furniture design makers around the world. Both good decision making and managing of those decisions, especially during the hard times is necessary in order to achieve great results. Some of the greatest leadership lessons and workplace building moments occur during the valleys.
How might your organizational leaders act upon good decisions to move your workplace culture forward?
Inspired by Dr. John Maxwell and so many other effective leaders, below, you’ll find a few tips to help people leaders manage good decisions in order to achieve great results:
1. Assure understanding of the key event of the day. In today’s dynamic environment, priorities shift rapidly and ensuring that effort is focused on the main event which impacts the most relevant goal is critical.
2. Prioritize the right actions around this key event and allocate the time and resources that enable others around you to accomplish this. Ensure that the alignment of actions demonstrates respect and dignity toward others.
3. Go to work. Rather than worry about the good decisions that were already made, stay focused on doing the hard work. Manage the good decisions by leading and encouraging others toward achieving quality outcomes.
4. Avoid the traps that can pull people leaders away from executing effectively. Often focused on delivering results and moving at record speeds, leaders may not realize that aligning interactions is a prerequisite for workplace success. Plan for and prioritize quality interactions which may include addressing employee performance issues in a timely manner with both employees and relevant stakeholders. This reinforces that good decisions made by people leaders are trustworthy. Additionally, practice the discipline of prioritizing the need to have quality interactions and resist hiding behind the work and away from the team. Being accessible to your team and relevant stakeholders strengthens organizational capability to make good decisions even better.
5. Multiply quality interactions on the team. Hold the team able by teaching them how to engage others in conducting quality interactions through respectful candor, honesty and accountability. The benefits of teaching this important skill will help to provide clarity in the midst of chaos and constant change while building the relationships necessary to execute and deliver better outcomes over time.
©All rights reserved.
Workplace Tone: Are We Building Trust Together?
Whether your organization focuses on face-to-face communication or through robust social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, employees and 21st Century leadership can set the tone that restores trust and begins to drive different levels of innovation throughout the workplace experience.
While many workplaces are plagued with uncertainty and high-levels of fear, 21st Century leaders understand the critical elements necessary in preparing for growth and succeeding in the future. By building on people’s strengths and cultivating a language that asks great questions, can help set the tone toward building new levels of trust and open the work environment to greater bursts of energy and creativity.
To improve workplace tone, below is a shorthand look at how communication by leaders, employees and co-workers can drive organizational innovation or cause levels of mistrust:
- Facts only. With having more to do and less resources to do it with, the messenger delivers in a no-nonsense format whereby the receiver often hears the data. However; the message that is delivered is lacking the context and relative importance. As a result, the receiver is left having to create their own interpretation of the message meaning.
Take it back to the workplace tip: Consider sharing facts by asking questions for others input on the data first. Share the context of the information and ask how these insights might move ideas forward together or how the data can better assist in resolving a customer issue.
- Limited options. When attempts to engage employees and/or customers present either/or options like, “Do you like this color or do you prefer the standard black?” it begins to limit focus and may also kill incentives toward generating more ideas.
Take it back to the workplace tip: Schedule the right time to engage a co-worker, boss, or customer in order to really generate the best ideas and strengthens trust to grow further. For example ask, “What suggestions might you have to help grow the idea to offer x in a variety of colors? Or “How might we build goodwill with people in the organization who are opposed to anything other than the standard black offering?”
- Pointing fingers. The quickest way to lose credibility and respect as a leader is to point the finger. Even if you’re right, assigning blame and/or calling out the weaknesses in others leaves a negative tone toward workplace relationships and significantly limits the pathway to innovation.
Take it back to the workplace tip: The next time an employee, boss or co-worker begins calling out the weaknesses of others raise the question, “What would it take for us to support this person or department more?” “What skills can we integrate to problem solve in this area?”
Cultivating a workplace tone that communicates respects for people’s differences and builds upon each others strengths will help set the stage for greater creativity and innovation. Recognize those that model respectful tone and action and align rewards with improving business innovation and results.
