Lots More to Leadership, Listening and Gaining Commitment

PART VI

I hope that these series of articles have aided your understanding of these elements of managing people. There is much more to them such as the actions to put these concepts into practice, the specific “How To's" of listening. I encourage you to think about values and projecting high standards of them to your workforce. I did and was able to create significant per person productivity gains and achieved true excellence through happy, industrious, turned-on people.

Servant Leaders persistently engage in active listening and servant leadership practices reflect an enduring philosophy of leadership rather than isolated or even connected actions. It is a different way of thinking about the purpose of leadership, the true role of the leader, and the potential of those being led. It is not something that you do, but rather something you are.

Therefore, the listening construct associated with servant leadership implies a persistent communicative posture derived from the leader's core character and marked by 

1) personal self-reflection, 

2) an attentive attitude towards others, and 

3) consequent attentive practices.

Such a leader is one who ventures and takes the risks of going out ahead to show the way and whom others follow voluntarily, because they are persuaded that the leader's path is the right one – for them, probably better than they could devise for themselves. Thus, in addition to listening, persuasion appears to be a critical element in the formulation of a servant leader relative to the leader's communicative patterns.

I'd like to hear your comments, remarks etc on any concepts that I tried to portray in these series of articles on 'Active listening as part of the effective communication strategies.' 

Namaste!

Gaining Commitment - Understanding the Process

PART V

To be committed, one must have ownership. To have ownership, one must be able to influence. And to influence, one must be heard and be reasonably answered. So when management does the "WHAT IFs", subordinates are in reasonable control or ownership of their workplace. When nothing is done without their knowledge and all useful knowledge is shared with them, applying their brainpower to every aspect of the workplace becomes a worthwhile effort. They are suddenly released to their own motivations, otherwise known as being turned-on! In this mode, control is rationally affected through the worker’s self-control and through commonly held value standards since they and only they are used as criteria to decide what is “right”.

The above is also a part of the answer to the question of trust. With protected rights to knowledge, reasons and planned outcomes before execution, subordinates own the outcomes and can freely trust all because they themselves did it. The question of trust becomes less important and peace of mind prevails. There may be threats of external competition, but with knowledge and rights of ownership everyone will get behind slaughtering the opposition.

Note that in this mode, the boss provides information and assistance in moving toward being highly motivated/committed so each subordinate can take charge and come to their own conclusions rather than sit around and follow. In this mode, the boss has faith that people will effectively resolve issues on their merits and believes that authoritative declarations are self-defeating.

But too often direction gets in the way of ownership and this preempts commitment. This is a "cart before the horse" error common to many management techniques and styles. The most basic reason may be that bosses have no faith or trust. They don’t trust juniors to arrive at reasonable conclusions and thus deny them information, rationales, value standards and listening. These bosses are greatly limiting their own success. Leadership is trusting your subordinates to provide valuable input and it is rewarded by their trust in you and their commitment to the job. It has significant positive bottom line implications to your company!

Please come back tomorrow for the final part of this mini-series.

So, How is Listening the Doorway to Gaining Subordinate Commitment?

PART IV

First off, problems and difficulties occur in any work group with a predetermined regularity dictated by the extent to which employees are motivated/committed and the difficulty of the work. The lower the extent and the higher the difficulty, the greater the number of problems and the longer each remains before resolution. Highly motivated and committed workers continually strive for excellence. The more committed they are, the more they act to find solutions to problems. The less committed the less energy and thought they devote to correction and the more time they spend causing problems.

Secondly, I have heard many, many employees in the midst of a bad workplace say all they want is for someone to listen to them once in awhile. They state how great that would be even if little is ever done. That's real hunger! The obvious question is why should they turn on their brainpower in the morning if no one will listen? Why try to be creative to make improvements for the sake of productivity or quality, or make suggestions to reduce cost if NO ONE LISTENS? The answer is, it would be dumb to try if NO ONE WILL LISTEN. "To hell with them! Why make an effort if they don't care what I think?" Leave your brain at the door!

The sad thing is many bosses, high and low, are so busy giving orders and direction that subordinates do in fact decide to leave their brainpower at the door. This is very common. People with suggestions are viewed as troublemakers or whiners. "Shut up and get back to work." In this mode, no one can participate or be involved. They can only be a number or a pawn, and they know that no one Cares.

     WHAT IF people could put in their Two Cents any time they chose and management would always listen and get back to them with possible actions and/or answers?

      WHAT IF they were allowed to add their Two Cents again on this response and the process would continue until management had decided on a course which seemed reasonable to everyone?

      WHAT IF management only changed things after conducting this dialogue?

      WHAT IF in response to questions, our bosses were FORTHRIGHT and provided the real answers and their Whys?

      WHAT IF management took this one step further and went out of its way to provide information relevant to job, company and anything which might affect or be of interest to each employee?

      WHAT IF the working level could get in on the ground level with work plans and policies before they turned to cement, get in on what works and how it was to be done before starting? 

Would you like to be the boss of such a workplace?

Think what you could accomplish if suddenly your own brainpower was multiplied by the number of employees you have.

Please stay tuned in to tomorrow's article on 'Understanding the Process of Gaining Commitment.'