I found an article in the Houston Business Journal citing the research done by Proudfoot Consulting. The leading cause of unproductive time on a global basis is poor supervision: 31% of people say they have a lack of supervision in their workplace. The article does not state who the lack of supervision is directed at … the wayward employee or the person giving their opinion. And we need to realize that ‘lack of supervision’ is ambiguous …. what one person considers ‘lack of supervision’ another can consider enough supervision; what one considers enough supervision another may consider ‘micro managing’.
Poor communication ranks third, with 18.2%. I’m sure if you investigated this further, it would include positive feedback, giving clear and thorough direction, performance appraisals and coaching / mentoring.
Management appears to be looking in the wrong places on where to increase productivity. Sure, assessing processes and procedures is worthwhile. Sending memos out reinforcing company policies about working hours, lunch times and personal work on company time will irritate and be ignored by those that it was intended for. Those managers that choose the “group chewing out” because they are not strong enough to have a one-on-one with the true offenders should not be in management.
They may complain that meetings last longer than they should, yet how many managers and supervisors have been training in running effective meetings? How many have asked for training in running a more cohesive meeting? How many let attendees take control of the meeting and fulfill their own agenda?
Managers and supervisors may opt to do the work themselves and not delegate, because taking the time to explain to someone the big picture and the tasks takes “too much time”. Yet in doing this, the manager is robbing three entities: the employee from improving and learning new skills, themselves from also learning new skills, and the company from increasing productivity and growing all their employees.
Having a conversation with staff on reaching their goals and assuming more responsibility takes “too much time”. Managers and supervisors are constantly up against critical deadlines, and that is looming over them like a storm cloud.
Leaders, on the other hand, understand the importance of delegating, mentoring, performance evaluations and clear communications. They realize that these tasks are not in addition to their job, these elements are critical pieces of their job.
Your staff take many lessons from you …
It’s not what you said, it’s what they think they heard!
