Leading the turnaround of a failing work environment

by John G. Agno

Published on this site: October 4th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

Leaders can turnaround a failing work environment by helping employees move from the language of "blame" to the language of "personal responsibility." The first step is to instill confidence in the employee's ability to meet and overcome workplace challenges. Experience tells us that confidence precedes competence. A person must first believe they can succeed by developing a winning attitude reinforced by skill-building training.

As each person's unique signature talents are built into demonstrable strengths and then merged with other team members, a positive energy emerges. This energy force builds and reinforces each individual's confidence to create a critical mass within the team. This critical mass is often referred to as "momentum" or "being in the zone."

Here is an illustration of how this process works on the basketball floor and is easily transferred to the shop floor: Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split- second, spontaneous decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court.

Great basketball coaches, military commanders and business leaders know that practice of the rules of engagement coupled with split-second decisions in execution by their team can make the difference between winning and losing.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestseller, "blink" (Little Brown), tells us that leaders know that if you can create the right framework (by everyone knowing the rules and practicing them), when it comes time to perform, your players will engage in fluid, effortless, spur-of-the-moment dialogue and action. The leader provides the overall guidance and intent to the team, coaches them in mastering tools and general techniques through practice and then allows them to use their own initiative and be innovative as they move forward.

Placing a lot of trust in your subordinates has an overwhelming advantage:

Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves within the rules of engagement, focuses their energy and opens the possibility for extraordinary leaps of insight and instinct in decision-making. When the team is "in the flow," split-second decisions are unconscious flashes of insight that drive extraordinary performance on the basketball court, battlefield or shop floor.

It is the leader's job to keep the momentum going; so as not to lose the flow. Insight is not a light bulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out by external means. Know that these kinds of fluid, intuitive, nonverbal experiences are vulnerable...and...your players/employees can drop out of the "zone" or "flow" when you, as the leader, start to become reflective about this rapid cognition process.

Confidence and energy are leading indicators of workplace performance. It is the leader's job to build confidence and participate in interactive conversations that pull people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment.

John G. Agno, certified executive & business coach Signature, Inc., PO Box 2086, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Telephone: 734.426.2000 (US Eastern Time Zone) Email: mailto:[email protected] The most critical knowledge is self-knowledge. http://www.MentoringandCoaching.com