Coaching
Column: You Gotta
Have Heart
Whether we work
in the public or private sector, manage, lead, supervise, or direct, we all want
the same basic things from our organization, our team. We want to be treated
fairly, appreciated for our accomplishments and given the required tools to do
our jobs to the best of our ability. We know, intuitively, if not
intellectually, that success is all about relationships.
Each one of us
has experienced being treated respectfully, honestly and with a degree of trust
by people in positions of authority, as well as by our peers. And conversely, we
know what it feels like to be taken for granted or expected do the impossible
with little or no support from superiors or co-workers.
The elements
for relationship building have not changed since I was a kid. As I travel
between private and public sector organizations, I keep hearing the same
complaints from all levels of employees; they want their managers and leaders to
listen to their ideas and concerns and if necessary, take specific actions to
alleviate/and or resolve these concerns, so that they can perform their jobs and
help the business accomplish its goals.
I keep telling
people the same thing, “If you want your people to produce, then you have to
treat them like human beings.” What keeps me
going is the idea that like water, those of us who advocate for corporate
cultural change will eventually wear down the rocks of resistance in our path.
We will win in
this fight because our stand for honesty, integrity, trust and respect always
wins in the end.
Recently, a
former client and a long time federal employee pointed out, “I just want to do
my job. I spend sixty per cent of my time fighting the environment and only
forty percent of my time working”. As a taxpayer,
I am appalled as I continue to preach workplace effectiveness in the public
sector to those who simply nod their heads, turn away from this message, or
worse, turn their backs on progress.
Thomas
Jefferson said, “I am not an advocate for frequent changes to laws and
constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress
of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new
discoveries are made, new truths discovered, and manners and opinions change,
with the change of circumstances, institutions must also keep pace with the
times. We might as well require the man to wear still the coat, which fitted him
when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their
barbarous ancestors.”
Coaching
focuses on developing individuals’ or the team’s talent and skills to operate at
peak performance. When we coach or mentor people, we are getting them in
condition to navigate change, which is a top priority in any organization.
Whether we are at the top of the federal food chain or somewhere in between, we
are not honoring the declarations that helped build this country when we keep
resisting change by holding tenaciously to out dated or outmoded ways of
thinking and working.
Sometimes in
the middle of a presentation I will look around the conference room and wonder
if I alone am passionate about having government work--both for employees and
for the many customers each agency serves. I keep encouraging people to stand
for something bigger than their own personal or departmental agenda. Audiences
will fight to maintain the status quo, either from fear of reprisal or
resignation. How can we keep pace with change when we keep turning ourselves
away from the opportunity to monitor and correct our performance?
My message to
management is “the better care you take of your people, the better care they
will take of your organization.” To that end, I
preach coaching as a way to build, sustain and maintain organizations. I have
advocated for coaching as an integral part of how we run successful businesses.
Coaching is more than a vehicle for change; it becomes the cultural climate or
mood of an organization.
According to a
recent Accountemps survey of 1400 chief financial officers, the
key to workplace success is flexibility. The most successful employees adapt
easily to change (35%), while 27% are motivated to learn new skills.1
If I apply
these findings to Bush’s management reform campaign, my question is “how do we
instill these traits in people who are disillusioned, disappointed, disheartened
and/or disrespected in their agencies?”
The four
elements of the Bush Management Reform program are:
a. Improved personnel procedures
and financial management
b. Expanded use of electronic
government
c. Use of business cases to
discover what kinds of federal work can be privatized or outsourced
d. Implementation of performance
information to allow for smarter financial spending.
If you were in
charge of your agency, how would you organize the agency to accomplish these
four conditions? What would need to change in how the organization operates? How
would you mobilize the employees to take a stand for reform and innovation?
The Bush
management reform package may or may not be a good idea. What brings the reform
to life is how well we incorporate its ideas with the overall agency vision. I
believe that many federal leaders have lost sight of the vision of public
service. I realize that we all serve many customers, and that our vision for
what is important can get watered down when we are constantly battling
criticism, but employees and customers need leaders whose leadership stories
allows us to stand up and serve, not run the other way. Great leaders speak to
our hearts, not our heads.
What does it
mean to you to be in public service in 2002?
Reform, and
innovation cannot happen in a mood of resignation or resentment. We cannot ask
people to be pro-active when they lack the competence to take action. We cannot
demand people to fulfill on management reform when they are punished for
innovation. Vision comes from our passion, not from our brain. We will follow
leaders whom we trust, respect and feel are honest with us. Our efforts to
reform or innovate occur when we supported to think, given the time to learn,
and listen, and acknowledged for our contributions. We will fight to do what is
right when our leaders stand alongside us.
It is our
hearts upon which we depend when we step up to bat. It is our hearts upon which
we depend when we take a stand for something bigger than ourselves.
Write to me at
www.coachscorner.com with your reform
ideas. We will print all your letters in the upcoming issue.
Footnotes:
1Accountemps C.F.O.
Survey, Washington Post Business Section, Monday July 29,
2002.
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