'condition of worth'.
It zaps energy, destroys motivation, and can lead to staff retention taking a huge hit.
There are multiple casualties. Your people, their families, relationships, your customers, and your bottom-line performance too. Sounds horrible right? – and guess what? - It is!
Here’s what I’m talking about - It’s called a ‘condition of worth’.
Let’s start with two quick questions.
1) How happy will your people be when they leave work at the end of this week for the weekend?
Now ask yourself this:
2) Will they be happy for the right reasons?
Let me explain a bit more.
There’s being happy because your life balance is spot on, and there’s being happy because you are escaping the pressures or drudge of what you do every day.
The two things are completely different.
If you lead a team, department, company, or an entire organisation, making sure your people are happy is a big deal.
Here’s the thing.
We are all human, right?
We have one life.
Not a work life and a separate home life.
It’s one life.
Here’s where business leaders often get it wrong.
They focus their attention on making sure people are as happy as they can be when they are at work. Absolutely this needs to happen, but it’s not the be all and end all.
Where they often fall short is that they don’t spend enough time ensuring that their people have the right amount of quality time outside of work to really enjoy life. You may think this has nothing to do with them, and that’s about personal responsibility, but its not. Well not entirely.
Here’s the thing. Business leaders are often blind and blissfully unaware of the influence they are having on people’s life balance.
Here’s what I’m talking about.
Often the pressure of work on senior leaders requires them to work long hours. Sometimes they’re working away from home, and they have a choice. They can either continue with work, or leave the office at a decent time to stare at the 4 walls of a hotel bedroom.
I found the former was the more attractive option – yep hands up I was guilty of this until I joined a local gym – which by the way, I found an incredibly useful way to unwind, recharge and re-set.
So back to the example of late office work.
Let’s just say the boss regularly stays until 6:30PM or beyond.
This starts a snowball effect.
Before you know it, more and more people begin to stay later and later.
The more people that stay late, the more people that join the party – but let’s be clear, this party is not much fun – it’s not much fun at all!
Put simply, people feel a need to be seen to be working when the boss is still in. They feel that they need to do this to gain respect from the powers that be. That’s the ‘condition of worth’.
So, what can and should leaders do about this?
Let’s look beyond the obvious which is simple - you need to lead by example.
Here’s what you need to do.
Recognising sometimes you’ll need to be in late, take it upon yourself to kick everyone out at a decent time. Make sure the office empties at 5:30PM or 6PM latest.
Do the rounds. Tell people to get home to their families and friends. Use it as an opportunity to get to know your people, build rapport, show empathy, and appreciate them by thanking them for their contribution to whatever it is that you do - and then, get them out!
And whilst we're all working remotely, encourage your people to come off and stay off-line after kick-out time. Your message needs to be clear. No dipping back into emails later on - switch off - unwind - enjoy your downtime - see you tomorrow.
And as a leader you have a part to play in this too. Once you’ve got them out, stop sending emails to them and across the business beyond kick out time. It sounds obvious, but so many leaders get this wrong. No wonder work can seem like a hamster wheel at times.
By now, some of you may be thinking this all sounds very well, but there’s a risk that I’ll lose valuable hours from my people.
You won’t.
The reality is quite different.
When people get into the routine of staying in the office late, usually their productivity is very low.
It’s the same with early starts.
I’ve seen people come in earlier and earlier, just because they know the boss will be in – the reality is that most of the time they are either scoffing breakfast, surfing the net, doing online shopping or they’re on social media.
Let’s be clear, they’re adding zero value for you and your business.
When people stay late regularly, very quickly they’re likely to become un-happy because they’ll not be getting sufficient down time with their family and friends. In other words - They won’t have a healthy life balance.
By making sure they go home on time, by encouraging them to protect quality time for a happier life outside of work, you’ll be doing yourself and your business a massive favour.
If they are happier outside of work, they’ll be happier in work. They will be more productive, communicate more effectively, and put simply, they’ll do a better job.
Ultimately this will lead to a better quality of work, improved customer service / company outputs, as well as improvements to profitability and bottom-line performance.
So, the moral of the story.
Remember you are a powerful influencer. Your actions speak volumes and set the tone.
The condition of worth scenario is not a theoretical one, it’s real and it plays out in businesses all over the world every single day. It’s not healthy and if left unchecked can significantly damage your business performance.
The fix is simple - Make sure your people go home and switch off at a decent time so they have plenty of opportunity to be happy outside of work.
Do this and they’ll repay you many times over.
To find out more about Personal Leadership and how it can help your business, contact Gherkin Associates.
Find Gherkin on LinkedIn at
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gherkin-associates-ltd
Helping People and Businesses Thrive
Glenn Smith – Gherkin Associates Ltd
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