Trust the men and women we employ to do what’s needed and do what’s right.
gettyCountless articles have been written during the past year about the significant ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic has changed work. What we’ve learned from all this and the opportunity it gives us to reshape work have been so profound I’ve been moved to write several pieces myself.
The trouble is: most such articles so far have focused almost exclusively on such practical details as where (office or remote?), how (autonomously or in teams?), and when (8:00 to 6:00 or asynchronously?) we may work in the future, the likely duration and impact of the Covid-induced changes, and the effects on office real estate, business productivity and other such issues. These are important matters all but they don’t go far enough.
What we need to start focusing on is what it will take to make these changes succeed and stick for the long term. It’s basically one thing: Trust.
Trust is shaped by and an extension of leadership. We’ve got to trust the men and women we employ to do what’s needed and do what’s right. This is especially true after the heroics we’ve seen from employees during the pandemic, as they pulled together and worked across silos in less than ideal conditions. This applies to both essential workers and those struggling to do their jobs while sharing space with roommates or their kids and other family members working from home.
The need for trust reminds me of the difficulties we had from the late 1990s to early 2000s dealing with casual day dress codes.
“Dress for Success” became all the rave after “wardrobe engineer” John T. Molloy wrote his best-selling 1975 book by that title. Molloy’s concepts were later challenged during the dot.com era when “casual Fridays” started to take hold. We all got reams of guidance showing us what to wear and not to wear on casual Fridays. I still remember the detailed pages on open-toe versus closed-toe shoes—shoes that showed some toe were okay, but not if they had a flip-flop-like strap between the toes, no matter how fancy.
The late Jon Isaacs, who led BCG’s Boston office for many years, had a simpler rule of thumb for Fridays: “If you can go to the beach in what you’re wearing, don’t wear it to the office. I loved that!
MORE FOR YOU
getty
Then people wanted to go “business casual” every day. More reams of guidance on days when you expected to interact with customers versus days spent working in the office; instructions on keeping a jacket, shirt and tie (or the female equivalent) in the office just in case, and so forth. Many of you probably remember those debates.
Eventually, everyone got sick of the guidance and the gaming that took place around it. At BCG, we simply decided to trust everyone and told them to “dress for your day.” If you’re going to see a client, dress accordingly: in a suit; if you’re going to spend the day at your desk, it’s okay to dress more casually—just don’t look like you’re going to the beach. If someone gets it wrong, talk to them privately to coach them. If they continue getting it wrong, make it a performance issue.
As Mary Barra, General Motors’ chairman and CEO, told Stephen Dubner in a year-end Freakonomics interview, which is what got me thinking about this, one of the most important steps top leaders can take is to free others from unnecessarily restrictive rules that limit their, and the organization’s, performance.
It's about “empowering people,” Barra said, noting that one of the steps she took when she became GM’s vice president of Global Human Resources, was to change GM’s dress code “from 18, 20 pages to two words: ‘dress appropriately.’
“I think empowering people and … [letting them know] you trust them … [while also letting them know you] are going to hold them accountable to do the right thing … creates a different mindset,” Barra told Dubner. It’s almost like “freeing them” and “giving them permission” to think for themselves, she said.
So, while companies are still wrestling with new, detailed guidelines and rules on the future of work— remote, on site, hybrid, asynchronous—maybe they should consider the possibility that they don’t need to spell everything out.
Like many have done with their former dress codes, they need to trust employees and simply tell them: “Work for your work.” If they need to expand this a little they can say, “Given the nature of your job, the needs of your customers and the diversity of your team, figure out the best way to get your work done—and do it.” And given how new all this is for everyone you can add: “We know it will take a while to figure out how to make this work. All we ask is that you continuously revisit what is working and what isn’t and adapt. And please share what you learn with the rest of us.”
Trust employees to understand that if the team needs to be in the office on a given day, that’s where they should be. If the work can be done from anywhere on a given day, they can work from home—or some other remote location—if they want.
Make it part of the post-Covid norm to do a quick end-of-week review every Friday and plan for the next week. Ask members of your team, “How did this week’s work schedule go? What worked well and what didn’t? What should we adjust for next week? What are our highest priorities and most-important deliverables next week? What personal commitments do we each have? What times should we all be available to work together? What days does it make sense to be in the office?”
We should let teams work out what’s best for them, for their work and their clients. They know they’re on the hook to deliver. Trust them to figure out the best way to do that. After all, they figured out how to dress—right?
The Link LonkJanuary 13, 2021 at 08:28PM
https://ift.tt/2LJF9CP
2021’s Dress For Your Day, Work For Your Work - Forbes
https://ift.tt/2VuKK1x
Work
No comments:
Post a Comment