Compatibility in Values

Whether seeking business partners or employees, compatibility in values is crucial in building solid foundations and making lasting partnerships. Stressful and rapidly changing environments require compatibility in values, philosophy, and goals. The still struggling economy continues to present many industries and businesses with a variety of challenges. It’s no surprise that a true partnership, build on a solid foundation and mutual trust provides a basis for a more enduring collaboration.

If part of your responsibilities as a leader/manager, involves hiring new employees and/or assigning teams, it’s crucial that you understand the importance of value compatibility in building solid foundations and lasting partnerships. It’s in this kind of partnerships that you will find more productive and loyal employees. Partnering with someone who has talent and can achieve results is only part of the equation. To truly maximize your chances of success, you must not only understand value compatibility, but also utilize the concept to your advantage.

Keep in mind that finding people who share in your values doesn’t mean hiring a bunch of ‘yes-men’ who agree with whatever you say. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. As long as the core values of those involved are compatible, having a team of people who bring different ideas, experiences, and ways of doing things gives you strength in diversity.

Imagine a group of people who share the same goal, but not the same core values. While certain ways of reaching those goals may be acceptable to some, that won’t be the case for all. For example, if the goal is to have a million dollars, some people may find it acceptable to rob a bank, while others won’t. Clearly core values of those two groups of people are very different and will play a very important role in how these groups can work together.

Once again, it’s one of the many responsibilities of a leader/manager to understand these concepts and utilize them in ways that will maximize potential for success. Pay attention, talk to your employees, examine their track records and look for clues about their values. Brush up on your interviewing skills to better understand the values of potential employees.

Matching Skills to Needs

A good manager knows that he should utilize the talent that’s available to him in the form of employees. A great leader will understand what’s in his toolbox of talent and use each talent to its full potential. Working with employees to align their interests and skills to the immediate and strategic business needs and challenges is an important part of a company’s success. We’ve all experienced the differences of working on things that interest us versus things that bore us to death. We’re more likely to do a better job when working on something we enjoy. It’s logical to assess an employee’s skills and interests and play up those things that will ensure their enthusiasm and commitment to a job well done. At the same time such assessment will show the company where and how they need to improve their workforce.

A coach can assess an employee’s skills and interests by utilizing effective communications – mainly listening. Additionally, encouraging the coachee to develop a career plan, while reviewing their own skills and interests, is a good way of aligning the company’s needs and challenges with their best resources – the employees.

Embrace Technology

For the most part, the promise of technology making our lives easier is true. In reality, there may be times when technology seems like a leash or an anchor tethering us to our work even when we’re away, and most of us have felt a fleeting bout of resentment brought on by our own dependence on today’s technological wonders. If you’re one of the many who would practically require a surgeon to be separated from your cell phone, you understand this all too well. However, using the right technology in the right way can help us to increase productivity and accuracy, make processes more efficient, and transform our world in ways that would be otherwise impossible.

The trick is to find the right balance. Technology changes so quickly that resolving to have the latest and greatest at all times is unrealistic, costly, and even counter-productive. At the same time, avoiding new technology for the fear of something new replacing it within a short period of time would be equally detrimental. While the old adage discourages us from trying to fix that which is not broken, systematic pursuit of growth and improvement is an absolute must. It would be irresponsible to avoid that which is new simply because the old ways seem to work.

As a leader/manager it’s up to you to seek out ways to improve the company’s current processes. Utilize the talents and resources available to you to assess and evaluate those processes, and make your decisions accordingly. There are many factors to consider – the size of a company, number of employees, ROI etc. If what makes your company special or unique are hand-crafted products, then introducing technology for mass production will make little sense. If, however, outdated processes are left as they are simply because of the resistance to change, you may be overdue in your evaluation. Seek out and embrace new technology – especially if it will cut your costs, improve productivity, give you an edge over your competitors, and/or generally make life easier.

Employees Are An Asset

Your employees are an asset to both you as a leader/manager and to the company as a whole. You already know that in order to get the most out of our assets, we need to take care of them. The same idea applies here – we must give the right kind of care and consideration to our employees in order to get their best in return. Hiring people is expensive. You (and the company) spend considerable time and energy to find and hire every single one of your employees. Furthermore, you hire people for a reason – you need a person to do certain work and you believe that this is the right person for the job. After you spend all this time and energy looking and hiring, it’s crucial that you take care of this asset. Failing to do so would be like buying something expensive then forgetting about it and leaving it to fall into disrepair. That would simply make no sense.

There’s nothing worse, nothing more toxic and wasteful than a company where the employee is seen as the enemy. If you feel the need to micromanage and believe that your employees can’t be trusted and must be watched every minute of the day, there’s something very wrong. You’ve either managed to hire the most sorry bunch of misfits this side of the Mason-Dixon Line, and need serious help with recruiting the right people, or you’re a paranoid micromanager and should get some help. Either way, if this is the kind of environment in which you work (and maybe even promote), then you have some serious work ahead of you.

Take a look at your employees and assess their talents and performance. Why were they hired? Are they doing the job? Are they living up to their potential? What are you doing to consistently get their best? It’s your responsibility as a leader/manager to evaluate and act accordingly, so that you (and the company) can reap the benefits of your employees’ gifts and talents, and nurture and develop their potential.

If you do work for a company where employees are not seen as assets, and feel overwhelmed by the idea of taking on the corporate culture, do your part by taking care of the assets in your department. Take care of the employees that you manage and reap the benefits that will come your way. Read through some of the previous posts to get ideas on how to coach and develop your employees, how to keep them happy, and how to get their best time and time again.

Taking Time To Recharge

Summer is in full swing. Traditionally, this is the time when people everywhere take time to get away, relax, and be with their families. Given how undermanned and thinly stretched some companies have become as a result of the economic chaos, the idea of employees taking time off may be a daunting one. This blog already addressed the importance of you taking time off to recharge. The same applies to all of your employees. Just as being able to get away and clear your head makes you a better and more effective leader/manager, having time off from work makes for happier, healthier, and more relaxed employees, and improves employee performance as a result.

Your responsibility as the leader/manager is to ensure that everyone gets some time away from their job. It’s up to you to figure out the logistics and make sure that it’s business as usual for the rest of the company. Being short-handed is no excuse for not giving your people much deserved vacation time. We all know that weekends tend to be short and full of errands and don’t count as vacation. You may even have to convince a dedicated employee to take some time off. So whether it’s a couple of long weekends or an actual week off, you have to figure out a way to let your employees take some vacations with minimal disruption to everyone else. Whether you spread the workload of the absent employee among his fellow workers or hire a temp to fill in, find a way to figure it out. Everyone needs time off. Never taking an actual vacation can lead to employee burn out, compromise the quality of their work, and even lead to them leaving the company. Be a leader/manager and take the bull by the horns. Be proactive and take care of your employees as well as yourself.