Wednesday, July 22, 2020
The importance of understanding other peoples reality in your organisation Viewpoint careers advice blog
The importance of understanding other people’s reality in your organisation The importance of understanding other people’s reality in your organisation Many of us have a very limited understanding of the realities others face. We are all guilty of it; getting so wrapped up in our own working lives and priorities, that we form incomplete or inaccurate perceptions of our colleagues and their realities. The problem is that this can form the foundation for poor communication and relationships. So, what’s the reality faced by those around you in your business or organisation? You may have progressed internally, thus will have experienced life at this organisation from a number of perspectives in different roles. This can be useful but it is also important to recognise that everyone’s career path is different, and that you can never fully understand every single person’s reality within your organisation. A good starting point is considering the reality of life for your boss or manager. Understanding your manager’s reality How’s your relationship with your manager? It has been suggested that this can have as large an impact on your working experience as any other single factor. One finding often cited over the last fifteen years is based on Gallup’s analysis of twenty-five years’ worth of US survey data; concluding that people leave managers rather than companies (Buckingham and Coffman, C.,1999). While this has been challenged to some extent, most of us recognise how important the relationship with our boss is to our working lives. Therefore, understanding their perspective can be enormously important for your effectiveness and wellbeing. It’s not just about what they think of you directly, it’s their wider pressures and outlook that will have a day-to-day impact on your experience with them. There are three core aspects to focus on to help understand the reality of life for those at more senior levels:- Strategic Drivers â€" what drives your boss in terms of their strategic pressures and ambitions and how does this filter through to you? Interpersonal Dynamics â€" relationships at senior levels, particularly power plays and political factors Personal Motivations â€" the personal goals and ambitions of your manager and how they are likely to have an impact on you Cary Cooper and I have explored these aspects in our recent book where we consider life in mid-level roles in organisations, and how realities at more senior and junior levels affect this. These realities are not just the external working environment, but how this interacts with motivational aspects. There is one area that’s particularly relevant when trying to understand the motivation of those at senior levels: their need for achievement. The need to achieve Senior people in organisations are, not surprisingly, often high in need for achievement. This need was recognised way back in the 1950s by the American psychologist David McClelland. It is characterised by a need for an achievable challenge. This can mean avoiding both very low risk and very high risk tasks. The former brings no satisfaction because the effort required to attain the goals is insufficient to fuel the need for achievement. The latter carries too many risks of non-achievement which obviously also fails to satisfy the need. In practice, those with a high need for achievement have a drive to demonstrate, particularly to themselves, that they are advancing and making progress. They also usually require regular feedback to help them evaluate their progress. This doesn’t mean you should spend lots of your time telling your boss how fantastic they are! Valid and well-delivered constructive feedback may be just as important to someone with a high need for achievement as praise and positive reinforcement. Understanding the reality of your peers What about the reality for others at your level or those in more junior roles? A good way to better understand this is to engage with them to share the pressures they and you experience in core areas, such as workload, change, and sense of control. Sharing perceptions of working pressures can strengthen your understanding of what others face, and as a result your relationship with them. One area where this might be particularly useful is sharing views on how much control people feel they have over important aspects of their work, and how empowered they feel. How empowerment is really perceived Those at low to middle levels in organisations often face mixed messages from more senior people on the extent to which they are expected to take control. Take the notion of empowerment for example. This has been a popular theme for many organisations over the last couple of decades. Many leaders have been encouraged to tell their people they are empowered, to take control and make the right decision, particularly those in customer facing roles. Unfortunately, in my experience, the message received by many is something along the lines of ‘you are empowered but don’t get it wrong.’ Employees might be asked to take control, make decisions, and even take risks to find the right solution. If they do so it inevitably means that they will occasionally make mistakes and get it wrong. But, if they are automatically chastised when this happens, then not surprisingly they won’t really believe they are empowered for long. How managers react when their people make well intentioned mist akes is very important in determining the extent to which they feel they can take control. These are just a few examples of areas where it is useful to explore what others are experiencing. Looking outwards from your own day-to-day immediate reality is important for many reasons. It helps you better understand the context you are operating in. It enables better relationships and improves trust. In addition, it can help put your own pressures and problems into perspective, and recognise where you share challenges with others. If you found this blog helpful read our other blogs on career management and progression: Commit to these six things to achieve career success How to meet new people and reconnect with others Why we all need friends at work
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