Posts Tagged ‘Change’
Can Employees Be Given Too Much Autonomy?
Short Article #44
Q. DEAR MARK: I understand the need and benefit of work-independence, but can an employee have too much independence? What are some of the signs? –Eric
A. DEAR ERIC: While it’s a very effective tool for motivating and retaining good employees, granting work independence (autonomy) can be too-much of a good thing. Besides, the best approach for further empowering employees may have little to do with more autonomy.
There are three signs to look for before concluding that more job independence is definitely needed in your workplace:
No. 1, is your employee overwhelmed? Are they missing deadlines frequently? Has their morale or attitude grown more negative recently? Do they appear more stressed, tense or short on patience than normal? If so, then visit with your employee and find out what’s going on. Even the most dedicated employee can only take being ‘overwhelmed’ for so long.
Granting more autonomy can help in this situation, but only if you do two things: allow your employee to delegate appropriate amounts of their workload to others, and secondly, if you make expressly clear the overall goals and priorities which will impact the employee’s work going forward.
Change or Get Crushed
Short Article #43
There’s nary a day that some imperative about the need to change doesn’t come across my monitor.
For good reason, I must admit. Change is arguably no longer periodic but continuous.
Change can also be quite startling when your company is the one caught off-guard. There are a number of possible reasons why change staggers even the best-made plans, sending leaders scurrying for a brilliant response…
- A new competitor slips in one night, launches a web site that offers virtually identical product for half the price.
- A once nascent technology now threatens to lop off your company’s market share in a nanosecond of the time it took to gain it.
- In a matter of weeks, you lose some or all of your largest customers’ business and sales drop dramatically.
- You get a letter one day announcing that your bank refuses to extend the customary line of credit.
The kind of change we’re witnessing is precipitated by our turbulent economy and the rapid introduction of new technology, as well as expanding globalization. Not much control over that, is there?
Change, inordinate change, begs a nimble response by the most adaptive organizations.
However, this requires leaders who are no longer confounded by change, but rather, embrace revolutionary transformation as the new norm. Consequently, they develop cogent, coherent strategies in response.
I’ve collected a few quotes on ‘change’ over the last couple of months. I certainly like how they mentally nudge me to consider new perspectives and ideas. I’d be interested in what you think of these 10 Quotes on Change:
- “Be the change you want to see.” Mahatma Ghandi
- “Having common purpose is the best way to predict outcomes in an unpredictable situation.” Jessica Flannery, founder of Kiva.org
- “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge.” Proverbs
- “The world is becoming less and less an extrapolation of the past.” Gary Hamel, author
