Healthy Atmosphere and Democratic Leadership
The task of a leader is to tailor motivation to the needs and talents of each and every talented employee, including both financial and non-financial incentives.
STRICT TOP-DOWN CONTROL
However, some managers aren‘t willing to motivate employees materially and offer incentives. Being a strict manager and frightening employees with your anger is simpler, but questionable from the point of view of a democratic atmosphere in progressive companies. Nevertheless, many leaders try to improve the work of subordinates by cultivating an atmosphere of guilt and fear. This might work for some time, but not with everyone and not always. Sometimes it can even cause staff engagement to drop dramatically. Furthermore, strict top-down control makes staff afraid to show initiative, make decisions, or say the things that may be wrong. Your business eventually suffers from all these things.
FREEDOM, BUT NOT FOR ALL
People tend to overestimate their responsibility and underestimate others. In fact, business leaders admit to sociologists that they work best in an atmosphere of freedom and benevolence, when no one is pressing them, breathing down their neck, rushing things, frightening them and threatening to cancel their bonus. But some leaders think that things are different when it comes to subordinates - they rarely understand the right way and lack both commitment and experience. Sounds unfair, right? This also makes feedback from team members to top managers less honest and comprehensive - people become accustomed to the fact that only top managers can express their judgments, and that their own opinion can be used against them.
HOW TO CHANGE THE SITUATION FOR THE BETTER
Let’s suppose that as an experienced manager you at some point start wondering whether years of leadership made you way too authoritative. You conclude that it’s important to boost employee morale, engagement, and initiative, while reducing the level of control. How can you make this a reality? Of course, there are a lot of methods: gathering everyone together and having an honest and trustful dialog (probably several times); defining the company’s mission and values, emphasizing the importance of every employee and writing a mass email about it, etc. Another means to achieve this goal is automation. When we adopt a new approach to work, we can change the mindset as well.
Let’s take the Workflowsoft process management system as an example. All employees, including those not at all comfortable with programming, can use it to automate workflows. As a result, you can save your staff from tedious back-and-forth email correspondence, speed up the execution of routine tasks, and show them that everyone can work independently without constant monitoring.
You will be able to ease the grip because all the processes and tasks in them will be in plain sight. You will stay informed about the achievements of assignees without looking over their shoulders. Using Workflowsoft increases employees’ sense of personal responsibility. The team starts to see and feel the dependence of the overall result on individual performance. It is easier to achieve success when everyone shares the same goal. Workflowsoft also helps employees better understand their responsibilities and the responsibilities of their colleagues, their roles, and what you expect of them.
Support your people and your business with Workflowsoft.