KENNETH AND SCOTT BLANCHARD ON EXPLAINING TO PEOPLE WHY THEIR WORK IS IMPORTANT
Use this to help you get the message across to staff that their work is important.
Kenneth Blanchard (b. 1939) is most famous for the model of Situational Leadership that he developed with Paul Hersey. He runs his own leadership consultancy where Scott Blanchard works as a lecturer and key note speaker.
In a world where many of us are just a cog in a large machine, very few of us are able to see a job through from start to finish. This makes it difficult for staff to see how they contribute to the ‘finished article’, whatever that may be. Ken and Scott Blanchard suggest that managers need to:
Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organisation. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity and meaning in their job.
Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard
WHAT TO DO
- If it’s not clear what contribution your team makes to the overall success of the organisation, draw up an organisational process map.
- This is not the same as an organisation chart; rather, it is a mind map showing how achievement of your team’s targets and objectives flow through the organisation. Think of your contribution as a small tributary flowing into a larger tributary, and so on, until it reaches the main river which empties into the sea. This meeting of the river and sea is the point at which the organisation achieves its stated aims and objectives.
- You don’t have to show how other teams and departments contribute to the organisation’s end result. You just want to show how your team’s efforts contribute to the whole. So keep it simple and paint it with broad brush strokes. Add For example:
- Once you are happy with your river map, present it to the staff and emphasise what an essential part they play in the organisation and how a failure on their part affects the organisation as a whole. You might want to over-egg the pudding in this context and build up the importance of their contribution to final results.
- After you’ve made your pitch, ask all staff to map how their work and achievement feed into the team’s targets and objectives. It’s surprising how few members of staff actually understand how their work contributes to their own team’s overall achievements. This is particularly the case in large departments/teams.
- Discuss each person’s mind map with them and correct any misunderstandings and emphasise, again, the value of what they do to the team and the organisation.
- As a general policy, always emphasise the importance of the work your team does both to staff and colleagues. Your aim is to establish a pervasive feeling in the minds of your staff and others that the work they do is important.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- Do I fully understand how my work and that of my team feeds into the organisation’s aims and objectives?
- How aware are my staff of their contribution to the work and wellbeing of the organisation?