by Marcy J Maslov
You do not trust any of your staff to talk to clients because you do not know how they will respond to client requests for additional work. As a result you find yourself working less and less on strategic initiatives that can build business.
How do you address this situation and get back to focusing on strategic
initiatives?
What are the issues inherent in the scenario? What
advice would you give to this colleague?
What would you do if you were in his shoes?
Inherently, we have an issue of trust, but this is
not the root cause of the problem here.
Something else has led us to take on all the work ourselves and “protect
our territory”, so to speak. How do we learn to let go? How do we communicate
our goals, expectations and preferences?
How do we delegate authority, and how do we determine reliability?
If we don’t figure out a way to focus on strategic
initiatives our business will suffer greatly, ultimately to the point of
closing the doors. We have to learn to let go and trust. But trusting requires
us to establish a framework within which everyone in the organization
understands their role, responsibility and authority. This is really the root cause of the
problem. We haven’t established this
framework, so we’re forced to trust blindly – and that translates to some as
giving up control to everyone else. Once
we establish this framework, the next logical step is to hold everyone
accountable for their actions. But first we should establish definitions of
acceptable behavior so our expectations are clear and each individual can opt
in or opt out.
Easier said than done, right? Past history, current events, cultural
values, or pressures of the day all conspire to get in the way of implementing
this framework and communicating effectively.
We’re afraid of miscommunicating, and we’re afraid of the potential
conflicts that might occur by holding people accountable. So we let things
slide. And yet, if we look at the flipside, we might just find someone in our
organization that is better than we are at developing client relations and who
loves doing the work!
There’s always a positive for every negative. I
think it is some sort of universal law.
So what is the positive opportunity in this situation? Could we possibly learn something from our
staff? Could they be listening more
actively to our clients, and keeping them engaged? Could we see new
opportunities for products or services? Could we even re-define what we’re
offering to more closely align with the needs and wants of our clients?
Let’s bring in the staff viewpoint to round out the
discussion. If the staff sees you taking
away more and more responsibility, how do they interpret this? Do they view this as a loss of trust? Do they welcome the lower level of
responsibility? Something in between?
Our associates always seem to have a gut reaction to the loss of
trust. It’s like laser vision. They sense it, feel it, know it
instinctively. And they respond in
various ways. I’ve actually seen reactions anywhere from gleeful acceptance,
relief, resignation, defiance, or even destruction of company property. The
ultimate consequence is losing key employees who feel undervalued and
disengaged from the business.
We forget, sometimes, that letting go can actually
be rewarding; that delegating authority to others can actually provide better
results than we could achieve on our own.
It is harder, because it takes time to actually define what we want,
communicate that desire clearly and build the relationships to a point where we
can rely on the work of others.
So here is the dilemma: How do we build accountability and reliability
in order to make it comfortable sharing responsibility with others?
What type of framework would you create in this
scenario? Write in your comments and
share your perspectives on this situation.
About the author:
After watching companies and clients struggle with
ethical dilemmas, Marcy J. Maslov invented a
business ethics board game to provide a practice arena for solving real-life
ethical dilemmas. Marcy is founder and CEO of Empowerment Unlimited Coaching,
LLC, a business coaching practice devoted to building strong, ethical leaders
and entrepreneurs. She has extensive Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial background
that includes facilitating corporate ethics courses, coaching professionals to
define and achieve their own success and teaching business owners how to read
and understand their own financial statements. Marcy has lived or worked in
over 20 countries, including France, Mexico and Canada. She is a Certified
Professional Coactive Coach and CPA and has earned her MBA from Duke
University. Write to Marcy at marcy@e-Factorgame.com and visit
her websites www.coacheuc.com and www.e-Factorgame.com for special
coaching and ethics program offers.
About the author- Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos is
a three- time breast cancer survivor who penned SURVIVING CANCERLAND.
www.survivingcancerland.com , Radio Co-host, keynote & high paid speaker, www.WakeUpWomen.com member & is
represented by Steve Allen PR Media.
Follow her on her social media links and blogs from her websites & enjoy
her free download @ www.AccessYourInnerGuide.com
