Have you ever experienced people at work that made you scratch your head in confusion or disgust and ask yourself, “What is up with them?”.
Is it optional… Is it?
Often people express or assert that workplace communication and leadership training are luxuries and really kind of unnecessary. It is true a business can operate and even make a profit without these so-called luxuries. However, research shows that these operations are bleeding up to 60% of their revenue from the side effects of poor communication and leadership i.e., high turnover, minimal employee effort and commitment, lack of loyalty and customer care etc., just to name a few. Imagine the advantage to everyone if the organization over doubled its revenue with the exact same resources in place!
Case in point:
A small business owner I know attempts to run his business frugally. He pays his workers at the industry average. He also created ways his workers can earn extra. The challenge with this particular business owner and boss, is that he does not want you to read what he has written or hear what he has said. He wants you to read and hear what he meant. He does not want to tell people what to do. However, he expects them to do what he had in his mind. You are probably getting the picture of the impossibility of pleasing him at this point. Unless you are a mind reader, it is an impossible task!
To add to the chaos those behaviors brings to his organization, he also tends to believe everyone is out to take advantage of him, based on a couple of experiences from his past. Once he perceives an imagined slight has happened, he begins to see shadows of corruption and conspiracy everywhere. At this point, he begins to accuse the worker or workers of dreamt up and unfounded slights and destroys the workplace harmony. Needless to say, turnover and discourse are the result. And yes, he considers himself to be a nice guy and truthfully…. he is. Unfortunately like many business owners and organizational leaders, they are nice, but have little to no positive leadership and interpersonal communication skills.
What does it create?
Most of us have seen these and similar negative behaviors from managers and coworkers in our workplaces. In fact, statistics show that more people leave jobs due to people with these negative behaviors than for any other reason by a large margin. People do not want to tolerate the workplace they want to enjoy it! Or at the very least not dread it! All the research on the subject ever performed has demonstrated that happy people are vastly more productive than unhappy people! So, what it comes down to, is that getting and providing positive, effective leadership and interpersonal communication skills is not only makes the organization more money it also makes your customers want to do business with you. It also provides a workplace environment that employees enjoy being at and will recommend to customers and other potential employees alike.
Once it is created how do you change it?
This is the easy part! You provide the proper skills and training to all organizational members and watch the environment and results improve and transform. As an author, industry expert, and as a past employee, I have seen and experienced many potentially high-performance organizations held back, limited, and even literally destroyed by the lack of these basic skills in their workforce. The Team-builder Leadership Institute was created over a decade ago with the sole purpose to ensure every person, small business and large organization has affordable access to these critical skills. Since then we have helped thousands transform their workplace.
When it comes down to it, it’s usually not mean or uncaring people that corrupt a work environment and limit it’s potential. It’s a lack of the pursuit and use of the critical knowledge and skills that will create a positive, enjoyable and highly productive workplace!
