Taking The Initiative
In a number of cases I’ve discussed with clients, they complain that their people “don’t take the
initiative”. When I ask questions like “Why
do they need to take more initiative?” or “What procedures have you changed to
support more initiative-taking?”, I’m usually greeted with silence.
It’s trendy to state that we expect our employees to “take
initiatives”, after all, it shows we’re enlightened employers. However, these initiatives often meet a wall
of bureaucracy (“compliance” is one) that sends them back to the
proverbial drawing board and discouraging them from taking things any further,
or else they get “ticked off” for daring to take the initiative...
Where things break down is at the organisational level. The larger the organisation, the more it’s
likely to have different “departments” who specialise in their own particular
area of expertise (HR, IT, etc). What
happens is that the other departments may not be aware of what’s going on and,
through no fault of their own, end up “obstructing” things rather than helping
them along. I remember thinking this
when I worked in the banking world and “compliance” were contently slowing
things down (as we saw it).
In the business world, speed of response is critical. If a
business can't react quickly enough, it risks becoming uncompetitive and going out of business. Taking the initiative is part of responding.
It comes down to what some call alignment. Every department,
function and employee needs to know what the organisation is there for, its
goals and to understand how they
contribute to achieving them.
Unfortunately, what often happens is that each head of function gets
their goals, then cascades them to their direct reports and so on without
taking account of the “big picture”. The
result: “organarchy” as someone once described it, where everyone actually
seems to be working against their
peers.
How do we change this?
The simple answer is “leadership”.
Everyone needs to know:
- What the organisation is there to achieve and what their part is;
- Why the organisation exists (often the trickiest question to answer);
- When things need to be done;
- How things are to be done and how they can support others;
- Where help can be found;
- Who is accountable for what and will help when things go “off track”.
An overall set of Guiding Principles that state the reason
for the organisation’s being and what its values are will help people in making
decisions that are aligned with the organisation’s objectives. For an example of this, see Chapter 23 of Turn the Ship Around! by L. David
Marquet.
People don't work against each other deliberately. It’s usually “the system” that lets them
down. Our job as leaders is to change
that.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
posted by William Martin @ 18:24
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