The beauty of management is we all know what right is but we don't know it at right time. Today I am going to talk about we well know topic from the management theory.
Fellow toastmasters and dear guest today I am going to talk about Productivity. The theory behind how to improve productivity!
Let me put it very simple. We know that we should be punctual to the meetings, but hardly anyone does.
Before I got in to managerial role I thought the passion within a leader is all about driving the team to success. How does the leader inculcate the same passion in his team members? With sparkling speeches! With directing step by step actions to deliver! Then check the result!I have done exactly the same formula when I got a group of people to lead. I had to work with different composition of people, with respect to their experience and gender.
I have used my power to improve their productivity. I have directed all of them, follow step 1, step 2, step 3. If step 4 is needed some people have done it, others not. But if end user is happy with first 2 steps, some of my team member even went ahead to do 3rd step as well. Because their passionate leader is watching them.
Slowly I had begun to realize that I was working with human beings.
All team members are different in nature and the situation the work place also differs day by day.
So obviously the powers we should use to get maximum productivity is also different; According to James Adonis, he is a well know Team leaders trainer - we have to use 4 powers to improve the productivity.
First one is expert power - During my 1-1 with my manager he asked me why I think I was respected even when I was a senior market analyst. The answer was simple. People around me knew that I knew inside out of everything that I worked on. If you are master of what you are doing people around you will listen and they try to be like you. He indirectly meant that I was not an expert Team leader.
Ok then we have Reward Power: When I was in my previous department. We went for a whole dept outing. Our manager was successful to get maximum participation in that, it was an overnight stay. We had a award evening that night under campfire. My manager made sure all TLs nominated awards for their respective teams great performers and team members nominated award for TLs. All of us exchange awards for the best effort made that year. From that night he brought everyone's motivation level to the next stage. That was the highly motivated department I have ever worked with. If you reward for the good performance, they will have the motivation to continue good work and even exceed that.
Next is Coercive power: I remember my migration time when I joined Reuters. That was the phase my dept migrated from different location and become a centralized team in Bangalore. Our trainers delivered class room training and put us on the job. We used to get nightmares when we find ourselves making a mistake in the database. Because if there were any small mistakes our trainers would mail it all over world. I never wanted to get caught. I was literally inside a pressure cooker. But we were very productive at the same time. It should be a last resort in our management weapon.
Lastly Referent power; most powerful power used in improving productivity. I wish to give an example about me here but it is far to reach. Here people see you as role model. I can quote examples; it is more like an ideal manager who we think. It is like Sachin in cricket; Pele in football. I have managers in TR who I believe are my role models. I am blessed and proud to work under them. I am sure if I can be like my role models, then I am sure I can acquire referent power. You know there is no faking allowed, only consistency will allow us to reach there.
dear toastmaster and guest,
In my experience above the four powers, expert power is something which is really helped to me get more out of my team. Since we are going to apply these powers with human being, it is all about acquiring the art to apply different powers at the right time. let us practice this at our own area to build a highly productive team.
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