Leaders decide the direction of travel of an organisational unit and signpost it for the team. But this is only half of the job. Whether the team will do what you need [follow your leadership] depends on what they are thinking [about you, about the organisation and about their role].
Their performance will depend entirely on their Clarity, by which I mean the quality of their state of mind, which is always adversely affected if thinking about the work situation is negative. So the other half of the job of being a successful Leader is to create the conditions for Followership ie ensure people focus on the job rather than on difficulties or dissatisfactions.
Why does it matter? Gallup’s 2012 survey of 150,000 employees showed over half don’t like their jobs. Moreover, the one in six “actively disengaged” workers act out unhappiness; they drain resource, lower morale, take more sick days, monopolize their managers’ time, and spread discontent, undermining what engaged co-workers accomplish. The annual cost to the US is $450-$550 billion a year in lost productivity*.
The conditions for engagement/ followership are:
Put simply, your worker needs to answer these questions positively: do you do what you say; is my job clear [or are you constantly changing the goal posts]; is there a job here next year and do you care about me as a person?
These conditions are not difficult to achieve as a leader, but doing so makes a difference many times greater than the effort involved.
If you would like to know how engaged your team is and what to do if they are not, then contact
nick@gholdenphish.com. It might increase productivity dramatically.
If you want to read more about followership then read Lawrence Suda’s article **.
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