My individualized FLIGBY report highlighted that during the simulation, my three worst metrics compared to other players were empowerment, involvement, and delegating. I understand why I scored below in delegating; however, in the other two areas, I am surprised I was deficient in. I try to be as empowering as I can with my employees by giving them decision-making power; however, I could see how this could affect my level of involvement in the operations.
Delegation
The plan of action for improving my ability to delegate will probably be the most straightforward. It is just going to take some practice. I have in my workplace and in my management career struggled with delegation. If it is a very sensitive project or task, I like to do it myself because if the responsibility is ultimately going to be mine for the task completion, I would like it done my way. In my current job, I am comfortable and trusting enough to delegate some projects to my employees; however, I occasionally check in on the progress. With delegation, another problem I have is that I rely on a few key people to accomplish tasks rather than delegate tasks outside of the normal to other employees. This is also because of my level of trust with those employees. I need to work on this as well.
Goal: Delegate more tasks to all of my employees rather than just a key few individuals.
Timeline: As projects come in
Metric: Effective completion of a project by each of my employees
Empowerment
Empowering employees is something I thought I did well in my job. I do my best to give individuals decision-making power. Upon reading the benefits of delegating from Gazda (2002) that by delegating you are giving employees a change for input which will make them more vested and empowered. It seems that delegating, and empowering are two metrics that go together. It makes sense that if I struggled with delegating in the simulation that I would have also been deficient in empowering my team of leaders. Again, the root of the problem is the same in my job. I only trust a few key employees with projects and the rest could potentially feel neglected and become unhappy in their jobs and with me as their leader. I need to avoid this at all costs. Improving this is vital.
Hildula (1996) claims that the key to empowering your employees is communication. It is done through leaders providing employees with the information and tools they need to solve their own problems. I need to guide my employees to take on more responsibility through what I communicate and the language with which I communicate. This is easy for those key employees that I have, who are eager to take on more responsibility. The employees that I have who groan when I give them a task are the ones that I need to work on the most. I need to understand why they are behaving this way and what can I do to prevent it.
Goals: Communicate more with ALL my employees; Figure out why some of my employees are not eager to take on more responsibility: Address that behavior
Time: Immediately
Metrics: Employee satisfaction metric (yearly score)
Involvement
Involvement for me was also a fairly low score. This was also very interesting. In my workplace, I try to be involved in as many things as I can. I think why I scored low is because involvement includes being a part of activities until completion. I notice in my job I get really involved initially, but as other projects come up, I tend to neglect my involvement in the previous projects.
Goals: Focus my attention on projects until completion
Timeline: As projects arise
Metric: Number of completed projects
References
Hildula, L. (1996). Improving employee empowerment: Certified public accountant. The CPA Journal, 66(1), 70.
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