Going the extra mile
Some years ago I found myself on a project in crisis. If it could go wrong, it had. If we accept my premise, that the productivity culture of an organization lies at the intersection of people, process and price, this organization was in trauma.
On the people front, it had lost a senior member of the financial team, 3 months before the year-end. In the process space, it was about to go live with a brand new software system which affected all business processes, and in the price space, its method of recognizing revenue was changing and would be determined automatically by the new software system.
What followed was a hyperintense period of time for the organization; firefighting, ensuring the company made its year-end numbers (or as close as it could get), steering the company through the end of year financial audit, and shoring up a vulnerable finance team.
I was struck at the time was by the response of some team members across the organization to the situation.
Despite the crisis, there remained some people who continued to work at a similar rate, as if nothing was any different. They turned up at 9, left at 5, took their lunch break. If something wasn’t finished at the end of the day, it would be left for the following day, even if there was a deadline looming. There was no sense of urgency, no offers to step in and step up. A few people were left carrying the show. In fact, the 9-5 team members were rather like extras on a movie set, with no desire to become the stars of the show.
It got me thinking, what might have happened to cause somebody in that situation to be content to let colleagues carry the show, without any desire to step up themselves.
I think Dolly Parton had it about right, in her lyrics:
Workin' 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin' and no givin'
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it
9 to 5
For service and devotion
You would think that I
Would deserve a fat promotion
Want to move ahead
But the boss won't seem to let me
I swear sometimes that man is
Out to get me, hmmm
They let you dream
Just a watch 'em shatter
You're just a step on the boss man's ladder
But you got dreams he'll never take away.
This behaviour is the lagging effect of a manager who whilst they may be competent, is not exceptional. Whilst competent managers get the job done, exceptional managers understand that everybody is different, and they work to understand their team members motivations, so they can use relevant inputs to increase engagement.
A recent study by TinyPulse on employee engagement found that.
Only a third of workers received recognition the last time they went the extra mile at work and just a quarter feel highly valued at work.
So what does it take to convert competent managers into exceptional ones? I believe the answer lies in learning and development.
In its 2018 UK L&D Report, findcourses.co.uk discovered that 67% of respondents invest less than £400 per employee per year in development. Given our managers are the guardians of the talent in their teams, it seems shortsighted to value their training and development so poorly.
