The Overwhelmed Employee – Keep it Simple
If you want healthy, engaged, and productive employees who help you achieve company goals, then you, as a business leader, must lead by example. Start with a practical, actionable strategy and share it with everyone in the organization, thereby piloting simplification throughout the organization and clearing the path for more productive, engaged employees. Above all else, keep your strategy simple.
How Do You Start?
- Develop high-talent managers. The proof is in the pudding: The better your managers, the more profitable, productive, and engaged everyone is in your organization.
- Rethink your structure and create an organizational design that works for your business. Be bold and make changes that align your business with the goals you are trying to achieve.
- Simplify processes and eliminate those that are unnecessary or do not contribute to the bottom line. Do away with unnecessary meetings. As well, streamline requisitions and dispense with those that are superfluous. The more time employees spend filling out paperwork and obtaining authorizations, the less time they have to focus on achieving objectives.
And for everyone’s sanity, develop a strategy for your company regarding the use of email. Doing so can save you and your employees countless hours of work and stress. It may also save you money, as lawsuits over after-hours work expectations are proliferating. You do not have to start from scratch – use this guide from Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt.
Lead by example: Work Smarter, Not Harder
You need to take the lead in simplifying work environments, processes, and systems. But more than that, you need to take the lead in encouraging your managers to set the right example and your employees to follow suit. Schedule time for nothing, like Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn and slow down. If you don’t know what your direction or inspiration is, then your time for nothing will give you time to focus, making your time good for something worthwhile. And finally, use your vacation time and expect your team to do the same. Recognize that your employees need down time and time away from work.
So what’s the bottom line? As leaders, we owe it to our organizations, and ourselves, to look for ways to avoid adding stress and overload. By looking for any and all ways to lighten the load, there is no doubt you will, in turn, help improve your own and your team’s ability to create, innovate and contribute.
As the CEO & Founder of East Tenth Group, Michelle leverages 25 years of business and experience as a strategic advisor and executive coach to help drive actionable people solutions and provide practical insights on business strategy to senior leaders. she and her team and are fiercely committed to the development and growth of people and companies because we believe that when people thrive, business thrives.
