Aubrey Daniels in Bringing Out the Best in People insists leaderships’ role in the employee feedback loop is, “… is not to find fault or place blame, but to analyze why people are behaving as they are, and modify the consequences to promote the behavior they need.”
Jim Collins, in Good to Great would call this ability to objectively seek results versus pointing a finger a hallmark of level five leadership.
It’s important to recognize that as a company grows priorities for expansion often dominate the focus of the leadership team. Balance is sometimes lost in this continuous advancement. Quantifying customer and employee feedback as Positioning Systems Strategic Discipline requires, provides this balance in the wild pursuit of expansion. Leadership should be constantly aware then of the critical need to balance priorities as the company moves forward.
Finally as noted in Why Positive Reinforcement Starts at the Top, leadership needs to recognize the role it plays in perpetuating positive reinforcement throughout the organization. Reinforcement multiplies as it moves through the chain of command. The spring of a positive workforce starts at the top.
Imagine we visit your business. How would the attitude and happiness of the people at the tactical level of your company reflect upon the degree of positivity your leadership team is providing? If we graded you on the positivity of your workforce what’s your score?
We’ll explore ways to receive employee feedback in our next blog.