Building a Team of Proactive People
White paper by Keith E. Ayers, President, Intégro Leadership Institute; Dr. Frank Cahill, Senior Consultant, Intégro Leadership Institute with Dr. Elizabeth Hardie, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Integro Research Desk Report. http://www.integroleadership.com
How to get employees to think for themselves, take responsibility, and raise performance.
Proactive Employees
In the endless drive for greater productivity, every manager wants employees to become more proactive. More proactivity equals better productivity. And better productivity usually means improved financial performance, happier shareholders, and less sleepless nights for leaders.
What exactly does it mean to be a proactive employee? We answer that question in two ways: first, we examine who and what a proactive employee is. Then we look at what a proactive employee is not. This is the difference between “self-directed” and “other-directed.” The self-directed employee takes responsibility for her own decisions and actions. The other-directed employee adopts an “I have to” mentality, and responds only to direction.
Flexibility in Leadership
As we begin to arrive at a better understanding of what a proactive employee is, we can then ask: why do some organizations have them in abundance, while others don’t? What is it that a manager can do to develop more of these elusive people?
In simple terms, leaders must demonstrate flexibility. Leadership flexibility can be broken down into three sub-scales: warmth, understanding, and encouragement. Leaders must be able to exhibit all three of these if they are to be perceived by their employees as being flexible leaders. Proactive employees respond best to flexible leaders.
The Trust-based Workplace
Proactive employees also thrive in a trust-based work environment. Many leaders and organizations talk about a vague notion of trust. In actual fact, workplace trust is not vague at all once we break it down into its tangible component parts. First, there are four elements of trust. Supporting these elements are the eight values that build trust.
And finally, these four elements and eight values can be categorized into two broad dimensions: communication and consistency.
The Link Between Flexibility and Trust
To create a team of proactive employees, leaders need to demonstrate flexibility and foster a trust-based work environment. Our research has found that the two are strongly connected and that the three sub-scales of leadership flexibility are in fact strong predictors of a trust-based work environment.
In demonstrating the attributes of flexibility, leaders can begin by developing an understanding of the basic needs that all employees have. Once a manager accepts that the organization’s success is intrinsically linked to its ability to satisfy employees’ needs, the path towards a team of proactive people has begun.
For the complete paper please visit this link: http://www.integroleadership.com/Docs/Building_Team_Proactive_Employees.pdf
White paper by Keith E. Ayers, President, Intégro Leadership Institute; Dr. Frank Cahill, Senior Consultant, Intégro Leadership Institute with Dr. Elizabeth Hardie, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Integro Research Desk Report. http://www.integroleadership.com
