Getting Suggestions: Horizontal Management Styles for the Benefit of Employee Engagement
The perceived distance between management and their staff, whether legitimate or not, can have a huge effect on employee engagement. In many companies, the manager occupies the position of inviolable leader: making major decisions and having no welcome of dissenting points of view. However, many of these companies can speak of high levels of employee engagement; there is not much space to rise, but there is a sense of harmony of operating within the confines of a position with employee benefits to boot.
Western companies, in general, are often considered to be more flat in terms of hierarchy than their Asian counterparts. However, with more freedom may come more anxiety; as Soren Kikergard said, “Dizziness is the freedom of anxiety.” There may be dissent and disorderly conduct as people struggle to get their point of view across, perhaps even with an eye on the throne themselves. So what is to be done to strike a balance between these two different approaches to engagement with employees by managers?
Photo by: Lisbon Council (Flickr)
Assess Your Character as a Manager
First of all, a manager must consider his own attributes. Management is a skill that can be acquired, and good management is the best way to finesse an employee’s desires and maximize engagement. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you personable?
- Do you present yourself in an accessible way that shows that you are a human, rather than a number crunching droid?
- Are you approachable?
- Do you give off an aura of encouragement so that others can come to see you with their queries and suggestions?
- Do you follow up with promises that you make and being sure to check on the progress of the missions that you initiate?
A Coach to the Rescue
If you find that you are lacking in any of these areas, then it may be an idea to approach a coaching specialist to try and figure out your strengths and weaknesses. A coach will be able to help you visualize where you need to be as well as give you a good idea of where you are. He will help you put together a road map in conjunction with you that will be your guide towards personal development.
Once you set yourself on this path, you will be amazed by the changes that people start to notice in you. By shifting your focus in this way, others will perceive that you are more engaged, and staff members will help you with constructive critique and guidance.
Employee Motivation: The Next Step to Success
Once your skillset is complete, then you have to consider how best to come at the day-to-day issues of getting employees motivated and keeping them that way. The best way is to put everything on the table: what do you want and what are they expected to do to achieve it? Once everybody is clear about what needs to be done, then everything is out in the open and there is no shadow in which uncertainty can grow like a spectre haunting and poisoning the work environment.
With a clear set of goals and an approachable management system in place, employees can take pride in their work, knowing that they are managing their own destiny with a supportive network of colleagues and leaders in place.
By applying this philosophy throughout the company, contingency planning becomes less necessary as everybody has already bought into the company philosophy and has an idea of what is happening as the company moves forwards. Therefore, the belief is in place that anybody could be the next you and so it is in their interests to understand you and your job even better. This holistic circle means that both the vertical and horizontal methods become unnecessary in an environment of open, engaged and harmonious office life that gives everybody a chance to reach their potential with a job well done.
