Whether through the use of AI, relocation, or job cuts, more and more employees are losing their jobs. Those employees who remain or are present often face significantly higher performance pressure “from above.” At the same time, department and team leaders are increasingly struggling with the fact that their employees are frequently or long-term absent. Then it’s a case of “we are understaffed.” How can employees and their supervisors deal with this? How can we encourage courage, willpower, and skills to want to improve?
The “remaining” employees often report that they have to “work for the others.” Their team and department heads are thus under double pressure, which is often perceived negatively. Employees complain about increasing stress, and supervisors expect results to be maintained or increased despite capacity reductions.
On the one hand, we can improve results on our own by doing more of what brings the desired results. This is a question of HOW MUCH and HOW OFTEN. If the Sales department calls more customers, we can expect more appointments, assuming the quality remains the same and other external factors remain similar.
Alternatively, we can also proceed differently than before, with a different quality. This is about the HOW. For example, we could target other customers (segments) or positions, or shift the type of communication to other media (e.g., email, social networks).
An increase in performance, i.e., better results, first requires the opportunity to deliver the necessary performance. If I want more deals and more appointments, I have to prioritize that. Another issue with even higher priority can prevent me from doing so in terms of time or attention. Second, my willingness to perform is required, i.e., my willingness, my commitment to prioritize the task and tackle it with focus and energy. Thirdly, my performance capability is important for my results. This is about skill. To do this, I need, for example, technical, procedural, and communication skills.
But here’s the key point: developing skills and commitment to a task depends directly on the learning effects gained from practical experience: setting yourself a goal, implementing it with the highest priority, making mistakes, and learning from them for next time.
What I am increasingly noticing in practice, however, is the putting forward of excuses, blockages of all kinds, which often only exist in the mind. And this is true of both employees and superiors.
For example, an employee imagines how she could address customers more frequently and differently – and then often very quickly says why that wouldn’t work. No one answers the phone, emails end up in the spam filter, or messages on social networks are not read or answered by customers. The (different) action only takes place in the mind.
The department head may desperately say to herself or her supervisor, “He’s so stubborn, I’ll never manage it. How can I get him to do more or do things differently?”
The challenge is that the action takes place in the mind, i.e., only in one’s own imagination. In our inner self-talk, a thought or question arises that prevents us from improving: What if it doesn’t work? From skepticism to fear of failure, the range of negative emotions is wide. When in doubt, we quickly revert to the old approach—because we know it. This familiarity provides security, even if it falls miles short of the desired result.
This is precisely where the decisive task for managers comes in: to convey to employees that the fear of never having tried is more unpleasant than the fear of not achieving the goal with something new or more, which is often perceived as failure.
Encourage the employee to break out of their usual routine and do something different, to try something new. Convey that mistakes are to be expected, that this is a learning process that will help the employee develop. Anticipate the great feeling of “having done it.”
Let’s not just think about the sales example here, but also other cases, e.g.:
- The same IT error keeps occurring in billing, but it is not consistently addressed because “no one can be bothered to look into this issue again.”
- In customer service, a flood of customer emails and calls smashes availability because marketing and service did not take the time to coordinate at the outset, and the customer letter about the latest update to the products or services is incorrect or even misleading.
We often don’t go deep enough into critical issues. We don’t try to untangle the knot. We don’t try things out. Because we can’t bring ourselves to do it. We believe we don’t have the energy or time. Or because “no one will thank us anyway.” Because we have concerns or even fears that something could go wrong – and we would then be held responsible.
What can managers do here?
- Shift the action in your head to real action. By challenging yourself to test something, learn from it, and then do it better. Because real learning only happens in implementation, in doing, with important experiences from the results and their further development.
- Emphasize the importance of making mistakes and learning from them.
- Encourage employees to focus (instead of getting distracted), set priorities (instead of treating everything that “comes in” as equally important), and act with intention (instead of reactively).
- Make quick decisions about how to proceed and learn from the inevitable wrong decisions.
- Encourage employees to seek feedback from their superior and learn from sparring.
The key to this process is that the employee is in the driver’s seat – and not the passenger of a supervisor who thinks ahead or even acts on behalf of the employee.
When we learned to ride a bike, did we imagine in our heads how it might work and why we would fall over – or did we just get on the bike and try to pedal and steer? When we fell over, did we sit there crying, or did we get back on the bike with a determined look on our faces? Did our parents just leave us there and say, “Go for a ride and let me know later if you managed to complete the circuit”? Or did they watch us again and again, help us up when we fell over, tell us or ask us what we should do differently, and say: “Get back on, you can do it!”
Why shouldn’t we be able to do the same as leaders today? What do you think? I’m curious to hear your opinion!
Feel free to write to me at info@jmoellerconsulting.com or on www.jmoellerconsulting.com
