Many decades ago, I remember a visiting Korean business delegation coming to my home town of Brisbane. At the end of the day, in thanking us for being their hosts, the leaders noted it was very valuable visit and said “we didn’t know what we didn’t know about Australia”. I had never heard that phrasing before and thought that was pretty cool and that these Korean chaps were pretty switched on.
Nowadays, I realise how dangerous that “we don’t know, what we don’t know” business is in commerce and especially in leadership. Shocking statistics emerged from a recent research piece we did on engagement in companies across 15 countries.
Respondents who had answered that they were “very satisfied” with their immediate supervisor, I would have expected were also among the most highly engaged staff in those companies we surveyed. If my staff said they were “very satisfied” with me as their leader, I would be pretty chipper and upbeat about what a legend of leadership I was.
Unfortunately, when we correlated that group’s answers with other questions, we found that 13% who said they were “very satisfied” were actually actively disengaged. This means that we don’t know, what we don’t know about our staff’s commitment and big time.
The survey was one of those tricky ones, where you have choose between two attractive answers, to really flush out what you think. When asked to choose between these statements about “which supervisor behaviour is more likely to inspire and motivate you to give your best at work”, they had to select from a leader who A, “is satisfied as long as I display competence in my defined role” and B, “a leader who encourages me and makes me believe in my ability to improve”. Interestingly, 84% of respondents chose B.
As the leader, we might have been thinking that as long as we let them get on with their doing their job well, they will be highly engaged. With people working from home, we can tend to leave people to get on with it and expect they will act professionally and pump out the work.
This survey tells us we have to be better in communicating our belief in them and create an environment where they can grow and demonstrate we are committed to their growth. Loads of apple pie and motherhood statements in there, but the critical question is “fine, but are you doing it?”.
The next question was either A, “recognises improvement only with tangible rewards” or B, “praises me for any performance improvement I make”. The respondents voted for B to the tune of 83%. Are we as leaders thinking that bonuses, pay rises, perks, etc., are the key to gaining higher commitment and therefore better performance?
The result would suggest that our communication skills are going to be very important. Often we will praise people at the end of a project or at the completion of a process. In fact, we should be handing out praise all the way through the completion of the project and not just at the end. It also means we are looking for opportunities to praise rather than just correct. When we don’t see our people anymore, because they are working from home, we need to be more vigilant about recognising their work and giving them praise.
A third interesting response was to this choice, A, “makes sure I know how to do the work in advance” or B, “points out my mistakes in a tactful/indirect way”. In 78% of cases they went for B. This is always a difficult area when it comes to dealing with mistakes. The traditional Japanese leader technique is just to scream abuse at the culprit, in front of everyone, so that the rest of the team get the idea that we don’t tolerate mistakes around here.
The response shows that we need to be very judicious about how we handle errors. A holier than thou attitude certainly won’t cut it. Nor will “I never make mistakes”. We need to begin by admitting that though we are the leader, we are also fallible and we can empathise with them, when there has been a mistake. Actually, it is a handy reminder to consider how much you knew at their age and stage. Don’t forget that you are the product of all the mistakes you have accumulated thus far and all of the subsequent lessons you have learnt as a result.
So the results are in and we cannot be satisfied with not knowing what we don’t know. We had better get busy spending time talking more with our team, handing out more praise and dealing with mistakes in a more effective way.
Today’s handy Japanese phrase is perfect or kanpeki (完璧)
