People are much more likely to flourish in an environment where they have the opportunity to become leaders (and not merely followers). It is because people want to be involved, heard, able to make a difference, and part of a winning organization.
If you think about it, in a top-down management design (where management sets the goals, makes the key decisions and tells employees what to do), employees are very unlikely to feel valued by or invested in the organization. The traditional work arrangement works well for controlling employees because a supervisor’s primary job is to ensure the work is being done properly, by carefully monitoring employees and ensuring they do what is expected.
Such an approach does have its strengths (e.g., the supervisor should have a good understanding as to what each employee is doing and how well each is performing), but it leaves a lot to be desired. After all, how satisfied do you think most people feel being frozen out of key decisions that affect them? Or, being carefully watched and having their work scrutinized? The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, and other similar surveys, suggest that many employees are not very satisfied with their current work situation. However, if you build teams of leaders, the dynamics, culture, employee satisfaction and overall performance in your organization can be completely transformed.
The net result of all this is higher employee commitment, engagement and satisfaction, and most importantly, much better performance.
I’m sure by now, some of you are thinking that this is too good to be true. In other words, what’s the catch? The catch is that high performing teams do not spring up by magic. Teams of leaders must be properly designed and carefully built. Simply throwing a group of people together and suddenly declaring that they will now be a team will result in greater confusion and frustration and worse performance than under the traditional design. Building teams of leaders requires a high degree of support from senior leadership, careful planning, time, energy, patience, and a commitment to see the approach through into the long term, despite the short term challenges that will inevitably occur.
Teaching and empowering your team to handle the planning, performance management, and accountability requirements, as well as dealing with poor performing employees, is what makes the Five-Stage Development Model approach crucial. The supervisor becomes a coach who serves as an advisor to the team – allowing his/her skills to be used for higher-level activities such as strategic planning and benchmarking. The Five-Stage Development Model enables everyone to envision, plan for, and facilitate the evolution of the team from a traditional Stage One hierarchical unit to a Stage Five team of leaders.
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While building teams of leaders is not an easy thing to do, the payoff can be enormous. Many organizations have adopted this approach and there is absolutely no reason why it can’t also work in government. Good luck on your journey!
Stewart Liff is a Fellow with The Performance Institute, specializing in human resources management, performance (including visual) management, and team development. He is the author of multiple books, including Managing Government Employees and A Team of Leaders.
Contact him at Stewart.Liff@Performanceinstitute.org.