How managers influence the working environment

What you need to know:

Encourage sharing of ideas amongst the team members and also when working on a project get ideas from the team so that the final presentation is a good representation of your department.

Managers are critical in determining the environment that exists in the workplace. There must be conceited efforts by the manager to inculcate good working relations in his team.

Encourage sharing of ideas amongst the team members and also when working on a project get ideas from the team so that the final presentation is a good representation of your department.

Discuss the role profile and the annual objectives with each team member and agree on objectives that are smart, measurable, achievable, realist and time bound. You should also give stretch objectives to grow the team to the next level.

Enhance team work by having atleast one performance objective that is a shared one. This will force the team to work together and develop cordial relations since if they win, they win together and the opposite is also true.

Allow your staff to question the status quo in the department and suggest improvement ideas. This builds trust and a feeling of ownership which improves employee engagement and loyalty to the organisation.

Open discussions on areas of disagreement and get the team members to give their views. At the end of the sessions you must take lead and come up with a solution that is beneficial to the organisation and the team members. For example the disagreement could be on the working shift and some members not willing to give up their weekends to come to work. In the short term this might sound like a punishment but in the long term the organisation may be impacted by the change in the shift and make more profits. This will benefit the staff in the long term.

Give realistic deadline in the allocation of tasks and the responsibility to avoid undue stress when deadlines are not achieved.

Reprimand staff with performance or discipline issues in private to avoid embarrassing them. Create a support group to help staff who are struggling with performance and assure them of you support. However if the performance does not improve and you need to exit the staff please do so with decency and ensure that all their dues are processed in time. The team need time to unwind and relax so that they can be more productive. Inform the team to discuss amongst themselves and come up with a leave schedule that ensures that all work areas are covered when some of them are away on leave.