Getting results in the workplace with happy team members: A contradiction or not?
by: Pierre du Plessis
The four components for getting results:
You can only get results or goal achievement by monitoring progress towards those goals. First of all there must be goals for every position to strive for, in support of the overall broad strategies of an organisation. Secondly, persons must be held accountable for reaching those goals and it normally helps to break these goals up into shorter term benchmarks. Thirdly, there must be a system of regular feedback on the progress of achieving those goals, where someone of authority shows interest in the state of affairs. Fourthly, persons must be rewarded according to the degree of performance in achieving these goals.
Very often one of these components is missing, which inevitably leads to failure or partial achievement of goals for a department or organisation. The reasons for failure can be as follows:
Organisation strategies are not clear or absent - lack of direction for all employees
Goals are not clear or absent - persons will tend to develop own goals according to personal and subjective perceptions
Regular monitoring of results is not a requirement through the management levels - nobody seems to be interested in results
Poor regular performance evaluation system or total absence of it - persons will not adjust behaviour to the organisation needs
Equal division of rewards, irrespective of the degree of individual performance in goal achievement - disinterest attitudes in doing well and breeding ground for a culture of prioritising personal interests and benefits above organisation needs
When an organisation excels in applying these four components, the monitoring role by individuals becomes crucial in maintaining good human relations among employees and keeping them positive and motivated.
The components for highly motivated employees:
We can start this off with stating the opposite of the reasons for failure of organisations as mentioned above. Unfortunately these are not the only components for achieving good results, with simultaneous highly motivated employees.
All of us are aware of persons in positions of authority, where it is expected of that person to achieve goals through the performance of other persons. A superior is in daily contact and interaction with subordinates and visa versa. It is in the management role of monitoring or controlling the tasks of subordinates, where relations can quickly turn sour for the worse, for the organisation as well as for the individuals concerned.
Many persons are in positions of authority, overseeing the tasks of subordinates, without ever having been exposed to what factors make up for good human relations, what factors inspire people or how people crave to be treated. Organisations and managers appoint people, without recognising the need for those appointees to be capable of inspiring subordinates. They truly do not realise the important need of proper prior education, in matters of human behaviour and human relations, for any supervisory or managerial position. The poor soul being appointed, without being educated in matters of human relations, soon becomes frustrated and stressed out of all proportions, which in turn can lead to other health related problems. To place the cherry on the cake, a newly promoted manager more often than not, feels so proud and bloated that arrogance tends to armour the person against recognising own personal shortcomings or to lull the person into ignoring it. When this is the case everybody loses. There is no win-win situation.
Here below is the correct sequence of events before appointing anyone in a position of authority:
Proper Training
Proper Exposure to display lessons learned
Monitor progress in application of lessons learned
Mentor of deviations in performance by a mature and knowledgeable person
Evaluate performance
Appoint/promote/reject
The bodies who can take action and rectify this distortion in required skills, are the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive and Top Management.
The necessity for the presence of Management Skills:
Now comes the bigger question: What happens when people are appointed in Supervisory and Managerial positions, but lack the necessary managerial, leadership and ethical competencies? We in South Africa do not have to look too far. The unwise affirmative action policy of the Government, of indiscriminately replacing highly competent whites with incompetent blacks, over the past years since 1994, is now coming to fruit, as evidenced by the many areas and services coming apart at the seams.
I am all for the new South Africa, but not for lower efficiency, lower effectiveness nor lower productivity.
Only 50% of the Defence Force employees report daily for duty, due to sickness or arranging to be off duty.
More than 50% of Police crime files are disappearing before the case can be brought to court.
More than 40 000 Government Officials were identified as illegally receiving social grants.
At local Government level many sewerage systems have started leaking into town streets and rivers due to lack of maintenance.
14 Central Government Ministers have been identified, who did not declare their shares in private enterprise companies as prescribed by law. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as thousands of Government Officials are in the same boat and even awarding their own companies contracts.
The new law on weapons concentrate mainly on more control over legal weapon owners. If the same effort were to be directed towards eradication of illegal possession of firearms, a bigger dent in the high crime levels would ensue.
Experts predict a shortage of power supply during the coming winter months, due to lack of proper planning for the expansion of power facilities, according to the economic growth rate of demand for power, over many years.
The land restitution policy, where ownership of certain farm land is reverting to previous disadvantaged persons, is a total failure, due to many shortcomings. Rumour has it that the Limpopo Province Government is contemplating to take 71 farms back from the new black owners, under whose management these once highly productive farms, have now deteriorated to zero production.
The one-sided new laws on pharmacies, decided upon by incompetent Government Officials, are threatening to compel many businesses to close down.
Over R300 million in donations from overseas, for reconstruction and development, had to be handed back to the donors, because the responsible employees lacked the competence to utilise these funds, in the midst of dire need for housing and other amenities for the thousands of poor and jobless people. Can you believe this shameful conduct?
Every year the Minister of Finance allocates ample funds to the various departments and bodies for various purposes and projects, which are very seldom fully utilised, also due to lack of skills. A good portion, however, disappears before it can be used, due to the high level of corruption.
The Department of Statistics is after 12 years still not able to produce trustworthy figures.
Many Officials in the Department of Home Affairs were found guilty of illegally issuing identification documents to foreigners in fraudulent ways. This is still happening. The same goes for issuing of driver licences at local Government level.
Many township riots have erupted over the past year with the associated anger mainly directed at non-delivery of services. If this is correctly dissected, it boils down to the incompetencies of Officials, who remain more interested in their high salaries than in any type of job performance.
Standards in schools were lowered to boost more passes.
Health standards in Provincial hospitals are lower than ever before.
Road maintenance is deteriorating each year and road construction is far behind schedule. The same applies to the provision of houses for the poor.
Flush type toilets are planned for each household, but no plans are in place for getting the extra needed water resources.
The Government seems to be at loss with the high crime levels and non-performance of police services. With annual murders in the region of 20 000, we surpass the total deaths in a year by far, in the war ridden Irag, Libanon and Gaza combined. In the midst of all this the Commando system was disbanded, which always was the protection force in rural areas. Now there is also evidence that the Police Child Protection Unit will be disbanded. Nobody is saying anything about this abnormal high violent deaths, least of all our President. The statistics are not only about quantity, but also raise serious questions about the depth and degree of barbarism and its roots.
The criminal-minded members of society have lost all respect for the abilities of the authorities.
How low can values and morality be if certain organisations still favour Zuma for president?
Our President, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, recently expressed surprised disbelief that poverty and joblessness have increased since 1994, notwithstanding the findings of two independent scientific studies. It seems he has surrounded himself with advisors, who tell him what he likes to hear instead of the truth.
The Minister of Home Affairs complained in Parliament in May 2006, when her portfolio was under discussion, that her Department was totally out of control on a road to utmost inefficiency and ineffectiveness, due to her six Directors and others below them not having the needed competencies, willpower and dedication.
17 000 Pensioned teachers have been waiting more than six months for their pension payments, due to corruption - employees re-routing the first payments into their own bank accounts.
With so many horrific and barbaric murders every month, it seems we are moving back in time to the old days of "darkest Africa". What message and image do these crimes convey about character, morality and life values? Is this a manifestation of the fundamental values, practices and traditions of the ANC? These criminals are after all, predominantly the ANC voters.
The lesson learned from this analysis is that incompetent employees can have a devastating and lasting effect on any organisation or country, especially if the top echelons are incompetent. Do not get me wrong. It is not because they happen to be black. The support structures in training, education, mentoring and coaching, have not been provided beforehand to the lower levels, as the new found power positions at the top blinded the occupants with arrogance. Competencies in line with job requirements, have never been a priority. The only priority was to get rid of whites. Of course, the lower levels took their cue from the top with a rippling effect.
South Africa, in its present state of affairs, is a showcase example of expertise in mismanagement. The Government is by far not in control of the country, nor the ANC, Police or Defence Force; only crime is King, because the criminal-minded members of society have lost all respect for the abilities of the authorities.
See what other independent and unrelated web sites are saying:
http://www.newnation.org/NNN-news-southafrica.html
http://crimepages.co.za/
http://www.crimexposouthafrica.co.za/
http://www.southafricaiscrap.blogspot.com/
http://deathofjohannesburg.blogspot.com/
http://www.africancrisis.org/default2.asp
http://www.africancrisis.org/Photos45.asp
A London based reporter recently wrote an article, which can be viewed here:
http://www.careeradvancementcentre.com/magazine/farm_murders.html
Links to daily South African Newspapers:
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/newspapers.htm
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=22&click_id=2234
About the author:
Pierre du Plessis (MBL, 1982, UNISA) is owner of Leaders Circle, with web site http://www.careeradvancementcentre.com, catering for various niche related products and packages and author of several e-books. This article can be used for re-publishing as long as it remains unchanged.
This article was posted on July 24, 2006.
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