Three key principles for better relations and harmony in the company

I have had the privilege of working with many executives and managers at different levels in previous years across the region, from call centre operators and vendors to CEOs and company founders. At every level of the company, almost every individual has their own, unique, picture of what should be improved to make things better for everyone.

Listening to their experiences and working with them on improvements, I noticed three key principles that are necessary for better harmony of relationships in companies. In every company where I encountered problems, at least one of the three was missing.

1. PARENTAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS EMPLOYEES

The 21st century leadership is most similar to parenting. People love their children every day but they do not like their behaviour every day. And what do parents do when they don’t like their child’s behaviour? Do they send a threatening email? Threaten with dismissal from home? “Dear son, if you do not change your behaviour, we will be forced to dismiss you from the family and we will adopt another child in your place… or … I hope you will be happy in another family!!!”

They talk to them, guide them, work with them, lead by personal example. At times even penalties, of course. However, what is not questionable is the true desire of the parents to do everything in their power to guide the child on the right path. I believe that practically all parents have a wish for their children to surpass them in achievements.

I believe that one of the true measures of a leader should be the fact how many members of his team he managed to train to be better than him in some things.

In karate, it is known that the highest level of achievement is the 8^th degree black belt. However, there is also a 9^th degree black belt but only the karateka who managed to train at least two students to be better than them are entitled to it.

2. CRYSTAL CLEAR AND PRECISE TASKS OF EMPLOYEES, THE WAY THEIR PERFORMANCE IS MEASURED AND TRAINING TO PERFORM THESE TASKS

It often happens that an employee understood his work task in one way and that the expectations of the management are different or that they changed and expanded in the meantime. The crystal clarity of work tasks agreed on all three sides is extremely important

1. a) The employee should clearly know what his job is, what his responsibility is and how his performance is measured.
2. b) Management should also align this with their expectations of the employee.
3. c) Colleagues who work closely with this employee should know his scope of work and points of contact with them.

In addition, management often appoints an employee to a new job without prior training. And even if the employee came from another company and has experience in that job, it is necessary to train him about the specifics of the company and the sectors he will cooperate with.

3. DISCIPLINE IN PERFORMING TASKS AND TREATING CLIENTS AND COLLEAGUES

After specifying the tasks and the way of measuring the quality and quantity of their completion, after specifying the level of responsibility and after clear instructions on how the company treats colleagues, clients and managers, the employee is required to exercise discipline. Just as children’s behaviour often depends on the behaviour of their parents, so employees monitor the behaviour of management and accordingly give themselves the right to change their actions even if they were given crystal clear instructions. For this reason, the key role of the manager is to lead by personal example.

In the companies where I encountered problems, at least one of these three principles was always lacking. If there was a parental relationship with employees, discipline was often lacking. If the discipline was strong, the parental relationship was often absent and strong hand and punishments were implemented. If crystal clear tasks were lacking, there were often overlaps, mismatches, or contradictory responsibilities.

A company is like a human body:

1. The quality of the head’s relationship to any organ or part of the body is not questionable.
2. Every organ in the body knows exactly what its function is and cooperates perfectly with other organs according to the instructions of the head.
3. Disciplined behaviour of the head through the way of thinking, acting and eating ensures disciplined performance of tasks of each organ and a long and healthy life.

Thus, the nature has given us a lot of good examples of perfect organisation and we just need to learn from that. In one of the following texts, I will write about other natural laws that man can use wisely…

The text was taken from www.blic.rs