One more comment today with regard to my earlier post on ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). Suzy Welch, co-author of the book Winning, was interviewed last year on CNN. She suggests that difficult conversations may be the key to high performance teams.

Having been on both sides of the flex time environment, Welch says “It was wonderful to be the beneficiary of flex time when I was a working mother.”  But, as a manager, Welch found the program very difficult to manage.

Flex time “forces you to have some really difficult conversations that you probably should have had long before—conversations about performance.”

Oh, that those difficult conversations would occur more often in the workplace—but they don’t. Still, I’m quite confident workplace excellence would excel if these conversations occurred. .

Based on what Welch says, she seems to agree. In fact, she says it’s vital for employees to get candid and concrete clarification of what’s expected of them. “You’ve got to say [to your boss], ‘what do you expect? What would high performance look like to you?’”

If you’re a manager, think about this: If one of your employees asked you those questions, got realistic answers, and then performed to that expected high level of performance, wouldn’t that employee be a star in your eyes? Would it really matter if he or she took three hours in the afternoon to run errands or stop by the dentist office?

Alas, too many managers are wrapped up in a misguided effort to control employees, acting as gatekeepers of the time clock. They need to focus instead on equipping people. Good managers take the time and effort to train their teams so they’re capable of optimal productivity.

I say it’s high time that, whenever possible, we shift our focus away from militaristic obedience to the clock and focus instead on communicating and equipping our teams so they can get the results we expect.  (That by itself may require equipping managers to think like trainers.)

All of this will require difficult conversations. But any organization seeking high performance needs to have them.

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Filed in Work, Business, Opinion, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Teambuilding, Workplace