Are your leaders slowing your growth?

The world is changing at a rapid pace. We live in a world where established companies are disrupted by converse-wearing millennials and technological breakthroughs redefine how consumers purchase, people communicate and businesses operate.
The same UAE based study by Biz Group showed that 85% of respondents felt that their organisation is more focused on assigning blame than on solving problems. This corroborates the first finding that teams are not working proactively as a unit. When faced with a problem, its human nature to make sense of it and that process often involves understanding whose responsibility it is.

Transcript

1. Are your leaders slowing your growth? Why 94% of people don't feel their manager creates dialogue with their employees
2. 1 The world is changing at a rapid pace. We live in a world where established companies are disrupted by converse-wearing millennials and technological breakthroughs redefine how consumers purchase, people communicate and businesses operate. In this new landscape where innovative capability is key to survival, we need to ask ourselves: how can companies adapt to stay ahead of the curve? And what does it require of their teams and people? This question has many implications, most noticeably around leadership. How leaders respond to this increased pressure will ultimately define how engaged and productive their teams will be. Are your leaders slowing your growth? A new UAE based study by Biz Group, showed that when faced with workplace conflict and pressure: 94% of respondents do not feel that their managers create dialogue with their employees A staggering 91% of respondents do not feel that their team works together to solve problems 85% of respondents feel that their organisation assigns blame rather than solving problems 94% 91% 85% Why 94% of people don’t feel their manager creates dialogue with their employees.
3. Problem Solving as a Team So what does this mean? The fact that 91% of respondents do not feel that their team works together to solve problems is worrying because when teams do not work together, the smallest issue has the potential to escalate into a larger one. The reason being it takes more time, money and effort for problems to be resolved by individuals than it does by teams in which you can leverage other people’s experiences, skillsets, networks and creative problem solving skills. It is for this reason that strategists advise teams to create daily rhythms in which issues and ‘stucks’ are shared and tackled in an open forum. The same UAE based study by Biz Group showed that 85% of respondents felt that their organisation is more focused on assigning blame than on solving problems. This corroborates the first finding that teams are not working proactively as a unit. When faced with a problem, its human nature to make sense of it and that process often involves understanding whose responsibility it is. However finger pointing can create a culture of blame where there is no space for error and people hide problems instead of using them as opportunities to learn and grow. 2 A blame culture in which finger pointing is common, inhibits learning and innovation. Only organisations with an open culture where people are not afraid to admit mistakes and everyone has the opportunity to learn from them has the potential to truly flourish. Nicole Samuels Accredited Crucial Conversation Facilitator The health care industry has come under the spotlight recently for exemplifying the dangers of a culture of silence. In a recent study “Silence Kills” led by Vital Smarts, a top 20 leadership training company, over 50% of healthcare workers surveyed had occasionally witnessed broken rules, mistakes, lack of support, incompetence, poor teamwork, disrespect, and micromanagement but fewer than one in ten raised their concerns. When you correlate that to the fact that the U.S. death rate from hospital errors is the third leading cause of death for Americans, the gravity of a culture of silence becomes painfully apparent.
4. 3 These findings beg another important question: what is the role and responsibility of leaders in fostering teamwork, problem solving and a culture of dialogue? A recent article published on Forbes Magazine identified that every employee impacts an organization's direction, but leadership has by far the largest and most direct effect on company culture. Not only do leaders have the most impact on corporate culture but they also have the most responsibility in identifying corporate values and reinforcing behaviour that aligns with those values and beliefs. The findings of the Vital Smarts survey corroborates this idea. They found that a manager’s ability (or inability) to communicate in high stakes, stressful situations directly impacts the team performance. Managers who clam up or blow up under pressure have teams with low morale; that are more likely to miss deadlines and that act in ways that drive customers away. More specifically, teams led by hot-headed managers tend to also react poorly to stress: The Role of Leadership The UAE based Biz Group survey showed that 94% of respondents did not feel that their managers create dialogue. This describes managers that do not value dialogue within their teams enough to foster open communication. That might not sound too serious, but in an article, the SHRM reported that David Grossman's report "The Cost of Poor Communications" identified that within a survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication between employees. are more likely to consider leaving their job 62% more likely to be frustrated and angry 47%
5. Methodology Data collected online by YouGov Omnibus among 503 respondents in the UAE between 9th and 15th January, 2019 using YouGov’s panel of over 6 million people worldwide. Sample covers working population in the country across key demographics (age, gender, nationality, etc.). References Makary, M., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US. BMJ, i2139. doi: 10.1136/b- mj.i2139 Maxfield, D., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., Patterson, K. and Switzler, A. (n.d.). Silence Kills. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses , Vital Smarts. Robert Van Boven, M., Shirin Hemmat, M., Stephen P. Wood, A., Lawrence Iteld, M., Luckenbaugh, M., & Niran S. Al-Agba, M. et al. (2019). Silence in health care is a crisis. Retrieved from https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/11/si- lence-in-health-care-is-a-crisis.html The Manager Effect: 1 Out of 3 Managers Can’t Handle High-Stakes Situations and As A Result, Their Teams are Less Successful - Press Room. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.vitalsmarts.com/press/2018/11/the-manager-ef- fect-1-out-of-3-managers-cant-handle-high-stakes-situations-and-as-a-result-their-teams-are-less-successful/ The Role Leadership Has In Company Culture. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/william- craig/2018/09/05/the-role-leadership-has-in-company-culture/#1056469116b6 info@bizgroup.ae www.learningwithbiz.com +971 4 391 4791 These UAE based statistics might seem worrying but they represent an important opportunity for positive change. Leaders who practice good communication in high-stakes situations are calm, candid, and willing to listen. And in return, their teams are happier, more engaged and perform better. While going through tumultuous times, companies often look for solutions outside of their organization. But what if the solution to their biggest business problem was in fact their people? After all, productivity is all about people and their ability to deliver their best results. And leaders have a crucial role to play in creating an environment that is conducive to developing talent and capabilities. So much so, that developing great leadership skills that trickle down at all levels of the organization has now become the first and most important step in developing a future ready workforce and company. Not only have I experienced first-hand the enormous impact that comes from giving your employees a forum to express themselves within Biz Group but I have also seen this from my experience as a Strategic Advisor to clients. Once dialogue and communication are established or repaired, it is much easier to build a corporate culture of trust and respect. In her 25 years as a business entrepreneur and CEO of Biz Group, Hazel Jackson says: Get in Touch with us to find out more about the Biz Group leadership competencies and our leadership learning journeys.