Great Circle

A senior team leader I’ve enjoyed coaching for the past 3 months was chatting with me about improving the way he ran meetings with his key staff. This had been our main focus for coaching for weeks because he believed (and was subsequently proved correct ) that a small amount of focussed effort on creatively preparing these meetings would yield high results. During this particular conversation he was reflecting on the success he’d achieved by outlining his ingredients of the highly effective meeting, when he made the following comment: “somewhere somehow staff need a (safe) place where they can purge themselves of their frustrations.”

That wonderful phrase struck a chord with me. Don’t we all need some forum where we can “purge” ourselves of our gripes, disappointments, worries - and those things that are like stones in our shoes?

Last year, Monster Inc (a leading global careers and personnel agency) published a study designed to aid companies in maintaining both high productivity and high retention rates among their staff. See Retention Report . In it, they made the following comment:

“Having a realtime and continuous practise to monitor employee sentiment regarding their jobs is becoming a necessity in a workplace expected to become more competitive”

This flies in the face of two standard practises of workplaces: to maintain a code of silence (keep your thoughts and feelings completely to yourself); or to air your frustrations somewhere where the boss can’t hear you and the problems can’t be dealt with. Unfortunately these practises are often the natural effect of a culture created (maybe unintentionally) by management.

I was so excited to hear a manager speaking the way this team leader did. To allow and encourage staff to air it and talk it through - with some process attached and with a mechanism in place to follow-through on the issues - is forward thinking, empowering, courageous. It’s already helping this man’s team perform with higher morale energy and creativity.

Worth pondering, huh?