Hi! Thank you for reading my blog/newsletter. I had an interesting experience recently I want to share as I was asked to come in and train a construction company and their team. First, I want to give the company and give their owners kudos because they had the foresight and vision to not only provide training to their management team, but also to their apprentices and support staff. Training your bench is so, so important for any company who wants to grow leaders within. John Maxwell’s law of the bench states “Great teams have great depth. Any team that wants to excel must have good substitutes as well as starters. The key to making the most of the law of the bench is to continually improve the team.” This is what they did and I applaud them for it!
As I began working with this company it came up during discussion that some senior leaders would tell their lower ranking team members from time to time, “I don’t pay you to think.” They explained it was normally used in an effort to get the team member to focus on whatever task they doing at the time.
My response and recommendation to the senior leader was to pick a better line to help their employee focus. Telling any team member, “I don’t pay you to think” can do a lot of damage to a company and its employees. A leaders job is helping share the big picture through vision casting and communicating it frequently to the team and stakeholders. Explaining to the to employee that the job they are doing aligns to the company vision and project’s goals is very important. In addition, listening closely to team members and making adjustments accordingly will not happen if employees are afraid to share their thoughts and ideas with senior management.
In construction and in many industries specialization of skills, trades and knowledge help ensure that the project is completed at the highest level of quality. In a scenario where a carpenter or other specialized trade give his or her boss insight as to the challenge they are facing and makes a recommendation only to hear, “I don’t pay you to think” is a project and company the is bound to have a wide range of problems and challenges – employee engagement, turnover, low moral, and quality control to name just a few!
My best advice to leaders who have been known to use this type of line to help focus their team member is to 1. Always listen closely to your team and if you need to remind them to stay focused do so. 2. Also remind them that you value their work and craftsmanship and that the task at hand needs to be completed as directed to ensure the project’s goals are met.
Good luck! Does your team need training? Inspired? Contact me below!
Best,
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