How can I check how well I am doing as a manager?
- What does it feel like to be a member of your team?
- Do you feel energised and motivated to produce quality work?
- Do you feel trusted, have clear guidelines, and freedom to produce innovative ideas?
- Do you feel recognised and supported by the people around you?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you are among the only 21% of staff members who feel fully engaged at work. Workplace experts, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, headed a research study conducted by Gallup, Inc. involving 80,000 managers across different industries.
In their acclaimed book, “First Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently” Buckingham and Coffman identified 12 questions that correlate with attaining, keeping and measuring employee satisfaction: Would your team be able to answer yes to each of these?
- Do I know what’s expected of me at work?
- Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
- At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
- In the last seven days have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
- Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
- Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
- Do my opinions seem to count at work?
- Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
- Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
- Do I have a best friend at work?
- In the last six months has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
- This last year have I had opportunities at work to learn and to grow?
Here are some of the person-centred thinking tools and practices that can help:
- One-page strategy and team purpose specifies what the team is working towards
- A doughnut clarifies what is expected of team members
- Matching is the process used to match strengths and interests to team tasks, roles and people
- Person-centred reviews, using working and not working and person-centred supervision help to track progress
- One-page profiles ensure that team members know each other and you can offer personalised support
- A decision-making agreement shares how colleagues are involved in decision-making
- Person-centred supervision is an opportunity for problem solving and encouraging development
- The Positive and Productive Meetings Process ensures that everyone contributes to meetings and that there are clear outcomes and decisions
Another way to find out how well you are doing in using and supporting your team to use person-centred practices to deliver greater choice and control for people, is to use the self-assessment called Progress for Providers for managers.
