By Seun Onakoya, Lead Coach, The Seun Onakoya Company
Strategy, structure and systems all matter to an organisation, whether they are written down or not. None of them delivers results on its own. People do, and how they feel about their work shapes what gets done.
This sounds obvious, yet many workplaces are run as though it were not true. Targets are set without asking who will carry them. Restructures are announced without explaining what they mean for the people affected. Good staff leave, and the exit interview records "personal reasons". The human side of work is treated as a soft extra, attended to when there is time.
This is not about bad intentions. Managers are under pressure to deliver, and sometimes there is seldom time. That is why the managers who get it right stand out.
Know the person, not only the role
A job description tells you what a role requires. It tells you nothing about the person in it: what they are good at, what drains them, what they want from their career. Managers who take the trouble to find out make better decisions about who does what. They also earn something that cannot be ordered: trust.
Finding out does not require a programme. It requires conversation. Ask people what part of their work they enjoy most and where they feel stuck. Listen to the answer.
Make expectations clear
Much of the frustration in teams comes from expectations that were never stated. The manager assumes the report will arrive on Friday. The officer assumes Monday is fine. Both feel let down.
Clear expectations are a kindness. Say what good looks like, by when and why it matters. Then check that you have been understood.
Talk often, not only at appraisal time
An annual review cannot carry the weight of a year. By the time it comes, problems have hardened and good work has gone unremarked. Short, regular conversations about progress and obstacles keep small problems small and let people know their work is seen.
Recognise the work
People notice when their effort is noticed. Recognition does not need to be grand. A specific word of thanks, given soon after the work and in front of colleagues where appropriate, does more than a generic message at the end of the year.
Where to start
None of these habits is complicated. The difficulty is doing them consistently while everything else competes for attention. Pick one. Practise it for a month. Notice what changes.
The results an organisation reports are produced by its people, and the way they are led shows in every figure.
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