Let’s assume for now that your people are doing the right things, but you need to improve productivity. To do this and create substantial sustainable changes, first you have to figure out why performance is at the current level. Productivity and people performance issues can generally be narrowed down to three main areas: Training/ability, Environment and Motivation. Let’s take a look at each one and investigate its effect on productivity.

Training and ability
Ask yourself this question “Are all members of my workforce adequately trained to do the job that I am asking them to?” and secondly “Are they able to do the job, physically and intellectually?” If the answer to either of these questions is, no, then you are adversely affecting the productivity of your organisation. Properly structured development programs to ensure all team members are adequately skilled to do the job are critical in the modern workplace. Don’t think that classroom hours are a measure of the effectiveness of the development of your people though. John Bolt sums it up with the results of his analysis “Only 4% of what we learn comes from the classroom. The real power of learning is in the doing!”

Also how many ‘square pegs in round holes’ do you have. It is a simple fact that some people are better suited to a particular job because of their knowledge, temperament, ability or aptitude. When did you last do a real people inventory to work out the various talents of your team and then match them closely to the tasks that you have at hand? Poorly trained staff will be poorly motivated and eventually fail. Putting staff members into a job that they are unable to do will have the same effect.

Environment
There are many aspects of the work environment that contribute to individual and team productivity. Think about the following:

• Tools & processes – Does the individual have the tools they need to get the job done? These could be physical tools, IT systems, information, transport and so on. Are the work processes conducive to high productivity?
• Physical – What is the workspace like? Temperature, lighting, comfort, quiet and pleasant to work in?
• People – Is the people environment conducive to productivity? What is the boss like, the team members and the rest of the staff?

A poor work environment will lead to lower motivation and contribute to errors and quality as well as lower productivity.

Motivation
Motivation is arguably the most misunderstood part of the productivity challenge and probably one of the most challenging to get right. Motivation can broadly be split into two key areas:

• External – That motivation that the employer provides by ensuring a suitable and appropriate level of compensation and benefits are in place, that match the job requirements and an environment.
• Internal – This is the motivation and desire of the individual to perform and achieve results. Best known as attitude or self-motivation.

If you can create an environment in which your staff are internally motivated then you unlock the real potential of your people and productivity will skyrocket with little input from you or your team once the fire has been lit.

Can you guess which of the environmental areas is most commonly responsible for poor performance? Yes, you are right, it is the boss or manager! In her studies Margaret J. Wheatley states, “In fact, productivity gains in self-managed work environments are at minimum thirty-five percent higher than in traditionally managed organizations”. So with a well developed and goal focused team, your people are more productive without you!

Getting the training/ability and environment aspects right is the easy part and it will get some results. Impacting motivation though gives the biggest return, and the great thing is that it produces sustainable changes that benefit everyone. The other piece of good news is that, like any other habit, self-motivation can be learned and developed.

The fact is though you have to get all areas right to really get the huge and sustainable productivity gains from your people. In addition the whole subject of creating a motivational environment and becoming motivational leaders requires a firm commitment to delivering in all six main leadership arenas:

• Creating a vision, goals and communicating them effectively
• Motivating through attitude, not just incentive and fear
• Building and leading effective teams
• Developing people to their full potential
• Empowering team members
• Leading change and innovation

If that weren’t enough then the foundation of this leadership model is to have a clear value system. So there are some heavy pre conditions, but the rewards are substantial. Author Paul J Meyer sums it up well “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.”

Nigel Wall, Regional Director, IBB Ltd

Total Leader Concept