Turning the obvious choice into a reality

Yesterday I wrote a post about 2 different work scenarios and if a business that values communicating with compassion can be profitable. And yes, the answer is very simple of course, everyone knows that people who are treated well, are more productive and produce the best work. And this has a direct correlation with profitability. The sad reality however, is that it is usually not what plays out in the work place.

Let me paint you a picture of Margaret (Mags) for you. She is the MD of a small firm in her early 50's. Mags started her business in her late 20's and has been running it for just over 20 years. She runs a service business with a turnover of about £7mil a year. She has run her company with an iron fist but she hadn't set out to do this, she said "it just happened" and it gets worse when there are client deadlines. Mags had a messy divorce in her early 40's and her sons are now both going to leave home to go to university. Mags is also going through the dreaded lady change (and there is not a woman alive who relishes this transition). Mags is also a very proud woman and feels she has a lot to prove to the men from her entrepreneur peer group. She started her working life in a generation when you had to play like a man to get anywhere. And she still wears this mask because she feels she needs to.

Mags is so afraid of the loss of control in her personal life, and the self imposed stress to be the best in her field of expertise to show the boys that she is better than them or just as good as. The only area of her life that she feels she has control is her business. And is going about it in a very self destructive fashion.

We have all just gone through a horrid recession, and the pressure to keep ones business surviving is immense. Instead of helping her business flourish and empower her staff to make decisions, be collaborative and creative, Mags is unknowingly suffocating it. From my observations and discussions with Mags and various people in her team. A few things came up, which she exhibits in some of her behaviours and communication style.

The behaviours that are not conducive to creating a compassionate working environment. Impatience, favouritism, withholding vital information, being a little snappy when staff are a little late or off sick, there is a lack of flexibility with staff even when they have worked till midnight the previous day, lack of client expectation management, openly undermining her staff, she never missed an opportunity to disparage the people around her. And worse still she was completely unaware of how she came across. Mags is a strong woman, highly educated, has done well for herself and her sons financially and is generous (she hosts the most lavish work parties, subsidises lunch for her staff and pays an above average wage for her industry).

She wants her business to grow and to do this need to hire externally for senior staff to help take her business to the next level. She still has some staff working with her that have been there from the very beginning, who have also picked up and exhibit the habits and communication style she does. Mags has a high staff turnover. The thing that has hindered Mags from "seeing" what the issue is that her core original team is still with her. Mags is going to have to start at the very beginning with facing some hard truths and improving on her self awareness, if she wants to grow and for this growth to be sustainable.

Mags is not alone, there are hundreds and thousands of business owners who exhibit similar behaviours with their employees. And because they have historically done well do not feel the need to change the way they communicate or the organisational culture.

So yes, we all know that, "happy" people are more productive and produce the best work and this has a direct correlation with profitability. Yet everyone is under pressure to get results, and when there is pressure all well meaning intentions of wanting to instill a good working environment and being compassionate gets chucked out the window. How many times have you started a company initiative and for some reason or another it either gets parked, put on the back burner for another time or gets completely abandoned because there is something more urgent that needs to happen.

In danger of being repetitive, learning to communicate with compassion and changing ones culture is not easy. It takes time, patience and a hell of a lot of perseverance. But by George, once you have it nailed and these things have become a habit then its easy to keep using them even in the most difficult and pressured environments. What reality do you want for your business? And are you brave enough to look in the mirror to address some of the issues?