PRACTICE IN THE WORKPLACE SERIES: THINKING ON THE JOB

Employees are often found in their respective departments following orders as task management associates with little to no thinking. Guidelines are present in cubicles along with scripts and a "color inside the lines" instruction from leadership. What is missing is vital to improving customer satisfaction, process improvement, and meeting corporate goals. Getting your teams to think is a job function that needs to be included in all job descriptions for front-line employees.

I was fascinated with a post from Kate Nasser about the Two Magical Words for Best 21st Century People-Skills. "What if" made me think about myself, my teams and those around me.

As a leader, I have always wanted to know what employees thought about our operations. Asking for feedback and their thoughts is a balancing act. Sure, you have a handful of the Saturday Night Live character Debby Downer, but if you are mentoring and developing your staff, great improvements and progress is abundant. Here is a typical conversation:

Employee: "I don't know how we are going to meet this delivery time frame because we are already full."

Me: (pause) "Well, what do you think we should do?"

Employee: "I don't know."

Me: "If you had to make the decision, what do you think would be the best option."

Employee: "We could add this delivery to the beginning of a route, then come back to pick up the original 1st delivery and increase the time window throughout the day so there are not any customer delays."

Me: "Great idea."


This was a regular dialogue with my staff. Sure, I could have taken the time to "think" out a plan but wait practice did our employees received. How were they developing? As a leader, asking your employees' thoughts provides benefits that are immediate and also long-term.

How are you getting your employees to think on the job? What are other ways to generate ideas from your greatest assets? WHAT DO YOU THINK? Post your comments here: