The BETTER AGREEMENT GUIDE™
BETTER BUSINESS is in The BAG™
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EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIPS
Anything on earth you want to do is play. Anything on earth you have to do is work. Play will never kill you, work will. I never worked a day in my life. Leila Denmark, on her 102nd birthday A few years ago, in the height of the high tech boom, I was working with an organization whose newly minted managers were not performing up to par. I suspected that the phenomenon was widespread, given how hot the segment of the economy was and the lack of time for training new managers. An official from the Bureau of Labor Statistics told me that in the previous six months, 250,000 new managers had lost their jobs within six months of being promoted. She told me that the bureau became concerned, so they polled the terminated employees. They found that most employees were terminated for poor performance. When the interviewers probed more deeply, they found that performance was poor because employees did not know what their job was and what was expected of them. In the flattening world of knowledge workers, projects are much more collegial than hieratical. That said, there is still usually someone identified as the boss. When I teach management seminars, one of my favorite and most revealing exercises involves asking participants to reflect on two questions;
1. Intent and Vision: Our intention is to have a collaborative employment relationship that is focused on the mission of our organization moving kids out of foster care and finding permanent homes for them. John's vision is that he will run his department on his own without daily input and micromanaging from Rita, that Rita will provide mentoring and consultation when needed, that Rita will groom John for her job, and that Rita will provide ongoing feedback. Rita's vision is that John will run his department independently with no need for daily contact or supervision, that John reach his annual placement goals and quarterly benchmarks, that John manage the fifteen people reporting to him without the need for her intervention, and that John and his department will contribute to the agency's culture of collaboration. 2. Roles: Rita is a resource, mentor, coach, and teacher. John is responsible for his department. John and Rita agree that for their operation to be successful they will need the support of other departments, a supply of kids and adoptive parents, and the cooperation of legal authorities and the media. 3. Promises: John promises:
5. Measurements of Satisfaction: The measure of satisfaction will be (1) the placement of 120 children for the year and the benchmarks leading up to that; and (2) a positive rating of 80 percent of organizational employees in the annual employee satisfaction survey. 6. Concerns and Fears: Rita is concerned that John will not be able to control his temper. John is concerned about Rita providing enough funding. 7. Renegotiation & Dissolution: John and Rita agree to be open to modifying this agreement at any time. They understand that their ongoing relationship, and their ability to work together, is more important than the details of this agreement. They agree that if either one of them is not happy with their working relationship, they will negotiate a change before engaging in destructive behavior. 8. Consequences: John and Rita understand that if their relationship does not work effectively, kids deserving of families will remain in foster care. If John or Rita breaks a promise, they agree to make a $10 donation to their favorite charity. The determination of broken promises will be made by Anthony, a member of their board. 9. Conflict Resolution: John and Rita agree to the following triage in resolving any conflict between them: (1) they will talk with each other; they will not focus on the problem, but on the vision they have for effective collaboration; (2) they will ask Anthony for help; (3) they will engage a managerial mediator; (4) they will engage an arbitrator to decide. 10. Agreement? John and Rita have reached a place of trust and say they have an agreement they can live with and flourish within not so much the written words, but the relationship created by the dialogue that led to this agreement. They will both manage this agreement to achieve the results it envisions. There is no "right" way to do this. The critical action is to do it. Having the dialogue is a fundamental step in creating a sustainable relationship even when circumstances are difficult. The dialogue is the context for creating a meeting of the minds and hearts. It is much more important than any writing. Clients report that using this practice in their organization generates productivity gains because people are more secure in their relationship with their supervisor. Summary: Often employees have trouble with their job because they do not know what their job is and what is expected of them. Two questions every employee and every supervisor must ask themselves are:
Exercise: Establish an "employment agreement for results" with your manager, the person responsible for your coaching and development, and with all of your direct reports if you have management responsibility. |
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