As an owner or manager, what do you do when your employees just can’t get along? Are kindness and professionalism lacking in the relationships between staff members?
If you are interested in helping your employees get along better and increasing kindness and professionalism in the workplace, here are a few ideas that can accomplish that goal:
1. START WITH THE WHY. Make sure your team knows why your organization exists. Take time this week to watch Simon Sinek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action. In this TEDx talk, Mr. Sinek observes a powerful truth: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” The same is true of your employees. They don’t work for you because of what you do, but why you do it. Pointing your employees to the why gives them a common language and a common mission and a common goal. It creates allies.
2. ASK THEM TO THINK OF OTHERS. Spend some time with your employees talking about what their co-workers and customers might want in a successful and friendly workplace. What questions are customers asking these days? What workplace problems need solving? What concerns do their coworkers have? Asking the right questions is essential. It gives you valuable information and steers the conversation away from gossip or complaining.
3. ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR ISSUES. We all bring a complicated mix of life events and issues to our workplace everyday. How can we leave those behind when serving the public and each other? At your next staff meeting, consider this activity: Ask your employees write a list of all their life and work concerns. Ask them to keep them anonymous. For example, “My daughter is unemployed and depends too much on me, rather than Becky can’t find a job and lives with Steve and me.” Ask them to crumple their anonymous lists and throw them into an empty box. Explain: “This is a visual image of what we need to do each day when we enter the workplace, acknowledge our personal problems and concerns, but leave them behind. It’s not easy, but as professionals, we can and must do it.”
4. DEMONSTRATE AUTHENTIC CARE. Collect the crumpled pieces of paper in the box. Let them know that you, as their employer, will be reviewing the anonymous lists because you want to know the concerns and challenges of your employees. As their employer, reviewing the lists will help you get to know and understand your team. Let them know that you will be looking for ways to help and support.
5. DO IT. Provide the help and support your employees need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Like a hungry child who cannot focus on his schoolwork, an employee in distress may have difficulty in the workplace. People who are stressed in life have a harder time being nice to each other. Reviewing the crumpled lists, what did you learn? Do your employees need access to a food pantry? Are people struggling with transportation? Would more personal time for medical appointments help? The book, The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly tells a wonderful story of how this idea can transform a company.
6. TALK ABOUT WORDS. One activity we often engage in with clients when identifying the specifics of their brand is to develop two lists: WORDS AND PHRASES WE WILL ALWAYS USE and WORDS AND PHRASES WE WILL NEVER USE. At a staff meeting, ask employees to brainstorm ways they WILL talk to customers and to each other, and ways they WON’T. You can have some fun with this, but at the end of the day, take it seriously. For example, to encourage collaboration and team work, we WILL say “Yes, and…” but we WON’T say “Yes, but…” Compile a list and turn it into a laminated card that employees can easily access. This is an important exercise that makes sense only if you tie back to the why (see #1).
If your goal is not just a civil environment, but also one in which employees care about each other and are invested in the culture of your company, it takes some effort. We’ve given you five pretty simple steps to kick-start the process.
Here’s to more kindness and professionalism in the workplace. We can all use more of both.
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