AWARENESS...
Awareness is focus area for any great leader.
Awareness is an extremely broad area.
Employees always look up?to leaders when they have?clarification, or they would like to obtain an expert opinion. At such times, it could be quite embarrassing for a leader, or manager to face the employees unprepared to answer such clarifications. Due to this, we have identified some of the key areas that a leader needs to be aware?of at minimum to ensure they do not encounter?situations that would make them appear?unaware.
Following is some of the key areas of awareness:
Bottlenecks and Roadblocks:
Any organization, irrespective of its size or scale, would have its?potential Bottlenecks and Roadblocks. These are quite common, and there is not a one-time solution that can be provided to address all of them once and for all. While some are addressed, they may appear down the line in some other way in another market situation.
Bottlenecks could be anything that potentially slows down an organization’s process, eventually leading it to slow down or could lead to a drop the efficiency levels. This could either be due to a human being or a machine or could be due to a group of people and a range of machines and other equipment too. If not, this could be due to the underutilization of any resources?part of a business process.
Bottlenecks can be addressed either by cutting down the inefficiencies or by providing a workaround for the bottleneck.
When it comes to bottlenecks, there are two types. It could be either internal (within the organization) or?external (outside the organization). ?The internal roadblocks could be addressed much quicker than the external ones due to the organization’s ability to influence such. On the other hand, external one may have?higher complexity and challenge in addressing in comparison to internal ones.
Roadblocks, on the other hand, could be both internal and external too. However, the difference between a Bottleneck and a Roadblock is, Bottlenecks that can be improved by improving efficiencies, but Roadblocks are technically situations where they bring some process to stand still.
Leaders and Managers need to?focus to ensuring organizations do not hit any roadblocks and prior arrangements and precautions to be taken way in advance.
The potential damage a Roadblock could cause could be multiple times more compared to a Bottleneck. One common type of?Roadblock could be identified as sudden changes in Country Regulations or a sudden impose of a trade embargo.
Therefore, leaders and managers have to ensure proper risk mitigation plans are in place to have some workarounds in such scenarios to ensure it does not have devastating impacts on the business where the business’s existence is put at?risk.
Organizational Strategy and Goals
Organizational Strategy and Goals are something any Leader or Manager must be aware of in detail.
There are chances where general employees many do not get?complete visibility on such changes. However, if you are a leader, you will be made aware of such.
There is?no excuse for you for not being aware of these. Organizational strategy?may get changed every quarter from a short-term strategy standpoint, and for some organizations, this may change every year or could be even every five years from a?long-term perspective.
Due to the fast-changing market conditions, there are even times where an organization could change?its business strategy even?in a shorter time. When such changes occur, what follows would be the potential changes of organizational goals from top to bottom to stay relevant and aligned with the organizational strategies. In such scenarios, it will be the duty of a Leader or a Manager to ensure such changes are done quickly as possible, and the relevant KPIs are set for the employees. To carry out such activities in a shorter period and to face questions and clarifications from employees, it is essential that you know what you are preaching.
Therefore, as a Leader or Manager, your utmost duty is to keep yourself aware and updated with any organization strategy changes and then to carry out an impact analysis to understand which goals and KPIs could potentially change due to this.
Furthermore, it will be your duty to inform these changes to your employees and ensure the action items are driven among the employees for the overall organizational objectives to be achieved.
Such rapid processes could be very challenging?and would have challenges of their own. Therefore, we recommend all Leaders and Managers to make it a habit to check for such changes and allocate?some time daily?or weekly?for you to read through the same. Discussing the same with your peers to check your awareness is one other way for effectively staying updated.?
Organizational Policy and Procedures
Organizational Policies and Procedures are the guidelines that every employee needs to be aware of. A Policy is a document that contains the operation procedures and guidelines that all employees need to follow bases on their job roles and functions.
As Leaders and Managers, you need to be aware of it completely. While these could be lengthy documents with long lists of items,?you must allocate time to read, understand, and interpret it clearly and get?its gist.
Based on the size and nature of the organizations, the number of Policies and Procedures?vary. However, for any given organization, there will be some key Policies and Procedures?common for all teams. For?example, the Policy on Leaves or Policy on Communications could be general. Such Policies & Procedures need to be given?top priority.
Secondly, based on the job functions, some other Policies and Procedures could be vital. For?example, for someone working in the Imports Department, the Policies and Procedures on Imports would carry more importance than others.
As a Leader or a Manager, you have to stay updated and relevant with both the above policy types.
Thirdly, there could be other policies that are occasionally important. Policy on Foreign Travel etc. where these could be important if you are going through such requirements only. These should be read and understood based on each of the individual requirements on the basis they arise.
While you are?aware of the policies, there are many?times when there will be updates and amendments?carried out. In such cases, you need to make sure you do not fail to update yourself on such changes and the areas that get impacted.
Once you are up to date on these, your next responsibility is to ensure your departments and subordinates are?aware of these. As a Leader or a Manager, it is mandatory that you make it a point to check your team’s awareness.
In the event of any understanding issues, it will be your duty to ensure you take necessary corrective actions to address these gaps in understanding.
Employee Strengths and Weaknesses
Leaders and Managers are the custodians for their employees. Therefore, it is the duty of every Leader and Manager to ensure they are up to date on who their employees are and?their Key Strengths and Weaknesses.
?It would be best to clarify r?that each employee is unique, and their skills and capabilities may also be?unique to the others.
While an employee is good at communications, they may not be so great when it comes to execution.
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An organization requires people of different talents and skillsets. However, expecting all skills from one individual would never be practical.
A successful leader or a?manager can accurately understand the Skills of each individual and position them to a role or task that can get the best use of their Strengths.
At the same time, it is also very important to try the level best to make less use of the employee’s weakness or?be more precise not to explore such weakness as it could negatively impact the employee.
As a Leader or a Manager, you must be truly clear about which skills are required for each job and how many such resources you have with you. This will be the first level of filtration that you must be exceptionally good at.
As the second step, you should be good at understanding the potential skill gaps?faced by each employee and how this can be improved to suit well for their jobs.
At the third step, you must be clear on the weaknesses of employees, and you need to discuss with them?how those can be improved gradually. While some skills can be improved,?some aspects?are quite challenging to improve.
Therefore, it is your responsibility to figure out what can be improved and then work on a plan?with the employee to?improve it. This could be quite challenging and however, if the employee is positive?about the transformation, you have to create the right environment for the employee for?to go through this journey.
Organizational Communication Guidelines
Communication guidelines mean a set of procedures and guidelines that any official communication made needs to adhere to.
Communication Guidelines are an especially important requirement for any organization. While some organizations?have incredibly detailed guidelines, some organizations?may not have such in place.
However, as a Leader or a Manager,?you need to understand and adhere to your organization’s communications protocols.
Once again, this may vary from one organization to another. While many organizations have communication guidelines for?external and internal communications, some may only have either one of them.
It is always advisable that you consult the leadership before any official communication is made.
?If there are clear guidelines in place, your first duty is to make sure that you are fully aware?of the organization’s communication protocols. If you do not adhere to these, it could lead to situations of chaos.
Especially when you represent your organization in?the event that it is outside, it is always good that you go prepared for some of the frequently asked questions.
Furthermore, this is also very important when you make any communications within your teams too. It is always recommended to let the communications teams?pass official communications within organizations.
In the absence of such, it is recommended that you acquire the right communication materials from the respective teams and?ensure the same is communicated.?
Latest Trends
We live in a world where things are changing quite fast. Every day we see some innovation on a trend that takes all of us by storm. As a Leader or a Manager, it is particularly important that you stay updated with the latest trends?around you.
Some of those may directly impact on your industry or job, while the others could be general information or knowledge that may help you indirectly in your job.
While you spend time?focusing on your core job, make it a habit to allocate some time from your calendar to go through what is happening around you.
With the help of technology, things have become easy and fast to implement.
Some suggestion for you is to follow some pages on social platforms that talk about technology and innovation. Furthermore, subscribe to newsletters of journals and thought leadership?shared by different bodies?relevant to your specific fields.
Furthermore, if your organization has some internal communications that are happening which are relevant, ensure that you allocate time for the same as well.
Understanding the latest technological trends that support the efficiencies and productivity of businesses are some key areas the leaders and managers need to?focus on.
Business who moves to such transformational trends that are game changers will always have an advantage over the others. First mover advantage is a reality that no one can deny.
?You have to work as the change agent who would implement such worthy trends within your organization that will help improve your employee’s efficiency and productivity levels.
Furthermore, make it an organizational culture and encourage your employees?to stay updated and try to explain?how it could benefit them to grow themselves and their career within the organization.
Innovation has to be one such main area any organization needs to work very closely on. Innovation never stops, and there is room for improvement even for the best efficient business process you have.
Out-of-the-box thinking combined with innovative mindsets?is proven to produce greater outcomes.