Get Rid of Traditional Management Styles

Many of us have endured those unbearable moments where we are faced to wake up on a Saturday or Sunday morning, grab a cup of coffee, and sit in front of our laptop for endless hours to meet deadlines, complete projects, or prepare for assignments due Monday morning. 

Having worked in the corporate environment for many years, and dealing with Monday morning managers meetings, followed by team meetings, followed by meetings with the project manager etc. has only led to days where nothing was accomplished at the office, and being forced to bring the work home- taking away from the precious time spent with family, friends, extra-curricular activities or merely relaxing and watching a show. Many organizations are beginning to discuss "work/life balance" but few really know how to authentically execute this based on both the needs of the organization, and the life of the employee. 

In one of my positions, I had the opportunity to WFH (work from home). What I learned was that my productivity rate increased and my stress level decreased. Working from home allowed me the space and time to focus on projects, reports, and actually getting work done. The involuntary stimuli or distractions were not there to hinder me from completing my tasks. No one was walking into my office every 5 minutes asking questions nor was I constantly being pulled into a meeting to discuss some future potential of the organization. I was able to focus on what was in front of me and allow my multi-potential, creative mind to flourish and deliver powerful and worthy results. Working from home is becoming more and more acceptable in both corporate, nonprofit and charitable organizations as noted by the GlobalWorkplaceAnalytic 

• Regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 103% since 2005 and 6.5% in 2014. This represents the largest year over year increase since before the recession. 
• 3.7 million employees (2.5% of the workforce) now work from home at least half the time.

Traditional vs. Enlightened managers commonly perceive employees to spend their days trolling social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, this has led to many organizations blocking websites. Does this seem realistic? Especially in an age where millennials are entering into the workforce, and social media is an acceptable form of marketing for many organizations. Even if an employee took 30 minutes per day to troll social media, isn't this similar to employers offering smoke breaks? 

Work days are no longer productive days but rather work moments. The moment we enter the front door of the organization, we enter a Cuisinart, and the day becomes shredded with involuntary distractions, the idea of having long stretches of uninterrupted time to actually work is eliminated. The problem is not that employees cannot get the job done. The problem is Managers and Meetings, especially when creative and talented workers who require uninterrupted time are constantly being bombarded with additional tasks. Jason Fried did an excellent Ted Talk on the topic of Why Work Does Not Happen at Work. Three key items Jason suggested to help productivity while in the office were:

1. No talk Thursday's (or choose any day you wish)
2. Passive communication versus Active communication
3. Cancel all of your meetings- Especially on Monday

We are moving into an age where it is becoming more important to learn about your employees rather than place them in a box and expect them to produce what is required. Individuals are proving to be more vocal, creative, and talented than in the past. Management styles need to be revamped or employers will risk losing gem employees capable of taking the organization from zero to one- hundred quickly. Working from home can be a plausible solution to the toxic employee who always over achieves, yet gets bored easily. It can also be a great gift of the organization to reduce overhead, and supply an employee with more time to do family and life oriented activities. 

"Employees' are people not machines- being realistic about inputs and outputs are crucial in managing a top producing team."