Focus on the Work

First, a big thanks to the growing number of readers who are coming to this site and spending more and more time here. We’re happy to have you. We see this topic as a dialog and your questions, comments and even outright objections are not only welcomed but desired.

With that in mind, we’d like to respond to one of the comments to last Friday’s post about workplace rudeness. Tim! asks, “If we have a team meeting and I ask everyone to be in the office by noon and one guy shows up at 12:30 thus wasting everyone’s time, isn’t that also rude?”

We have to admit we are a bit conflicted as to how to answer. We don’t like jerks anymore than the next person, but part of the definition of rudeness has to do with violating social norms.  And, in the case of workplace and time, we feel the norms are the problem, less so people’s individual behavior.

Is a person who keeps their coworkers waiting rude? Yes. At the same time, we feel that when managers create a culture of fear around time, they are selling their people, their business and themselves short. Chewing someone out for being late might make them less likely to be late the next time, but it isn’t going to motivate them to perform better. You’re also sending a message to the rest of the team that time is more important than results.

Furthermore, by making it personal you’re missing out on an opportunity to talk about outcomes. In a ROWE, when  managers are having problems with an employee’s performance, they focus on the work, not on the employee’s use of time, their personal work style, or their “lack of dedication”.

So to all you managers out there: the next time you’re having problems with a late employee, take a deep breath, remind yourself that it’s not personal - it’s business - and talk to that employee about the outcomes they need to drive. Focus on time and you’ll get punctuality. Focus on results and you’ll get performance.

Posted in Effective management, Meetings, Time