Your job isn't to make life comfortable for your employees - it's about using and developing their talents to the maximum benefit of your business. They work for you and get paid for it - that's the transaction you've both agreed.
You have, presumably, defined their role and given them the prerequisite tools to do it. You check back regularly on how they're getting on but don't interfere unless you need to course correct.
I've made it sound cold and callous, and I don't mean that at all. What I learned in my career is that if you want your team to thrive, then you must challenge them.
When you challenge someone you're encouraging them to work at, or beyond, the peak of their physical or intellectual capability. If their work is physical they will get fitter, if it's intellectual they will learn. The word, 'beyond' is important. We humans thrive when we're pushed beyond our current capability. Why would people go to gyms and fitness clubs if it was otherwise? My daughter does triathlons - pushing herself to a new threshold is her thing.
In a work context I see it this way: Imagine you're walking on a cliff path side-by-side with your employee. At the bottom of the cliff 50 metres below are jagged rocks and a raging sea. There are hungry sharks and cut-throat pirates - you get the picture. You stay well away from the edge because neither of you want to trip and fall. And there's a fence to save you. You're having a comfortable walk; ambling along, with your mind and muscles relaxed. Your heartbeat is at-rest steady.
Then you both decide to walk closer to the edge, and then yet closer, until you're 50cm away from the abiss. There are trip hazards everywhere and someone removed the fence. You're both no longer so relaxed, but you agree it's become a thrilling walk. You're both very focussed on what you're doing.
How's it feeling for you and your employee? It kind of depends:
If you're closer to the edge than them, you're providing them some protection. You'll fall first and they'll probably be OK. If they fall, you'll go too.
If they are closer to the edge than you, they will feel exposed and that you're not taking the same level of risk. They might trip, fall and die you'll probably be OK. You'll live to see another day - pity about them.
If you're both the same distance from the edge, with you leading the way, you're providing some protection by encountering the trip hazards first.
If they're leading the way they are going to feel very exposed.
Maybe sit down, dangle your feet over the edge - stare at the rocks below. It's exhilarating!
For me the cliff-edge is an interesting metaphor for challenge, and your relative positions in relation to the edge is symbolic of how you treat people. If 2 & 4 appeal to you, you're not sharing the challenge; you're asking them to do something you're not prepared to do yourself. Your cries for extreme performance are phoney. 1 is better. 3 is best because you're both fully committed. It's your business, so it's your risk ultimately. But the closer you can get to the edge of the abyss yourself and the more you can encourage people to follow your lead, the more of a challenge you will create and the more successful you will be.
Some of your employees will relish being taken to the edge, others will avoid it. That's OK, but you're probably going to need a mix of both.
To give you a concrete example. Before the age of smartphones, the race between manufacturers was to create mobile phones that were small and light. At Philips we created a phone called Genie and at 99 grams we promoted it as the world's lightest phone. Our largest competitor objected and said they had the lightest - they threatened legal action. In order to win we knew we needed not just 99 grams but closer to 96 grams to give some margin. We set the challenge to our engineering team. We explained why this was important and that we needed it for the biggest mobile phone show of the year in 3 months. They bought in and we all set to work. We reduced weight by eliminating components, shaving plastics, using a lighter display and battery. Every morning for 3 months we weighed the new phone - each day we might get 0.1 or 0.2 grams improvement. It was agonising and thrilling at the same time.
And then eventually we did it and got to target weight - 96 grams. At the show our competitor came over and demanded we remove the panels that claimed the lightest weight. So we challenged them to a weigh-off. With a set of calibrated scientific scales we weighed in at 96 grams and they were ......... 97.5 grams. They were better than advertised but not good enough. We won. And we insisted they remove their panels. I was told later that our engineers cheered when they heard the news. When we got home we partied.
We took the team to the edge, they looked down into the abyss and shrugged it off, and they got the job done. Don't be scared of showing your team what the cliff-edge looks like.
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