New Tool To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Management Team In Motivating Your Employees

Nov. 17, 2008 - PRLog -- When entering a period of economic hardship many employees start to wonder what lies ahead for them.  They begin to wonder how they will be affected by the financial crisis?  It is only natural for them to question whether their jobs will be safe.  If cutbacks are to be made who will stay and who will be let go?  Doubt and uncertainty has a very damaging effect on morale, motivation and ultimately productivity and effectiveness.  It is vital therefore that an organisation’s managers are equipped to deal with these tough times and can get the best from their employees.
The Leadership M.O.D.E.L. ™
The challenge in the past has always been determining what we want effective leadership to look like. It seems that no two leadership experts can agree on the qualities and attributes that they consider to be important.  Thankfully this has now been resolved.  Dubai based Employee Motivation and Leadership specialists The Core Group have spent the last 2 years researching and developing a tool to establish a universal set of leadership characteristics that apply to all leadership positions and across all cultures.  Founder and Managing Director of The Core Group – Steve Halligan, explains.
“Of course each management role is slightly different and each individual and organisation have unique aspects to the way they operate, but we wanted to establish if there were certain qualities and behaviours that everyone was looking for from their managers and leaders.”
To do this, The Core Group identified the best international research to see what were the trends at a global level.  Halligan continues: “We found some excellent research that showed what employees are looking for from their managers at a global level but wanted to verify that with what people were looking for in the this region.  To do this we supplemented the international research with our own local research.  This part of the world has a unique blend of nationalities and cultures and we wanted to ensure that the qualities we identified are relevant to what is happening here.”
The qualities identified are based around four key areas that all employees in the region are looking for from their managers and leaders:
1.   Trust
Employees need to feel that they can believe the information that they are being given by the management team.  There needs to be open and honest communication where employees can speak up and voice their concerns without fear of recrimination.
2.   Hope
Employees need to feel that there is a good future for the organisation and that they also have the chance to grow and develop as the company realises these opportunities.
3.   Worth
People need to feel that if they do a good job they will recognised for their effectives and that they will be compensated fairly for the work they have done.
4.   Competence
Finally employees need to know that they are being given the skills they need to perform their current roles and that they are being challenged to learn new skills that will help them move up the corporate ladder.

Behind each of these areas are a series of attributes and behaviours – some positive that contribute towards the effective management of the team, and some negative that damage the relationship with the team.  Employees and team members are giving the opportunity to assess how often their manager exhibits the positive behaviours and how often they are seen showing the negative traits.  

Steve Halligan went on the explain: “No manager or leader is a saint and only exhibits the positive traits.  We all have good and bad days.  Building this environment with your team is a little like having a bank account.  Every time you exhibit a positive behaviour you have made a deposit.  Every time you slip and a negative trait appears, you have made a withdrawal.  What is important is to see what the balance is at the end of the period you are measuring.  Am I in credit with my team, or am I in debt?.”

The Leadership M.O.D.E.L.™ (Measuring Observable Dimensions of Effective Leadership) is an online tool where each team member gets to give feedback to his/her manager about how many times they have they have exhibited the various traits.  The output is then compared with some regional benchmark data so senior management can assess how they are performing compared to the rest of the market.
This is then used in conjunction with HR and in some cases external coaching services to help each manager continue to build on their strengths and address some of the areas where they need to make improvements.

Halligan went on to explain the importance of a tool such as this: “The quest to retain your top talent in difficult times is the only way to ensure continued success.  Whilst it is true that people are often lured away by a competitive offer, both our local research and international research has shown that usually something happens to “push” that employee towards looking at another organisation.  More often than not, that “push” is something that the immediate manager or supervisor has done.  If senior management really do believe that people are their most important asset – and we have yet to meet one that doesn’t say this – then they need to identify how this asset is being managed to ensure that they can not just retain it but nurture it into something that makes a valuable contribution to the organisation.  As the old saying goes, people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses!.”


Company Information
The Core Group is a Dubai based Employee Motivation and Leadership Consultancy based in Dubai Knowledge Village. Steve Halligan is a recognised authority on the subject of Employee Engagement and Leadership.  He has been based in Dubai since 1991 and has spoken at several major conferences and events across the Middle East.
For more information please contact us at: steve@coredubai.com or visit the website: www.coredubai.com

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We are the leading employee motivation and leadership consultancy in the Middle East. We have been based in Dubai for nearly 2 decades offering our customers practical advice and tools on how to get the most from their employees.