Are you adding value in your workplace?

MANY managerial employees do not make it to the top, get side-lined, demoted, retrenched, dismissed or moved to some obscure positions due to their failure to add visible value to the business.

John was one year old at company X and in the one year he had dismissed more than half of the key skills in the department. Some had resigned, others had requested early retirement and the few who remained were either approaching pensionable age and found moving less attractive or did not have what it takes to move on.

The general manager was concerned about the number of new in-experienced people in John’s department, loss of skills, low productivity and many others. He privately told me of his concerns during a strategic planning session I was facilitating.

He said: “Ndumiso, all the plans coming up here are good and will help us but my concern is John’s department which is already struggling. He is failing to meet deadlines, and is always dismissing and recruiting”.

There are many organisations with similar problems and they show themselves up when there is high staff turnover, the department targets are not met, too many disciplinary hearings in the department, frequent conflicts with subordinates and colleagues, feared and not respected by subordinates and many others.

Managers do not have to be told when they are not performing but should do self-evaluation and take corrective measures. There is no need to wait for the performance review session with your boss to tell that there are performance problems.

The challenge with today’s world of work is that everything is continuously changing and the skills the organisation hired you for are no longer relevant unless you have adapted to change. For example, yesterday’s lawyer will not cope with online legal process, he will not be able to do online conveyancing or Online Dispute Resolution unless he has adapted to technology. Next door in South Africa, the CCMA has moved to Online Dispute Resolution for most cases meaning that traditional labour arbitration skills have become history.

With all the changes that are happening in the world of work for a manager to be successful, add value and keep his job, there is a need to have integrity so as to be able to lead and drive subordinates. Unfortunately, many senior managers engage in activities that compromise integrity, humanity and they show no gratitude towards colleagues and subordinates. For managers to add value and remain relevant, they need to re-tool and keep abreast with modern thinking and develop current skills in communication, self-awareness, influencing techniques. That way they will be able to manage people better and enhance results. Above all, today’s world requires learning agility. There is no longer a need to go to college to get a teacher as before as most training is now online.

In conclusion, managers should develop leadership skills which include clarity, vision, humility, decision making empathy and many others. They should also hook on to technology and smart working method.