The Employee Employer Teeter Totter

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What It’s About: Do you remember playing on the teeter totter as a kid? (Some of you may have to Google what a teeter totter [also known as a seesaw] is). When you sat on one end of it, and each participant did their part, it was a fun playground experience. However, if one person took advantage of the other, it could end badly. Similarly in the workplace, if there is a wonderful balance of mutual investment between employer and employee, the ride may not be perfect, but quite enjoyable overall. When either the employer or employee does not do their part, the experience is not very good, perhaps even toxic.

So What?: I regularly state the belief that people have a right to great (not perfect) leadership. Leaders have a responsibility to make workplaces great. The reciprocal expectation is that people at all levels also have a responsibility to do their best (not perfect) work. When management loses perspective, people can become a transaction based, replaceable line item, on the income statement. When employees lose perspective, they act more entitled and think they are owed a job.

This balanced respect is increasingly important as we make remote work arrangements more permanent. If management believes people are not giving their best, they start to impose suffocating control and micro-manage. If employees believe that somehow all they have to do is punch in the time or, simply work hard without due consideration to getting valued results, then productivity falls and the organization struggles.

Now What?: Everyone needs to contribute to having the right conversation on the workplace teeter totter. We need to be able to better clarify expectations between managers and team members. What do we really expect from each other? What is the winning formula for success at the team/organization, and individual levels? This is different, and more complete than the importance of knowing purpose, values, objectives and KPIs. As an example, a sports team may have clarity on all of these, and yet lack the required execution to win consistently. A statement like “be prepared” needs more definitive examples, so people know what really is required. They must see, and feel it in action. The coach needs to outline both process and result expectations, while the player must be committed to learn and make it so. As we often say: No results equals no jobs. Make the teeter totter fun. Each of us needs to do our part.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

Lorne

One Millennial View: I think this is why we often talk about the effectiveness of storytelling. When employers can illustrate examples of what great (but not perfect) work looks like in their great (but not perfect) leadership system, then that’s a superb way to get employees bouncing back on that teeter totter, in a fun, result producing way.

- Garrett

The Employee Employer Teeter Totter

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