From the trends identified in the survey analysis, my focus honed in
on rewards, recognition, praise, development, and workplace
conditions. Across these focus areas, what stood out was the
challenges related to the relationship between team members and
their supervisors. e Across the three surveys, questions regarding
supervisor leadership behaviours showed significant deterioration
and a clear sign of issues of trust, mutual respect, and collaboration
when building reward systems, synergistic goals, and shared value
systems. e As a result, a breakdown in communication has left team
members feeling discouraged, unsupported, and unappreciated.
e There are three key leadership behaviours that contribute to a
turnaround: model the way, enable others to act, and encourage the
heart. e Kouzes and Posner (2021) say that Model the Way means
leaders should lead by example, aligning their workplace behaviours
with their team, and making sure their voice clearly reinforces the
corporate mission. e Sherman (2016) says by modelling the way,
leaders should ask purposeful questions and seek feedback from their
team. e They should take action to show support and ensure their
team feels like they understand challenges and will help overcome
obstacles. e This not only builds camaraderie, but helps reduce stress
and anxiety. With low scores specifically regarding trust, support,
and understanding, learning to model the way aligns with improved
scores.
e The survey results also showed challenges specific to rewards and
collaboration. "My supervisor takes time to praise those who do an
excellent job," scored just thirty-five percent favourable, dropping
from forty-four in the first survey. Kouzes and Posner (2021) define
the Encourage the Heart leadership behaviour through a recognition
of success and personalized celebrations. In a more recent chapter,
they take it a step further and say that leaders should make
celebrations a common part of everyday workplace interaction
(Kouzes & Posner, 2021). e When team members have fun at work,
they are more likely to keep their spirits up through daily work
stressors and contribute to team positivity. e Barry Chignell (2018)
says that happy employees are literally healthier, more creative, and
more productive. If supervisors can be more inclusive in their reward
system creation and improve workplace celebration, they should see
significant score increases when they encourage the heart.
e Finally, in Enable Others to Act, Kouzes and Posner (2021) say that
leaders should support each other and create a cohesive team
through collaboration and encouragement. While scores are high
specific to training skills, team members do not feel they are included
in the training and development processes. e There is a disconnect
between training format creation and actually involving members of
the team. e By sitting down with team members to create new training
materials together, leaders can improve their enable others to act
leadership behaviour to drive up scores related to a collaborative
effort.
References
Chignell, Barry. (2018). Six Reasons Why Fun in the Office is the Future
of Work.
e CIPHR. https://www.ciphr.com/advice/fun-in-the-office/
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2021). Leadership Challenge, 6th Edition for
Southern
e New Hampshire University. Available from: Wiley PLUS, Wiley
Global Education US.
Sherman, Rose. (2016). Modeling the Way as a Leader. Emerging RN
Leader.
e https://www.emergingrnleader.com/modeling-the-way-as-a-
leader/
