I’ve accidentally found myself in a position of leadership at a smaller family-run logistics company. My boss is a stereotypical boomer. Micromanager type. His boss is less a micromanager but really into being WAY more aggressive than what is called for. I still don’t make nearly enough to match my responsibilities, but I have a lot of autonomy over my day-to-day and which policies to enforce with employees, so it’s tolerable.
One of my guys told me today he LIKES coming to work because he’s allowed to just do his job and he can really leave it at the door when he goes home, and he is rarely stressed out at work.
I set my mind years ago that I would cultivate a culture of trust and openness amongst one another, as opposed to criticism and babysitting, and I am here to tell you it’s WORTH it. I reward good work with more freedom, NOT more work, and these people have consistently improved in both amount of ‘work’ performed, and FEWER interventions and reprimands.
I didn’t have to hire to replace someone who moved away because my guys specifically requested (yes, they get to have input) to keep the spot open since they were running out of work at the end of their days and they WANTED more stuff to keep them busy. This is all while month-over-month they have done MORE work with fewer people. There have been less mistakes, fewer call offs, nearly ZERO turnover, and I literally never have to say anything to anyone about staying on task. I could, but how is it fair to scold someone for being on their phone for a few minutes when they legitimately do double the work of anybody else? Because they know if they’ve done all of the work and they’re simply waiting for more, I’m not going to tell them to look busy sweeping the sunlight off the floors.
It’s almost as if treating adults like adults and trusting them to manage themselves more and more as they prove they don’t need direction seriously works better for everyone.