Personal attitudes and workplace performance (1)

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life” (Steve Jobs).

Dylan Thomson is a young South African Internet marketer who has in his relatively short work career of only five years worked for six different companies. And, he has not just been involved in the Internet business, but has also been employed and engaged as a property agent and even delivery van driver. At just 24 years of age, he seems to have done so much more than a lot of people would have done at his young age.

I met Dylan when he responded to a job advertisement placed by a company for an Internet marketer, and I was on the interview panel. For the position that he applied for, there were 13 applicants that were interviewed, but his own interview was the most entertaining and in fact hilarious. The young man was simply a treat. He was confident, serious about his convictions and definitely very passionate about his personal beliefs.

For instance, when he was asked what he would most like to become, he replied with dead pan seriousness that he wished to ultimately become an opera singer. The natural question that followed was this: “What then was he trying to achieve by seeking employment as an Internet market?” In the same serious manner, Dylan answered calmly that he wanted first to learn how to market himself online, before launching out as a professional opera singer.

The climax and highpoint of our encounter with Dylan was when he requested to be allowed to sing for us at the interview. We jokingly acceded to his request, and we all surely had a good laugh thereafter. His performance would not only win him the wooden spoon if he ever attempted to participate at the South African Idols’ audition, it would help relieve a lot of stress due to rib-hurting laughter. Of course, we did not employ Dylan, but we encouraged him to keep doing what he felt he had the best talents and passion for. We also appreciated and commended his determination to succeed.

I have come across a few other young people like Dylan, who are in employment in an organisation, but “they are not really there”. Their heart, interests, desire and passion are not with their body in the workplace. They are at best detached, disengaged and disinterested in the workplace. The question then is why are they wasting their time and the time of others, doing what they do not really want to do, or like to do? Moreover, they are depriving others who are better suited and more interested of the opportunity of employment.

This thought made me to engage a few of my friends in corporate leadership on the essence of organisational and team coaching. Apart from obviously seeking for coaching opportunities in their companies, I was also quite keen to assist with identifying their personnel that are unengaged, disengaged, and passively engaged. The importance of this kind of exercise is to ensure good team spirit and a comfortable environment for individuals to express themselves, in turning their talents to treasures.

This exercise is actually the responsibility of the company’s leadership and management team. It is not the job of the coach, although a good organisational coaching process will do much to help reposition the corporate team for better performance, through effective facilitation of personal drive, conviction, awareness, knowledge and passion. In this regard, the coach is not merely focusing on improving technical skills or knowledge, but rather compelling people to exhibit true emotional ownership in the workplace, as against the workplace dichotomy of “we” and “them”.

There is always the danger of loss of personnel effectiveness where this kind of trend sets in. Personal and corporate performance will of course also suffer. What coaching can do in ameliorating this is get people to have a mindset of personal growth and talent development in the workplace. What this means is that the coach helps the people in the company to focus more on their own personal growth, and less on their task or duties in the company.

The idea behind this is that people will be happier to do what is beneficial to them. It is the question of “what’s in it for me?” A good organisational coaching engagement must make it clear to the people that their personal growth is just as important to the company, as every bit of profit the company hopes to make. After all, they are the real producers of profit in the company. It is simply a mindset issue.

Emmanuel Imevbere