There are complains about how people are so busy getting the work done that their workplace has lost the human essence. When people work behind closed doors, when they keep to themselves, when they hardly have time to connect, limited or no employee engagement programs, lack of employee well-being interventions, it becomes a mechanized workplace.
For a workplace to thrive, it has to be humanized, because a successful organization is an organism whose parts are all connected and functioning effectively. Creating a hostile work environment will stifle growth and kill innovation. Employees spend a lot of hours at the workplace and anything short of creating a conducive work environment will be counterproductive.
Do something meaningful: When a team is energized around a purpose, the work is more meaningful and the days go by faster. When everyone understands that they’re part of a group of people creating something bigger than themselves, great things happen. There should be a culture that supports a sense of purpose and the desire to be meaningful even in a small task.
Build a strong network: As human beings, we require connections. People don’t thrive in isolation, so humanizing a company, a team, or a culture means encouraging employees to be compassionate and supportive and considerate toward one another, working on relationships as well get getting stuff done. No one person can get everything done, it is therefore important to build a strong working relationship with people. Such connections are always of help when one gets stuck or needs assistance.
Trusting one another to do their part. Think about all the rules your company has and ask whether they’re helping your culture, people and the organization to thrive. Do you need to become more human by trusting one another and doing away with procedures and policies that keep that trust and confidence from growing? Always review policies, procedures and practices that do not build trust, be clear in your policy the expectation of everyone—this will avoid assumptions and not give room for the lazy ones to operate.
Empower employees. Unfortunately, in many workplaces, people mistakenly think that the more power they have the more influential they will be. But the most admired leaders know that leadership isn’t about power—power dehumanizes cultures, companies, teams and people. Leaders who empower others have the healthiest cultures and the most successful workplaces. It brings confidence in teams and prepares people for leadership. It takes a lot of burden of your shoulder as a leader whiles you look at other aspects of the business.
Creating opportunities. Many workplaces hold meetings, but are your meetings helping you cultivate and create opportunities within your workplace? If not, rethink how you hold your meetings. Make every meeting an opportunity for establishing and developing teams whose members can learn from one another, think with one another and care for one another.
Acknowledging contributions of others. Humanizing your workplace starts with acknowledging the people you work with and do business with. It means taking every opportunity to recognize and praise those who contribute on a daily basis for their efforts and achievements. Appreciation is very important for a good work done if we give negative feedback to employees, then we should also make the effort to appreciate results. It may not necessarily be in the form of giving a financial reward but maybe just a simple email expressing appreciation.
Providing service to others. At the end of the day, the people who are the most influential are those who serve others. Make it your business to ask those around you if there’s anything you can do to help, guide, mentor or assist. A true measure of successful humanity comes from the number of people you serve. We should desire to serve others who may require our expertise, it can go a long way to solve or lift a burden of someone.
Challenging yourself out of your comfort zone. If people are coasting at work, they’re not bringing the best parts of who they are. It may be uncomfortable to challenge the status quo, but that is part of being human. Encourage everyone—yourself included—to move beyond their comfort zone and dare themselves to try something new. People become better and advance when they break frontiers and achieve new results.
Learning from others. If your culture is filled with individuals who are always pushing their agenda, maybe it’s time to humanize the way people think, act and communicate. Work to create a culture of leaders who are students—always curious, developing and growing, learning from each other instead of pushing their own ideas on others. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other; make them the foundation of everything you do. There are people with great potentials in our teams and within the organization, we should be craving to learn from them.
Bringing value to everything you do. People don’t get paid for an hour of their time but for the value, they bring during that hour. Work to bring all of who you are to work, to give a little bit more of yourself than you normally would. When you do, you lead by example. Ask yourself every day, “How can I bring value to those I work with?” Don’t wait for others to humanize the culture but lead the charge yourself. Adding value to your work will help you stay relevant all the time. This requires a lot of reading and research and the ability to practice what you have learnt, the world is evolving and there are new ways of doing things.
To deny a culture its humanity is to deprive a workplace of being human. Humanize your workplace to benefit those who are of service to the cause. The introduction of artificial intelligence and robotics can totally eliminate the human factor in the workplace. Conscious efforts must be made to ensure proper integration of human beings and machines—how this will affect people and design an atmosphere to accommodate both. Great and productive work atmosphere attracts the best talent, facilitates innovation and position the brand as an employer of choice.
Source: BrightAmpaduOkyere/LollyDaskal
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