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A better office
isn’t built out of the latest
formica and drywall — it’s
built on the shoulders (and
spirits) of the people that
work there. There are lots of
things that a manager can do
to make their office a
positive place to work, from
the immediate and obvious to
the longer-term and more
subtle.
Build Trust
and Communication
Trust and
communication are the two
basic elements of
any
successful relationship,
whether it’s spousal,
employer/employee or mentor/mentee.
Building trust means always
doing what you say you’re
going to do and telling
everyone else that you expect
them to do the same. Building
communication means
addressing the least
comfortable subjects first,
openly, and without
hostility, and expecting
others to do that as well.
Establish
Expectations Early and Check
Results Often
One of the most
oft-heard complaints across
the American business field
is that someone didn’t
understand what was expected
of them, or wasn’t recognized
when they exceeded the
expectations they were given.
Tell everyone in your office
exactly what parameters
you’re judging their work by,
and establish goals for them
to meet on a weekly, monthly,
and quarterly basis. Check
their results against their
goals at every one of those
intervals and give feedback
appropriately.
Offer
Inexpensive Amenities and
Don’t Fuss Over Them
It’s the little
things that separate a good
office from a harsh one. A
bowl of cookies in the break
room. A box of Sprite in the
fridge that anyone can take
from. Microsoft is legendary
for having fully-stocked
snack bars on every floor of
every building in their main
complex, and allowing anyone
to take whatever they need
whenever they happen by. That
kind of thing shows the
employees that they’re not
just profit machines, and
that goes a long way.
Offer
Expensive (But Appropriate)
Tools and Don’t Fuss Over
Them
When you have
to make a painful choice in
the budget, err toward the
side of giving the employees
the best tools for the job.
If you have to buy a dozen
copies of
Adobe Creative Suite
software and a dozen
top-of-the-line
desktop computers in
order to enable your
advertising department to do
their job as easily and
skillfully as possible, just
do it. Your investment in
their tools will pay
dividends in higher morale,
higher productivity, and
greater efficiency.
Be
Approachable
You have
control of your attitude —
always use it to present an
air of availability to your
staff. Even if you’re busy or
feeling off-put,
act
like you want to listen, and
tell whomever is approaching
you that you want to hear
them out, but you’ll have to
do so later when time better
allows. If possible, give
them a specific time that you
expect to get back to them.
Call people by
their name, and memorize one
detail about each person that
you can ask about later on to
give them a sense that you
care. Their spouse’s name,
the grade their child is in —
anything that’s unique to
that person will give them
the idea that you’re paying
attention, and that also goes
a long, long way.
There’s a lot
that goes into making an
office work well, and quite a
bit of it consists of
sometimes-painful changes
that you have to make to your
own habits and behavior. Pull
it off, however, and you can
get your business flowing
smoothly and effectively —
and it will show in the place
that matters most — your
bottom line.
