Five tips for a happy team

Ask most leaders what their number one challenge is and they’ll tell you: people. Yet, good staff are often what set a business apart from its peers, points out Griffith MBA’s Professor Ashlea Troth. She shares five tips to help leaders get the best out of their teams.

People are complex. Within any one team, you are likely to have numerous personalities, different capabilities, varying levels of commitment and a range of quality in output. Is it possible to keep everyone happy?

A people-first focus isn’t about pleasing everybody all of the time, Professor Troth says. It’s about making sure people are recognised as individuals, treated fairly, given performance management and growth opportunities, and prioritised in terms of their health and wellbeing.

And it makes good business sense too, she notes.

What often distinguishes two organisations in the same industry are the people employed. Their attitudes to clients or patients, their efforts, their attention to detail, their service delivery and so on. So much of an organisation’s value depends upon its people.

A people-first focus leads to greater productivity and performance in the medium and long term. Organisations that invest in their workforce typically see less turnover and more engaged staff, who are happy to go to work, with fewer absences and illnesses.

In her course, Leading for Sustainable People Outcomes, Professor Troth guides Griffith MBA students on how to maximise employee outcomes through a better understanding of themselves and others.

As an organisational psychologist specialising in emotional regulation, Professor Troth has spent decades studying the influences of emotions on employees from the frontline to the CEOs. And while solutions may be commonly touted in contemporary leadership philosophy, executing them well is another matter, she says.

With its unique social impact and sustainability focus, the Griffith MBA equips graduates with unique strategies to help them lead teams that are personally and professionally fulfilled.

1. Provide flexibility

We all know this is what employees want, but providing remote working flexibility is challenging for businesses that aren’t set up to optimise the model, Professor Troth notes.

“While Covid might have temporarily forced change, many companies still need to do the bigger thinking around how they adapt long-term.

“Leaders need to upskill on managing people across online and in-person interactions,” she says.

“This broadly involves trusting staff to take responsibility for how their work gets done, while still holding them accountable for performance or deliverables.

“We discuss a number of ways to do this in the course, such as the concept of ‘job crafting’, where employees are supported to initiate their own changes in how they carry out tasks, interact with people and perceive their work,” Professor Troth says.

2. Model work-life balance

The counterpoint to added flexibility is a tendency to blur the boundaries between work and home, with people having a 24/7 connection to their computer.

“It’s up to leaders to set realistic expectations. They need to model themselves when and when not to work,” Professor Troth advises.

“This might mean not sending emails at night or on weekends. Or, making it clear that although individuals may communicate as suits their own flexible working arrangements, replies are not expected outside of regular business hours.

“In addition, you need to nurture a vibrant office environment, particularly if you have a younger workforce who are looking for social interaction and mentoring relationships. Remote work will not suit everyone.

“Hybrid policies will look different at each business – and even within each team, to a certain extent – but what tends to be most successful is when managers ask their people what they want and collectively determine an approach,” she says.

3. Avoid micromanaging

Micromanaging is not just annoying for employees; it’s also counterproductive for leaders and the organisation as a whole, Professor Troth states.

“You’re essentially putting two people to work on the same task, and that’s not an efficient use of resources.

“Further, you’re saying to your staff ‘I don’t trust you to do this job’, and that is unlikely to boost morale.”

Perfectionists and people who are naturally detail-oriented tend to be more likely to allow these traits to creep into their interactions, she notes.

“Avoiding micromanagement relies on you developing self-awareness as a leader. Question your own behaviours and ask yourself regularly, ‘am I adding value by getting involved?’ and ‘what is the impact of my involvement likely to be on the people producing this work?’.”

Professor Troth says a major assessment focuses on guiding students to “look inward” and think about the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership style. She encourages them to reflect deeply on how their personal style affects their management approach.

4. Invest in employee-job fit

In many ways, this tip is the ultimate barometer of how much an organisation sees its people as people, and not just ‘a resource’.

Irrespective of the role they perform, each individual in an organisation also contributes to its workplace culture, its values and its collective corporate knowledge.

This means when a business loses an employee, it loses much more than just a person who performs certain tasks. It loses a piece of its cultural puzzle. And in today’s tight labour market, where all workers – but especially skilled and experienced workers – are in high demand and costly to replace, it is in an organisation’s best interests to retain its staff.

“’Employee-job fit’ refers to working with people to find roles that are right for them. As a leader, if you recognise that a person is not suitable, not happy or simply no longer needed in a certain job, work with them and the business to see how they could be redeployed,” Professor Troth suggests.

5. Support diversity

A lot more companies talk about diversity now, and that’s a good thing, but actions need to go beyond conversation, Professor Troth says.

“Organisations might start with policies to promote diverse hiring, but they also need to think about how they accommodate the needs and ways of working of diverse employees.

“Whether it’s supporting parents of young children, people with disabilities, people from diverse cultural or religious backgrounds, or a range of other scenarios, leaders must learn to implement both practical mechanisms and broader cultural change.

“Crucially, organisations should understand that these social equality and people-related outcomes are interlinked with their business objectives. A more diverse workforce will yield diverse benefits,” she concludes.