There can be many measures for how well you’re doing your job, but whether the team are ‘happy’ or not is a good one. 

When I ask clients what ‘good’ looks like for them at work, the phrase ‘people are happy with what I’m doing’ is often heard. Whether it’s the first answer they give or perhaps the third or fourth as they reflect and think about it, it’s often there.  

And I get it. It generally makes good sense to ensure the boss, the person who writes your appraisal, determines your performance rating, and ultimately if you get a pay rise, is happy with the job you are doing.  

But that’s where it stops. As a manager, people won’t always like what you door the calls you make. It doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrongly or making a bad decision. While it might appear that what you do keeps someone ‘happy’ there is often a consequence to it. Here’s what I mean: 

• You avoid having that conversation with the person who is always turning up late for fear of disgruntling them. CONSEQUENCE: your team see you letting others get away for not pulling their weight and are demotivated 

• You don’t change the way something cumbersome and outdated is done in your team because the experienced person who has been there forever will likely get upset. CONSEQUENCE: other teams in the business are frustrated by the slow old methods in your department which reflects on both your teams’ and your reputation. 

• You continue to allow substandard data to be given to the team from another area of the business because your counterpart in that department refuses to engage. CONSEQUENCE: the CEO and executive think the reports your team produce are inadequate and that you’ve changed nothing since you were appointed. 

It’s natural for us humans to want to please people but when you’re at work be careful what you think happy looks like and make sure zoom out and look beyond the immediate impact. 

Later this month we’re launching our ‘Inside and Out’ Leadership programme. In our group coaching sessions we take everything back one step to focus on the person. We’ll shine a light to help people find their own managerial and leadership style by exploring how they perceive, think and respond will help create authentic and emotionally intelligent leaders. 

Got leaders or potential leaders in your organisation that need support. DM me to find out more.