THE FLOGGINGS WILL CONTINUE… Part III

Part III

In the first two parts of this series, I discussed what modern workplace “flogging” looks like and the damage it can do to morale, performance, and profitability. That leads to the most important question of all: If flogging doesn’t work, what does? In most cases, it’s not complicated. It just requires a shift in awareness.

I want to be very clear that I don’t believe most business owners or managers are insensitive or that they have ill intent when managing their people. Most business owners genuinely care about their customers and their workers. As I mentioned earlier, they’re not trying to create a toxic work environment. They’re just trying to run a business.

Many small business owners, especially first-timers, are learning to manage people while they’re learning to grow a company. Those are two very different skill sets. The collateral damage this creates for their workers can be jarring. Many owners are simply blind to how their behavior and decisions are perceived by their people. What seems perfectly reasonable from the owner’s chair can feel very different to the person carrying it out. The same is true when promises to improve things aren’t followed up on.

In hindsight, I shudder to think how often I must have flogged the people who worked for me without even being aware that I was doing so. If I’m a business leader, how can I avoid unintentionally falling into the trap of flogging my workers?

As always, self-examination is a good place to start. Few leaders intentionally create these conditions, which is why they’re so easy to miss. Ask yourself how your behaviors, decisions, and actions might be perceived or misconstrued as flogging. 

Clear communication is another good place to start. Let people know what’s going on, especially when things change. It’s hard to hit a moving target you can’t see.

Define what success looks like before the work begins, both with the customer and with employees. Many problems disappear when expectations are clear on the front end instead of being corrected or excused away on the back end.

Be realistic in the promises you make—both to customers and to your team. There’s a difference between stretching and overreaching. Your employees know the difference, even if they don’t always say it out loud.

Take the time to understand how long things actually take. Not how long you think they should take, or how long they used to take under different conditions, but how long they take now, with the people and resources you have.

None of this is particularly flashy. It doesn’t make for a great slogan. But it does something far more valuable. It replaces the “flogging” with something that actually improves morale and performance along with it.

At the end of the day, most people come to work wanting to do a good job. They don’t need to be pushed harder nearly as often as they need to be set up to succeed or to have avoidable obstacles removed from their path. And when that happens, something interesting begins to take place. The floggings stop, morale improves, the work becomes easier and more fulfilling for the people doing it, and the business becomes more profitable and fun for everyone.