CREATIVE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR IMPROVING WORK ENVIRONMENT

Smart companies are coming up with bold ideas to keep employees engaged, while offering them ways to facilitate career and lifestyle changes

“The 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work”, published by the Families and Work Institute (FWI),  reveals that even in the midst of a turbulent economy, best employers are creating imaginative workplace approaches for improving the work environment and for helping employees navigate the shifting demands of their work and personal lives. They are offering assistance, for example, on how to manage job stress and overwork, welcome a new baby, or cope when a spouse loses a job. What is key (and perhaps surprising) is that these strategies help these companies achieve business results and respond to fluctuations in the economy. They help companies create effective and flexible workplaces, where work "works" for both the employer and employees.

THREE UNPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOURS THAT BOSSES MUST AVOID

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One thing that makes organizations dysfunctional is that bosses so often lack self-awareness. They're out of touch with their effect on their people and not in tune with what it feels like to work for them.

No one is immune to blind spots, of course. But bosses are particularly vulnerable. It's enough that they must often navigate massive change and cope with stressful situations every day. But add to this the overpowering belief that many bosses shoulder: "I should have all the answers, I should know what to do, and I should be able to handle challenges alone." For many, the need to be right becomes much stronger than the need to be effective. And only the most confident leaders are willing to surround themselves with people who will point out what they're doing wrong—and be rewarded for their honesty. More often, everyone is forced to endure the boss' weaknesses in silence.  Here are three of the biggest, and most deeply human, forces conspiring to make people in charge so clueless.