It’s Company Policy

It’s Company Policy

“Bring Maggie in,” I offered, not betraying the struggle I had just resolved in my own mind. “Bring Maggie in to work with you.”

Maggie is a baby, a baby not yet weaned. The CEO was giving Maggie’s mom permission to bring her to work. Yes, a baby at work…. all day, every day. Would you allow your employee to bring her nursing baby to work? Would you even consider it? Or would you immediately default to “No way. It’s against company policy”?

I am not a fan of policies and procedures manuals. Yes, they might be necessary as a guide for employees and perhaps for regulatory reasons. But policies and procedures are put in place to deal with particular situations at specific moments in time. Time passes and things change, and what was appropriate years or months ago, may not be appropriate now – indeed, may be counterproductive today for a number of reasons:

1. Manuals are static documents, rarely reviewed and updated, that reflect the time in which they were created, and not the exigencies of now.
2. Sometimes policies and procedures are created based on “best practice”, or what pertained in another organization, with little/no regard for the needs of YOUR organization.
3. And they are really boring to read; hence, no one reads them, much less uses them.

Effective leadership has to be about making sure that things make sense, are appropriate to the time, serve the needs of customers and enable employees. It is NOT about putting or keeping hurdles in place. Leadership has to break rules.

But if people are allowed to break the rules, what will guide behaviour? CORE VALUES. The Core Values of the company have to be articulated, explained, clarified and lived. All must be clear on what doing the right thing means.

If you must have policy and procedures manuals, make sure they are simple, easy to read, aligned to the mission of the organization and kept current. Question what’s in them regularly.

And by the way, there are many organizations that don’t have policies and procedures manuals by default, and even some that don’t have them by design. And they are doing just fine.

Here’s the article that tells the story of Maggie at the office – click HERE for post

TAKE ONE ACTION

Review one company policy and related procedures, whether documented or not, and ask a few questions:

1. Why do we have this?
2. Does it make sense?
3. Is it serving the needs of our customers?
4. Is it helping our employees to deliver delightful service?

Then, be courageous and make the necessary changes.

INTERESTING LINKS

Sharing two videos this week:

Are you discussing the right things in your meetings with your leadership team? Are you spending this valuable executive time wisely? Do you dare to discuss the “undiscussables” or are you bogged down in minutiae? See what happens when you change the agenda for your next meeting and focus on these four things – click to view video

For a little corporate humour – a look at what really happens on conference calls