I got a story this week where an employee worked for a couple of days on a project to bring it up to the new standards that had recently been released to all staff. After completing the project, the manager changed his mind about having to meet the new standards.
The employee was furious. She holds herself to high standards of performance
Can your employees read your mind?
and followed the new standards to the letter. She couldn’t help but think that her efforts weren’t valued or respected and that she’d completely wasted her time that week (and few of us have any time we can afford to waste).
How are employees supposed to be able to perform effectively in this kind of environment? If a manager sets a standard with the instructions “you have to follow them” then no one should be allowed, or encouraged, to deviate. If you want to allow for flexibility with the standard, then establish the flexibility in the beginning.
Make up your minds managers. What do you want the standards to be? Employees can’t become engaged on a job where they get mixed signals.
