“62% of workers rate their jobs as highly stressful. The most common factor mentioned is unpredictability.”
http://www.careercast.com/2016-job-stress-survey-results
How does unpredictability impact the workplace? Consider a few sources of workplace unpredictability, each of which cause workers to ponder what will happen next rather than on producing high quality work.
A. Expectations
Source 1. What does success look like?
Source 2. What do my client or boss really expect?
Source 3. Can I meet these deadlines?
B. Career
Source 3. What are my career opportunities?
Source 4. Is my job in jeopardy?
C. Leadership
Source 5. Does leadership know what they are doing?
Source 6. What does my boss really think about my work?
Source 7. Why was I not assigned to this project?
D. Workplace conflict
Source 8. How is the conflict in the workplace going to be resolved?
Leadership Lesson: While not all unpredictability can be removed from he workplace or a job, self-inflicted unpredictability is manageable. An organization or leader who adds stress through unpredictability is only decreasing the quality or quantity of work.
Consistency is not glitzy or exciting but it has the effect of calming the workplace so people can focus on their work.
Maybe Google had it right when they identified consistency as the most important trait of an effective leader.
“The most important character trait of a leader isn’t where she went to school or her IQ. It’s one that you’re more likely to associate with a boring person than a Silicon Valley star: predictability. The more predictable you are, day in and day out, the better.”
http://www.inc.com/walter-chen/google-isn-8217-t-looking-for-stanford-and-mit-grads-it-8217-s-looking-for-this-.html
Copyright 9 By 9 solutiuons 2016 All Rights Reserved
This article is very impressive. It shows the importance of a leader’s experience, knowledge and skills (including EQ). Unpredictability is a main source of poor productivity, quality failures, safety incidents and poor customer loyalty.
Doug, thank you very much