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On today’s Leaderview, I want to share with us on something that has been titled: Leadership Ethos and Workplace Efficiency. Now, you may be asking yourself a number of questions as a leader talking about the area of productivity and efficiency in your leadership. Peradventure as a leader, you have been thinking on how to improve your team’s efficiency or how to get them to deliver at their maximum level of efficiency. Now, what we want to share with ourselves today is going to give us some idea, and a few things that we can do in order to get to that level of efficiency and productivity that we’re talking about and that we’re looking at in our organization.
Listen to Podcast: Leadership Ethos and Workplace Efficiency
Now, I want to start by defining what the word ethos is, because that word is going to be, you know, the foundation of everything we’re going to be talking about as it relates to workplace efficiency. Now, the word ethos according to Webster dictionary meaning, has to do with the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature or guiding beliefs of a person, a group or an institution. So, when we’re talking about ethos, it has to do with the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person or a group of persons or an institution. So, I don’t want us to forget the meaning of that word ethos, because we’re going to be coming back to each of those parameters in the meaning and then applying them to what it means when we are talking about workplace efficiency.
Now, workplace efficiency is an important aspect of every organization. And when all stakeholders understand the importance of workplace efficiency, success is bound to be recorded in such organization. So, as a leader, you must understand what workplace efficiency is, you must understand how you can get to the maximum peak of workplace efficiency in your organization, so that you can arrive at the destination that has been set for your leadership and that has been set for your organization. So, workplace efficiency is an integral part of an organization and it is important that every stakeholder within the organization you know, understand the importance, because this is what will drive the organization and the leadership towards the success and everything that the organization is looking at.
Now, when we are talking about workplace efficiency, there are a number of drives that is usually important in order to arrive at the maximum peak of workplace efficiency. And some of those drives we have seen in the definition of ethos. So, we’re going to be looking at some of those parameters in the definition of ethos and then we are going to be linking them up to workplace efficiency and then what we can understand about it. Now the very first drive towards workplace efficiency is what has been captured in that definition of ethos and which talks about the distinguishing character of every stakeholder in the organization. The very first drive towards workplace efficiency is the distinguishing character, we saw that in the definition of ethos, the distinguishing character of every stakeholder in the organization.
Now, how does this actually affect workplace efficiency? Now you will understand as leaders that character is an integral part of workplace efficiency. An employee’s character can either positively or negatively affect the workplace. If an employee or a member of a team is displaying a character that is not consistent with the ideal, with the goals and objectives of the organization, then what is going to happen is that the workplace efficiency is going to be affected negatively. And this is also applicable in leadership as well. So distinguishing character has so much to do with workplace efficiency, everyone’s character is important and it is important that this character is what is geared towards the positive outcomes because every organization has positive outcomes. If there are bad characters within the employee, if there are bad character among the team members, then such character is going to affect their productivity goals, it is going to affect the goals and the objectives that the organization has set for itself.
And if you look at a popular Scripture in Proverbs chapter 22:29, it talks about one aspect of character that that is important for workplace efficiency. The Bible says: Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men. So, what does that tell us? You see, diligence is a character trait for workplace efficiency. Every stakeholder in the organization in the leadership must understand the place of character that has to do with diligence because this is how workplace efficiency can be upgraded, this is how workplace efficiency can be fast tracked. So, the distinguishing character of every stakeholder in the organization is the first drive toward workplace efficiency. And I believe every leader must understand this particular character trait called diligence in order to achieve the workplace efficiency that we’re talking about.
Now, the second drive towards workplace efficiency is an understanding of workplace sentiment. You see another parameter in that definition of ethos talks about sentiments. Every stakeholder in the organization must understand the mood of the organization. So, as a leader, how do you understand the mood of the organization? It is simply true workplace sentiments. You see, when we are talking about workplace sentiment, it is talking about the sum total of an employee’s or a team’s feeling about their workplace experience. So, as a leader by understanding workplace sentiment, the leader can get to the heart of every issue, and create a workplace that people can thrive in. So, if you want to understand the mood of the organization, if you want to understand the mood of your leadership as a leader, simply look at the sentiment that is being shared within the organization by the employees, by the team. This can go a long way in understanding workplace sentiment and these has so much to do also with workplace efficiency.
Now, if you look at the Scripture in John chapter 16:31-33, the Bible showed us something that Jesus did that I want to use to buttress the point when it has to do with workplace sentiments. The Bible says from verse 31: “Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 These things, I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Now, if you read that Scripture in context, Jesus spoke certain words to His disciples, and they began to feel sad, and they began to feel unmotivated.
But Jesus had to speak to them again because Jesus understood that sentiment that it is not going to be productive, it is going to affect their efficiency, Jesus had to tell them that they should calm down because He has overcome the world for them. So, per time as a leader, if you want to understand your workplace efficiency, simply look at the organization’s sentiment, look at the workplace sentiment, look at the kinds of feelings, the kind of attitudes that the employees, that the teams are dishing out per time. This will help you to understand whether this will have a negative effect or a positive effect on the workplace efficiency.
Now, the third and the final drive towards workplace efficiency is what is titled the moral nature or guiding beliefs. We can also see these two parameters in the definition of ethos. Moral nature or guiding beliefs, either of the leader himself or herself or the team, or the employees and the organization that they represent; their moral nature and guiding beliefs are important in relation to workplace efficiency. So, if a leader is known to be efficient, for example, there is a way it will rub off on the entire organization and its workplace. If an organization has a reputation for being efficient, there is also a way it will rub off on the organization and the workforce as well.
So, every stakeholder in the organization is expected to have a moral nature or a guiding belief that is structured towards helping the efficiency of the organization, towards helping the efficiency of every stakeholder in the organization. Now, this is what I’ve been saying in summary. We have been able to see the link between leadership ethos and workplace efficiency. So as a leader if you have been having challenges with workplace efficiency within your sphere of leadership, one or two things out of what we have shared with ourselves today can be of help to overcoming that challenge, if you would deliberately give it a try.
So, if you want to improve your workplace efficiency as a leader, number one, simply understand the character nature of every stakeholder in the organization, understand the character nature of every employee, of every team within the organization. And the second one is to understand the workplace sentiment, what are the kinds of sentiment that has been doled out within the organization by every stakeholder in the organization, and also it is important that you look at the moral nature and the guiding beliefs of everyone in the organization, the stakeholder, the employees, the team. This is going to go a long way in helping the leader to understand and to improve on the workplace efficiency of the organization that is being led per time.
This is what I have in mind to share with us today on Leaderview, I believe you’ve been able to pick one or two things that can help in your leadership going forward and when it has to do with understanding workplace efficiency and productivity. Please don’t forget to like this blogpost, share it with anyone you think would benefit from what we’ve shared with ourselves today. And also, don’t forget to drop your comments with me in the comment section so that I can get to know your thoughts on what we have shared with ourselves today. Till next time on Leaderview.
God bless you.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
