Workplace Actions Matter

Nathalie White

Description

actions are energy in motion or smallest action can make a big difference
After 30 years as a public servant and over 20 years of those years in leadership positions, Nathalie White shares her learnings and experiences with you. Chapter by chapter, Nathalie will guide you through leadership practices that formulates a trilogy of clients, employees and the organization.
She explores how our actions speak louder than words and that the smallest action will either reinforce trust or hinders it. The image of an Atom is used to illustrate the power of a smaller gesture influences our results.
Your reading adventure will give you a roadmap to workplace and individual wellness not matter if you are working the public or private sector. Each sections invites you to reflect on your experiences, your objectives and build on your existing practices.

Through practical exercises, you will navigate with several disciplines such as the system thinking, process management, positive psychology and wellness. You will discover several powerful authors that influenced her work hence you will find a wealth of resources. This comprehensive framework is guarantee to show success in business and in your professional life.

Sujets

• Organizational Development
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Economics
• Business
• Leadership

Informations

• Publié par: Trafford Publishing
• Date de parution: 06 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781698713267
• Langue: English

Extrait

WORKPLACE ACTIONS MATTER

NATHALIE WHITE

 
 
© Copyright 2023 Nathalie White. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6987-1327-4 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-6987-1325-0 (hc) ISBN: 978-1-6987-1326-7 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022919985
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
Trafford rev. 02/24/2023
www.trafford.com North America & international toll-free: 844-688-6899 (USA & Canada) fax: [phone]
Contents
Why Am I Writing This Book?
Why Should You Keep on Reading?
The Foundations
It Needs to Start Somewhere
How Does This Relate to Me?
What is The Big Deal?
The Client Perspective
Why Should We Care?
What Does Processes Have to Do with It?
Does Each Activity Have a Meaning? You Ask
Why Do We Do What We Do?
Why Should We Ask Why?
Employee Perspective
Aren’t Employees Just Paid to Do a Job?
What Does Love Have to Do with It?
Again, What Does Love Have to Do with It?
Who Does What Again?
What about Our Health?
I Want to Ride My Bicycle
How Do I Know What I Do Not Know?
Just for Fun
Organizational Perspective
Are You Awake Yet?
What Gets Measured Gets Done, Really?
What Happens When You Are Not Paying Attention?
Why Are Measures Important, Especially in Management?
What about How We Do Things? You Ask
Putting It into Practice
Does It Make a Difference in Who I Am?
Now What?
Do I Dare to Ask?
Bringing It All Together
A Recap, Anyone?
Are We Looking at the Big Picture?
Let’s Just Do the Thing
Still Doing the Thing?
The Thing Is Done, Now What?
People Again?
What about MOI?
Are You Done Yet?
 
Smart People Helped Me throughout My Journey
Is This the End?

A big thank you…
To my husband for your unconditional love and courage to continue this adventure with me.
To those who took the time to read my drafts for your honesty and generosity of time.
To all my teachers throughout the years for your valuable counsel.
To you the readers for your support as we walk through this amazing learning journey together.
Why Am I Writing This Book?
WHY NOT?
Unfortunately, I hear, too many times, complaints about the public service that I will not repeat here. I wanted to put out in the collective another perspective.
I wanted to show that you can learn and grow and have a wonderful life in the public service. Enclosed herewith are my learnings; my experience in the service to Canadians helped me grow and influenced my life and the one of my family. I would dare to say that it did save my life.
Why Should You Keep on Reading?
AGAIN, WHY NOT?
After thirty years in various roles in the public service, I started to think about what I wanted to do when I grow up. What is my next adventure? My reflection led me to think about all the people that influenced my leadership style over the years.
When I first started this leadership journey, there were no road maps available to me. I trusted my intuition as I navigated through different management roles. My background in employment counselling gave me a solid foundation to deal with people and teams. But that was it. I had interesting experiences along the way. I had to research my way out of my messes or challenges. This book contributes to the workplace by sharing my thoughts so that someone else can learn from my experiences.
I really have had a great career in the public service. It is where I could lead and influence others in a positive way. I feel fortunate to be able to say that my value as an individual was linked to my work. For me, work matters. This is where I found competence and acceptance of who I was as an individual and a professional. A big thank you to all of you for being part of this journey.
The next pages will give you the framework that has been evolving in my mind, which integrates all my learnings. I did not invent anything; I took some of the thoughts of great leaders and adapted them to my reality and applied them to the public service. Please note that I am still a learner. The words of this paper reflect my learnings today, and I am evolving. There are parts of this book that I will reflect where I am with the caveat that “there is more to come.”
Was I successful? It depends on your definition of success. If I achieved all my objectives, then yes. If it is that my teams have received several awards through the years, yes. If it is that I reached a respectful level in the organization, again, yes. If your definition of success is the amount of people that were positively influenced by my leadership—they told me so—so yes! Finally, I can say that I am happy 92 percent of the time (this is a success in itself!), and this has lots to do with my work. Let me share with you what I learned.
First, you can read this book in any way your intuition tells you, sequentially as a whole or start at the chapter that inspires you. I suggest reading the foundation chapter, then have fun! The objective of this book is to provide you with foundational pieces of a business model that will frame your perspective for any role you choose. You will be able to go deeper in your learnings as your reality changes. It does not matter if you work in the public or private sectors. The approaches proposed here can be applied in both worlds.
In my experience, we are all leaders. Just by being human, we exercise leadership over the roles we play. “It is our contact and experience with other people that give your life joy, meaning and purpose” (Byrne 2021, 4). The minute our actions impact someone else, we need to be conscious of the consequences of our behaviors. Like it or not, we are making a difference in each other’s lives.
You will read several times that work matters—it is a part of my brand. Why is that? For me, work provides the opportunity to follow the flow of life and live with authenticity. It provides the experiences to propel us into the future so that we can be the best version of ourselves and find joy. Nelson-Isaacs (2019) goes even further, insisting that once in the flow, we are not working anymore; we are playing (p. 173). As such, workplace actions matter. We need to remain conscious and listen to the messages that work brings to us. This is easier said than done! Let’s look at some messages; Has any of these happened to you?
Not reached your organizational goals
Employees complaining or not engaged
Leaders managing status quo
Client complaints
Failed an interview
Hit a homerun
If you answered yes to any of these questions, please keep reading. You will receive information to view any organization holistically. This little book can even help you with the interview process for any leadership position.
THE FOUNDATIONS

It Needs to Start Somewhere
THIS STORY IS NO DIFFERENT.
My journey started when one employee did not understand the definition of a “client.” I was leading a process redesign workshop, and as much as I explained who the internal and external clients were, the employee still did not get it. I did some research to see how I could explain it differently. This is where I came across a little French book: Qualité totale (Kélada 2000). It changed my view of business and the public service.
In summary, actions are energy in motion.
The Atom graphic is the essence of my learnings and the impact of Kélada’s teachings, which I adapted to the public service. The three critical dimensions of this model are the foundation for this book: clients, employees, and the organization (leadership).
I chose the atom to represent this relationship because of its power. The atom is the smallest unit of matter. It is made with everything in the universe; it has the power of being the source of nuclear energy. Likewise, at work, actions (toward clients, employees, or the organization) speak louder than words, and they have the power to either reinforce trust or hinder it. Atoms are the building blocks for chemistry, and at work, actions are the foundation of relationships. In sum,
Atom = Energy, Actions = Energy
It is at the junction of each ( ) that actions influence perceptions, expectations, confidence, and trust.
For example:
Junction of Organization/Employees: In my leadership role, if I tell employees that I have an open-door policy; but every time someone wants to come and see me, my door is always closed, and I am not available to meet with the employee because I am super busy. What is that telling the employees? This could potentially influence the expectations and trust that employees have in me because of my accessibility. There is a difference between what I say and do.
Junction Employees and Clients: This is when a client calls for a question on his file, but the employee is having a hard day, and he/she hurries the client to speak his mind. Even on the phone, the employee’s demeanor can be felt by a client. You will see that a bad (or an OK service) does influence the client’s perceptions in o