Space To Do Work

A few days ago, I was walking through a busy mall in the downtown business section and overheard two women talking as they passed me. “I like working for her as she gives me space. Not like John who ……….”  I didn’t hear the rest as they had moved out of earshot. But the comment got me thinking of the classic CEO dilemma:  “If I have 400 (or 1,400, 2,400, 5,000, or 50,000) employees, how do I ensure they have enough space to get their work done?” 

A micro-managed employee is generally not an effective employee – they are someone who does not/is not able to deliver value for the salary paid them. Multiply this condition across hundreds of employees and lack of space can suffocate company performance. All managers need to develop a sense of and the use of discretion to give employees the required freedom to use all their capability to complete work delegated to them by their manager to the best of their ability.

The seven principles highlighted in my book How Dare You Manage? are designed to address the issue of space for your employees or how to optimize the “Collective Space”™ of all your employees in your company. If you start looking at your company through this lens, you will see opportunities for productivity you had not considered before.

Nick Forrest