Month: April 2022

Searching through my files I have come across one of these letters that I have always sent to my teams in the organizations for which I have served.

I would like to share some of them, and this seemed to me ideal for the present moment.

¡What kind of things I said in 2000!

 

“Continuously improving processes, materials, quality and management, seems not that complicated but continuously improving people, and ultimately oneself, is a really complicated task.

One of the tasks that we all have as managers is to build trust. Of course, trusting ourselves is essential, but it is insufficient. Building trust vertically: up and down, as well as crosswise, is one of our main tasks in our day to day. And I am telling you this not only because of the responsibility we have as managers, but also as human beings who live in a society that fills us with responsibilities (social, family, etc…). Trust supposes respect in our work. Personal and professional respect. And we have to earn this respect every day. Nonstop. There is no minute for decay and abandonment. This is not always possible. We are human beings full of virtues, but also full of imperfections. We must pay due attention to people and help them from the responsibility we have to achieve their goals, both professionally and personally.

This, I repeat, is also the manager’s task. Managers of the 21st century. The manager who is able to lead. Lead, not robots, but people. Sensitive people to changes, to stress, to the dynamics of the business. And all around us we have incompetents, pissed, easily discouraged and demotivated people. We must make their work easier for them, offering them confidence, setting an example, helping them to understand better, reducing their stress. Many times, this is surrounded by conflicts (agreement, disagreement). But we always have to try to avoid confrontation. The balance is always in maintaining a coming and going of agreements and discrepancies in a rational and unemotional way.

And you know, the most important thing is to talk and communicate. Do not allow emotional silence to occur, that fearful emptiness, produced by pride, disinterest, insensitivity, and not even by avoiding conflict or by mere revenge.

I believe that we should all make an effort with ourselves and give the necessary example to others by learning to ask for forgiveness. It is, in my opinion, the most rational and emotionally intelligent way to resolve conflicts and foster a constructive relationship in our companies.

Learning to apologize. What a beautiful thing! What a positive action! I repeat not only in our work, but in our personal lives. Accepting our mistakes, reflect on them, repair the damage caused, ……., let’s not be afraid, do not hesitate to do so. From here I invite you to. To be able to express with clarity, honesty and absolute sincerity a “what you have done has hurt me”, to express “I’m sorry, I hope it doesn’t happen again”, to convey calm saying, “don’t worry, it didn’t matter” and above all to give in capital letters “THANK YOU” to all those who help us and also, why not, to those who ask us for forgiveness.

Jose-Pedro Martinez

Picassent (Valencia), December 2001”

Over the past few decades, employees have spent much more of their time collaborating, in meetings, on phone calls, or via email and chat platforms.

Engaging with our team(s) now accounts for more than 60% of employees’ time.

This proliferation of teams has complicated the working lives of employees.

As teams become more complex, more fluid, and more remote, team members must navigate a continuous changing environment.

Teams today are more complex and more dispersed than in the past. Many employees work in more than one team, team members sometimes are in more than one country and for sure more than one work remotely.

However, employees think that they can be still duly connected with the organization working remotely.

While modern technology allows us to collaborate remotely in ways that were unthinkable short time ago, that doesn’t mean that working with virtual teams is easy or that it’s the same as working in person.

Generally speaking, we can say that in this hybrid world we need to manage and practice the same rules that in the past, but with some differences we must consider.

We are in a world continuously changing and more than ever managing people is very important. We need also much more people with a growth mindset able to face quick and agile changes.

But be sure that attending what you´ve just read, organizations will also be able to enhance their cultures.