Suitable work environment
If you ask the group at the business brunch what essential qualities a good manager should have so that you feel comfortable in the team, the answers include, in addition to professional competence, reliability and fairness, self-reflection, empathy and humanity. The importance of an appreciative and positive working environment for the well-being of employees becomes apparent when you ask visitors to this year’s Business Brunch whether they have ever quit a job because the working environment wasn’t right for them. The clear majority says yes, five people are currently thinking about it.
Between science and practice
But how do you create a team in which employees feel comfortable and can achieve top performance? What does a good manager need to have? What are Red Flags? Ao.Univ.-Prof. provided initial insights. Dr. Paulino Jiménez from the Institute for Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Graz. He pointed out the difference between scientific theory and lived leadership practice. What magazines and ChatGPT think about leadership is often far removed from what science researches. “While practice shoots an arrow and paints a target around itself, research measures how heavy the arrow is,” he concludes. However, research and practice agree that managers should act respectfully, appreciatively and listen. They should demand and enable performance, offer a supportive framework and promote health and participation.
Reach out to employees
Julia Praschl, MSc, Expert HR Business Partner, People & Culture at BILLA and Cornelia Zelle, MBA, Head of HR Camera Business at Vexcel Imaging describe in their Insights how this can be implemented well in practice and what problems can arise. Julia Praschl explains how important it is for managers to be self-reflective and open to feedback. What good leadership looks like varies from employee to employee. A good manager has a feeling for what the team needs at the moment, is open to feedback and can also give feedback himself – not just when something doesn’t fit. Because no scolding is clearly not enough praise. If managers manage to approach their team and maintain open communication, there will be less fluctuation and fewer sick days. And: If employees know the “why” and their influence on it, they will work more motivated to achieve goals than if they simply set targets. Creating meaning is therefore part of the job description of managers.
Communication, transparency and participation
Finally, Cornelia Zelle presents a survey among the employees of Vexcel Imaging and the resulting project in collaboration with the ÖGK. The results are clear: employees want communication, transparency and participation. Good communication skills and openness are qualities that managers cannot do without. Above all, she sees courage as a key qualification. Courage to allow new processes and ideas, courage to try out new things, but also courage to address difficult things. Especially when roles and processes change, it is important to find common rules of the game.
We are all just human and want to do our work as well as possible, be valued and feel safe and accepted – this applies to both managers and employees. Let’s work together to create a working environment in which we feel comfortable and enjoy being active.
More about the Business Brunch event format
