Action speaks louder than (buzz)words and motivational posters - Anonymous employee ADTECH Systems Employee Review

I like the title of this, and I agree with it. To clarify, we haven’t invested much in motivational posters – but we have written down our core values, our commitment to our customers, and a few other frameworks that we use to try and encourage teamwork. We do that so we have easy reference points in our (many!?) meetings. We admit we have quite a few meetings. All of our employees have regular 1:1 meetings with their managers. We have regular departmental staff meetings. Finally, we do large projects that require upwards of 20 people to stay coordinated on delivering high quality service. We find this requires talking… together. We also move quickly (actions!) when we see an opportunity for improvement. We encourage people to speak up if they feel their time is being wasted in a meeting. We even have a (motivational?) poster to help explain what we mean by speaking up. Briefly, it reads something like this: Leadership Levels in Practice Level 4: • Proactive to identify problems • Leads a multi-step initiative to conclusion • Brings out the best in peers Level 3: • Willing to volunteer (“I’ll take it”) • Open to learning and new ideas; participates Level 2: • Provides ideas, often without prioritizing or vetting • “What we should think about is”; “We should…” Level 1: • Can identify problems (“this is wrong”) • Assumes others should solve it • Tone sucks the energy from the room We admit that we have had employees in the past who regularly “spoke up” with what we call Level 1 suggestions. We tried to work with them to help them take ownership of helping to make their team better – but sometimes, people are focused on simply complaining. As they say… misery loves company. Leadership is one of our core values. We are very intentionally building a team of people who take ownership of their world and don’t wait for others to tackle their challenges. It’s not for everyone.