Kurt Blazek

Many people agree: a workplace culture of fear limits employee engagement, productivity, and retention—and by turns, the bottom line. But often, leaders aren’t cognizant that they’ve created that environment. However, Gallup surmises that lost productivity due to lack of employee engagement costs U.S. companies $300 billion annually. Other studies show that happier—and therefore more engaged—employees are more likely to be more “creative, productive, and committed.” In other words, good leadership doesn’t have to be with an iron fist—in fact, more often, it shouldn’t include iron or fists at all.

One way for leaders to ensure that they aren’t creating a culture of fear is to consciously do the exact opposite—create a culture of happiness and fun. Which can be daunting; after all, to some leaders, “fun” might seem frivolous, and other leaders might see “happiness” as the employee’s responsibility. However, just a few changes to the environment can make all the difference to an employee’s productivity.

In summertime especially, it’s easy to let the lure of everything outside the office (blue skies, birdsong, vacation plans) distract you from being productive in the office. Luckily, summer is also the best time to start taking steps to develop new habits that can last throughout the rest of the year.

To bolster productivity, try these tips:

Get up earlier. Giving yourself even just an extra 15 minutes in the morning can make a huge difference to how the rest of the day plays out. It might allow you to fit in a balanced breakfast, leave home without being in a stressed-out rush, and get to the office in time to set an attack plan for the tasks of the day. If getting up early scares you a little, try small increments at first, like five minutes earlier per week until you’ve gotten to 15—or more. Starting this habit in the summer is easier because of the amount of sunlight in the mornings; by the time winter (with its dark mornings) hits, you’ll already be acclimated to your get-up-earlier routine.

Thanks to the ongoing Values campaign from Foundation for a Better Life, folks across the nation have been supplied with tidbits from the lives of the famous and the not so famous—snippets that, through inspirational messaging, provide motivation to dream, to do, and to hope for what might seem like an impossible success. The billboards, TV commercials, radio spots, and videos remind us of the historic trials—and, in fact, the failures—of arguably rather successful people. Like Abraham Lincoln, whose story was riddled with personal pain, sacrifice, ups, and downs before he achieved the ultimate success of becoming the 16th President of the United States. Or Thomas Edison, who purportedly failed thousands of times before he created a successful light bulb.

In both cases, these men could have done what many human beings do: they could have shied from the risk of trying again. They could have taken the safe route, the well-traveled path, the life of complacency. Instead, both men continuously took both personal and professional risks to keep doing what they believed in. And, ultimately, through all of the risks, they were both remarkably successful. Had either been content to remain in his comfort zone, imagine what might be different for our country or our lifestyles today. Should it be any different for corporations?

Corporate culture is nebulous—different for each company and sometimes hard to develop, especially in the shifting sands of the business world. But the companies that get it right, the companies that not only champion culture but truly cultivate it, and demand the same of their employees, are the ones that stand out and thrive.

Take Southwest Airlines, for example, with an uncompromising focus on its three Ps of culture: Performance, People, Planet. The company’s determination to drive every decision, every sale, and every interaction based on its distinctly defined culture has made the airline a leader in its industry, far surpassing its competitors in consumer satisfaction.

In many companies, leaders and managers are promoted to their roles because they have, or appear to have, the foundational characteristics of certain leadership traits. They are good communicators: they share the goals of the company, they listen to and understand their employees, and they don’t shy from the difficult conversations. The good ones are mentors, supporters, and advocates. They surround themselves with talent, and figure out effective ways to develop those staff who lag in performance. Promoting these types of leaders makes sense for many companies.

Unfortunately, in sales organizations, this situation doesn’t always exist. Typically, salespeople who are promoted to leadership roles are those who were the best at their trade: sales. They know how to close deals, and as individuals, they brought in the numbers. But the skills that make them good salespeople don’t translate to the same skills needed to be good leaders, and if they don’t change their mindset from that of “best closer” to “best talent developer,” they’re missing out on ways to build an entire team of sales closers for the company, because “coffee is for closers only” – Glengarry Glenn Ross.

In the 2011 movie Horrible Bosses, the main characters declare, “Our lives would be better if our bosses weren’t alive!” Showing blatant hostility, trickery, sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse, the bosses in that film are, if not complete caricatures of terrible managers, then certainly at the far side of reality’s spectrum.

Still, bad bosses do exist, and even if they aren’t dragging a department or a company down completely, they are surely keeping the unit from truly thriving. While a good boss can inspire a team, instill loyalty, and motivate hard work by making each employee feel valued, a bad one can just as readily generate an environment of discord, cyclical abuse, mistakes, blame, and intolerance—and that supervisor can definitely create a revolving door.