The Conscientious Employee

Conscientiousness in the workplace is a valuable competency. Conscientious employees typically demonstrate their competence by paying attention to details, anticipating what is next, and being very self-disciplined in their approach. These employees typically uphold the organizations standards, they tend to stay out of trouble and have very high levels of integrity. Conscientious employees are great!

It seems that everything about conscientious employees would be very desirable for any organization. However, in some cases there are some drawbacks. On the not-so-good side of the scale they may develop a tendency to be overly critical of other co-workers. Co-workers whose standards are not set so high. These co-workers may be fully performing employees, just not star performers.

When conscientiousness develops into a relentless pursuit of perfection and judgment on those who are not so conscientious it can lead to a decline in workplace morale and creativity. Morale can suffer with both the highly conscientious employees and the not-so-conscientious employees. Job roles that require more flexibility and creativeness may also develop performance problems. Examples of  job roles or areas that often suffer include sales, research and development, and marketing. Workplace leaders should carefully consider the dynamics of their organization and work hard to help themselves and other employees find the correct balance of conscientiousness.

 

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Balancing Deadlines

Deadlines help us create a sense of purpose and manage priorities, and most workplace professionals recognize the benefits of managing projects and people through deadlines. Can the use of deadlines cause other somewhat unexpected results? The answer of course is – yes.

Extensive use of deadlines may lead to an abuse of power and create a form of micromanagement. Drawbacks to micromanagement include noticeable reductions in employee morale, increased absenteeism, and a general weakness in building or maintaining high performance teams. 

Abusive use of deadlines sometimes create panic about pending projects and a noticeable absence of workplace innovation. While many may argue that some employees perform better under pressure, too much pressure can create an environment that invites burn-out which results in employees disconnecting from the true spirit of the organization in hopes of finding some relief for the uncomfortable and unbalanced circumstances. Nearly everyone will quickly agree that the proper use of deadlines is important for success but at the same time effective workplace leaders know that they must utilize deadlines properly and maintain an appropriate balance.

Technorati Tags: morale,power,absenteeism