When you hear the words ‘office discipline’ it can conjure up imagery of soldier-like behavior in your mind. This is far from the truth, as you’re not running a boot camp, you’re running a business. It simply refers to employees acting with the best interests of the business and themselves. Every leader struggles to completely understand their workforce. He or she is always chasing the next highest target of performance but trying to figure out the best techniques to do so. Creating a working environment that has employees stick to sound practices will ensure that you have the discipline needed to achieve your goals. So as a result, not only will your business be protected but you will generate better performances.
You are the example
Leadership is not always about seeing yourself as ‘just one of the guys’. You’re not their friend, you are their boss. Therefore your power comes at a price. You cannot ask your employees, that you don’t do yourself. In other words, you have to lead by example. Whatever kind of discipline you’re asking from your employees, you need to show them you have it in spades. Things like double-checking spelling when sending an email, you have to make sure you’re sending clear and punctual emails to your employees. If you ask your employees to never leave their computers without logging off, you can never be seen leaving your own desk in your own office, without logging off either. This is especially true if you have glass walls, as employees can see what you’re doing.
Explain the danger
So many bosses try the scare tactic but it almost never completely works. You want employees to log off before they leave their computers, as well as never taking risks opening emails they don’t recognize. These best practices won’t sink in unless you explain the dangers you’re trying to avoid. Here, you can learn more about viruses and how to protect your system from them. This service will remove any virus from your system, but also put in place safety measures to help you avoid anything similar occurring again. They can also give you a detailed report of the damage that could be or has been done. Show this to employees and put a cost on it, so employees can comprehend how silly mistakes end up hurting the business and therefore, possibly their jobs.
Caring for the office
If you don’t want your workers to have great discipline in your office, make them not care about where they work. A professional environment should be clean, open, have great air circulation, plenty of natural light and maybe even a few plants. Make your workplace a pleasant place to work and your employees will treat it with respect. You won’t see people with their feet up on the desk or leaving crumbs from their lunch on their desks.
Office discipline is all about your employees respecting where they work, adhering to good safety protocols and learning from the examples you set.
