Navigating Team Towards Service Excellence

by Melynda U. Acar, Efren T. Baccay Jr, Bayani A. Cantada, Ronel S. Clariza, Glenda S. Glodoveza, and John Marck E. Orqueta

Here are some takeaways on how a team in an organization can manage challenges and achieve service excellence during this time of the pandemic. Join us, as Group 2 will navigate you through our journey in the LEVEL UP 2.0 training.

Forecasting the Weather

Workplace experience varies greatly among different individuals. It might be a source of daily inspiration, teamwork, and value, or it might be "the daily grind" that wears away at their soul.

For any workplace, the occurrence of problems and issues within an organization are common sources of stress for many. It is, therefore, necessary to nip these issues in the bud before they are allowed to develop into full-fledged problems. These issues and problems can be experienced in various aspects such as operations, workplace, culture, and dynamics.

One common problem identified in an organization is the lack of manpower, specifically the unavailability of computer programmers or IT personnel that will help in providing technical support and administrative staff/officers in overseeing the administrative support services of an office. Second, employees engaging in work from home are spending long hours on the computers that sometimes may lead them to be vulnerable to fatigue, headache, and stress. The same goes for those who are physically reporting at the office, employees felt uncomfortable because of the poor ventilation since there is a need for the windows to be open. Other problems are the unstable internet connection and outmoded office equipment that needs to be replaced and upgraded in order to work efficiently. The presence of a digital divide, different health perspectives towards the Covid-19 vaccine, and difficulty in coordinating tasks with seasoned staff are problems in relation to the culture and dynamics of an organization.

As one team, we forecast the organization through observation and experience before we build and steer a team’s goals and objectives. We adapt change management efforts needed in navigating the team during and after the pandemic. We should be open-minded, all team members are open to changes and learnings. Others should be flexible and adaptable, while all view challenges as opportunities for growth and not as problems.

We also develop emotional awareness and self-regulation through the development of personal emotional intelligence like soft skills training. There is open communication between and among staff and supervisors. We listen to understand, while coaching and mentoring conversations are also observed.

Building the Balangay

Supervising people is coping with complexity and management intricacy. The more people you manage, the more diverse the work environment is. As a supervisor, one must muster the challenge of improving himself/herself first since subordinates are looking upon you for directions, recommendations, and ultimately, for decisions.

Managing and leading are different. Management involves planning and budgeting while leadership is setting direction. Management is organizing and staffing while leading involves aligning people and resources. Management provides control and solves problems while leading provides motivation.

Vince Lombardi, an American football coach and known for determination to win, has said that leaders were not born, they were made. So as the supervisors. A skilled supervisor has undergone skills training, has lots of experience, learned from past mistakes, is open for conversation or communication with staff, and intently listens to other opinions. His/Her mindset is open to other ideas thus enjoys collective wisdom. He/She saw opportunities for growth in times of challenges.

The pandemic provided supervisors with other facets of management such as but not limited to operations, coaching, and the internet of things. Covid-19 has changed people's work. We shifted from daily and routinary face to face conversation to a hybrid work environment. Work productivity and expectations became radical and flexible.

Leadership in public administration provides higher quality and service efficiency. A sense of cohesiveness, human resource development, a sense of direction, and novel concepts. It is indeed difficult to build or sustain operational excellence as mandates, settings, and people continue to develop or change. Nevertheless, we continue to aspire to the best as expected from a ‘lingkod bayan’.

Padayon!

Steering the Balangay

Motivation plays an important role in achieving goals in an organization. Every accomplishment creates fuel for employees to strive more and to look forward to attaining more achievements because being the one with the responsibility to steer the ship towards achievement requires dedication, hard work, and skills. An organization is composed of different personalities and every staff has different working styles that should complement the overall operations of an organization. We play different roles and each of us needs different strokes. We have identified that appreciation and validation of good performance are important to staff with expressive personalities. It is also important to conduct activities such as team building that help us recharge and improve our morale. It's also important to recognize and celebrate accomplishments, no matter how big or small.

Providing a learning environment and giving the staff the chance to improve their skills are important factors of employee motivation. It makes them feel that they are playing an important role in the organization and they are needed to achieve the goals. As we encountered a big challenge in our work during this pandemic, it is important that we create and provide social support for every staff member whether they are physically in the office or working at home. It is important that we should provide connections that will support and help them get through this challenging time. Even if we are physically distant from one another, what is important is that we are socially connected with each other.

It is true that this pandemic has created distance between employees but it has brought us to be closer. It is surprising that we have developed and evolved our processes into a systematic procedure in delivering services efficiently. We have refined the delivery of services needed in order to complement the challenge of reaching out to distant stakeholders.

We have transformed our manual transactions into online transactions to lessen face-to-face interactions. The systems we developed may have glitches but we are still looking at improving them that will eventually make them more useful in the long run even after the pandemic. Change is inevitable. We should get out of our comfort zone and we must continue to face new challenges and make innovations. We must equip ourselves with new learnings as we steered towards unpredictable tides of change.

The LEVEL UP 2.0: Supervising Teams Effectively taught us that challenges and tasks are easier to accomplish when working as a team. We may have different working styles and personalities but working together as a team with common goals and objectives, tasks and assignments become easier to accomplish. As we go along the path of unpredictability, we are equipped with learnings. We developed a sense of flexibility and responsibility in doing tasks together. We gave each other a chance to share our knowledge and weave these thoughts together to create a strong foundation for solutions and ideas. We realized that we have transformed as we pass through every stage of learning. The essence of learning doesn’t end in just knowing the process or theories, but by applying it to work and sharing the knowledge and experiences with others. “The seas may be rough, but we are the captains, we shall sail together” - Group 2