职场英语：你的团队希望你不要再这样做

The other day,on the sidelines of a conference, a bright youngmanager sought my advice. "I've tried using different leadershipstyles, but I can't seem to dispel my team's sense ofdisengagement," he confessed. "I don't understand what I'mdoing wrong."

不久前，一位年轻聪明的经理在会议间隙向我寻求建议。他坦白地说，“我尝试不同的领导风格，但似乎还是不能消除团队的隔膜感。我不知道到底哪里出了问题。”

"Why don't you ask your team?" I asked him.

“为什么不问问你的团队成员呢？”我问他。

The reply surprised him, but there's no point in complicating leadership. As I described in apreviouspost, time-tested leadership traits are quite simple to adopt. Yet, as recent reports confirm, there'sa growing disconnect between teams and managers. Why?

我的回答让他大吃一惊，但是（不这样做的话）采用什么领导风格都没意义。就像我在之前的帖子里描述的那样，经久不衰的领导风格其实很简单。然而，最近的报道表明，团队成员和管理者之间越来越脱节。怎么会这样？

On a hunch, I decided to conduct a flash survey of my social media universe. "What's the onething you'd like your boss to stop doing?" I asked on Facebook, Twitter, and HCL's internal socialmedia platform, Meme.

出于直觉，我决定在我的社交媒体领域中进行一次快速调查。我分别在脸谱、推特和HCL的内部社交媒体平台上发问：“你希望你的领导不要再做的一件事是什么？”

The number of responses that poured in shocked me. Everybody had something to say aboutthat, and seemed to be waiting to be asked. The top pieces of advice:

回复蜂拥而至，让我震惊。每个人都有感而发，好像就这个问题已经等候多时。头几条意见是这么说的：

Don't obfuscate; tell it like it is.That's typical of Gen Y, which wants its leaders to call a spade aspade. "Tell it like it is, stop worrying about hurting people's feelings," said one response. The nextwas even more direct: "Stop being outwardly nice and be vocal about dissatisfaction with myefforts." A third went a step further: "Let people know where they really stand. They know how towin if we tell them the score."

不要模棱两可；有话直说。这点在年轻人中颇为典型，他们希望自己的领导直言不讳。一个人是这么回复的：“有啥说啥，用不着担心伤害别人的感情。”下一位更直接：“别再装老好人了，我的工作哪不满意就直说。”第三个人有过之而不及：“你得让人知道他到底值几斤几两。如果你实话告诉他们，他们也好知道怎么取得成功。”

No rose-tinted spectacles for today's employee; they have the pluck to look at their failures andsuccesses and have little patience for circuitous comments.

不要再戴着玫瑰色的眼睛（指只看好的一方面——译注）来审视今天的员工；他们绝对有勇气直视自己的成败，没功夫听你在那拐弯抹角。

Stop telling me what I know.Coach me, enable me, support me... was the message, over andover again. Give us "freedom, exposure, and guidance," wrote a young lady on Facebook, whichwas echoed on Twitter by "Learn to let go... Create the platform for your team to perform andback them by providing guidance and support."

别再说那些我知道的东西。指导我，激发我，支持我……就是他们一再表达的意思。一个年轻女士在脸谱上说“给我们自由，让我们体验，指导我们前行。”另一个人在推特上也附和“学着放手，打造一个可以让团队成员各显神通的平台，你要在后面支持他们，引导他们。”

I could hear my kids' voices in some of these comments. Trying to teach today's Google-bredgeneration often blurs the lines between student and teacher; the former will tell you a thing or twothat you didn't know. It's time leaders moved from being knowledge-providers to enablers.

我能从这些评论中听到我的团队小朋友的心声。尝试教导今天的Google一代会让师生界限模糊不清；学生都会告诉你一两件你不知道的事。领导者也是时候一改知识提供者的身份，做一做使能者了。

Don't stray; walk the talk.Megaphone managers have thrived for too long; people now wanttheir leaders to be the change they advocate. They're looking for role models, which was evident incomments such as: "Walk the talk and set me an example. I need to know that we are in ittogether," and "Do away with the lack of congruence between your actions and your wordsbecause I need to trust you."

别再偏题，言出必行。扩音器管理者持续了太久。人们现在想让他们的领导变成他们拥护的那样。他们在寻找榜样，这在评论中显而易见：“言出必行，为我树立榜样。我需要知道我们是一个团队，”“不要再言行不一，因为你得值得我信任。”

Mahatma Gandhi's success as a leader is usually attributed to character traits such as vision, courage, conviction, and perseverance, but what's less known is the fact that he always practicedwhat he preached.

圣雄甘地（Mahatma Gandhi）作为一位领导者很成功，人们一般认为这得益于他的性格特征，他有远见卓识、胆气过人、信念坚定、不屈不挠，但是鲜为人知的一个成功因素就是他一直身体力行。

Stop playing favorites.Even if organizations have adopted key performance indicators withmeasurable goals and outcomes, it is worth reflecting whether they apply to us . A couple ofcomments: "A horse and a monkey cannot both be judged on the basis of which can climb trees." Or "Reward performance, not sycophancy."

不要再厚此薄彼。即使组织把可衡量目标和工作成果作为了关键绩效指标，也值得想想这是不是适用于自己。有几个评论是这么说的：“评判一匹马是不是好马，一头驴是不是好驴，都不能看二者会不会爬树。”或者“奖赏工作业绩，而不是拍马屁能力”

We can all put a name to the employee who steadily rose up the corporate ladder despite weakperformance because he was affable and didn't bruise anyone's ego. That was rampant untilmeasurable goals came along, but the bad news is that it still happens. Indeed, the need tomeasure and be objective cannot be stressed enough.

我们都可以随口说出一个工作业绩很差，却因他待人和善，从不伤及别人自尊而稳步攀升事业高梯的员工名字。这种现象在可衡量目标形成之前很是猖獗，糟糕的是仍有发生。事实上，对于客观评定的需求再强调也不为过。

Don't be a boss, be a leader.There was an unmistakable call for appreciative, empathetic, respect-worthy leaders. "Lead by example, not by rules," wrote one young man on Facebook. "Stop trying to control people...," added another. A third quoted Gordon Selfridge: "A boss inspiresfear, a leader inspires enthusiasm."

别当老板，当领导。很明显人们现在呼吁有伯乐眼光，能产生共鸣，值得去尊重的领导。“领导要靠言传身教，而不是清规戒律，”一个年轻人在脸谱上这么写。“别再试着控制别人……”另外一个人补充道。第三个人引用了戈登·赛弗里奇（Gordon Selfridge）的名言“老板让人恐惧，领导激发热情。”

These aren't isolated cases. As confirmed by theKelly Global Workforce Index in September 2012, which studied the Leadership Disconnect in 30 countries, less than 4 out of 10 employees (38%) are satisfied with their current management's leadership styles. So if you see a decline in yourteam's enthusiasm, it may not necessarily be the economy! You may want to check if there's adisconnect between your leadership style and your team's expectations.

无独有偶。Kelly Service 发布的环球劳动力指数研究了30个国家的领导与员工脱节现象，2012年9月证实，10位员工中不到4人（38%）对他们当前管理层的领导风格满意。所以如果你看到团队热情下降，可能未必是由于经济下滑引起的。你可能想看看是不是在你的领导风格和团队期待存在脱节现象。

If that's a possibility, how about starting your Monday morning team meeting with a simplequestion: What's the one thing you want me to stop doing as your boss? Why, that could eventurn out to be your resolution for 2013.

如果可能，周一早晨的团队会上问个简单的问题作为开场白吧：作为你们的领导，你们想让我不要再做的一件事是什么？为什么这么问，应为那可能会影响你们2013年工作的决心。