A friend, currently living in India, circulated a video of their gardener mowing the lawn. Rather than using a lawn mower (which I am reassured they do possess), he was trimming the grass on his hands and knees with a pair of pruning shears!

Several thoughts popped into my head, firstly with regards the ‘employee’:

• Does he know that his employer owns a lawn mower or have they failed to mention it?
• Is this how he’s been trained to cut grass and so he’s simply doing what he knows?
• Is he paid for his time and therefore deliberately making work for himself?

Then to the ‘employer’ who was embarrassed by what she saw:

• Is his behaviour cultural or idiosyncratic?
• Is this costing time and money that could be better spent elsewhere?
• Would it be worthwhile training him to use the lawnmower (or would they be in breach of all sorts of health and safety regulations in that country)?

I also wondered about the implications had my friend not witnessed this individual’s industry. Would they have questioned why simple maintenance took so long or been too busy to notice? I’m sure the grass must look odd, being cut at different angles; and certainly a million miles away from the lush striped lawns you see in the UK.

If you are a manager, there will be odd behaviour happening that you are unaware of, somewhere in your department, guaranteed. Whilst I do believe that most people want to do a good job; they often give of their best without questioning whether they could do things differently. After all, we don’t know what we don’t know until someone puts us straight.

Of course, that’s our job as leaders and managers; to spot those behaviours that aren’t best serving the individual, and the company, and find a better way.

This week’s link is For Managers who have to engage people to do what’s required, in the way the higher ups want them to do it; no easy task.