{"id":1848,"date":"2018-01-10T15:35:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T15:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2023-08-01T15:51:44","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T19:51:44","slug":"morale-building-procurement-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/morale-building-procurement-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Morale-Building In Procurement Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I blogged about\u00a0the prospects of the economy overheating.\u00a0 And, a few months ago, I blogged about\u00a0the internal procurement challenge in a hot economy:\u00a0 filling open positions with good talent.<\/p>\n

Today, I will expand upon those themes by talking about the currently hot economy and\u00a0how to preclude the internal procurement challenge by preventing your positions from becoming open in the first place.<\/p>\n

Sure, with an unemployment rate pretty much as low as it’s been in this millennium, the probability of losing talent in the short term is high.\u00a0 But, that doesn\u2019t mean that your best people are guaranteed to leave for the proverbial greener pastures.<\/p>\n

You can retain your people if you are a good leader.\u00a0 No matter the macroeconomic circumstances, if you\u2019re a great leader, great people will want to stick with you.<\/p>\n

How do you make them want to stay?<\/p>\n

Well, I previously wrote that\u00a0one role of a procurement leader is to be a teacher.\u00a0 Another role is to be a\u00a0morale builder<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re a vice president of procurement\u00a0or a first-level purchasing supervisor, you are the Chief Morale Officer for the group you are in charge of.<\/p>\n

So, what are you doing to boost morale?<\/p>\n

If your answer is \u201cnothing right now,\u201d then guess what?<\/p>\n

You suck as a leader.<\/p>\n

Sorry, to be so blunt.\u00a0 But I must be honest and frank.\u00a0 Sugarcoating the truth won\u2019t help you to be a better procurement leader.<\/p>\n

True leadership involves a concerted effort to continually work at boosting the morale of your subordinates.\u00a0 This is true in bad economic times as well as good.\u00a0 However, it is more critical than ever in today\u2019s economy, when your subordinates have a virtually unprecedented number of options for employment.<\/p>\n

You want your department to be their\u00a0best<\/em>\u00a0option.<\/p>\n

I think one of the key performance indicators for a leader is turnover \u2013 the ratio of people who depart the company to the number of positions.\u00a0 And I think your target for this new year should be zero turnovers.\u00a0 That means not one person will leave.<\/p>\n

If you can achieve that goal in this environment, you\u00a0rock<\/em>\u00a0as a leader.\u00a0 If you fall a little short of that goal, you may be human, though you should recognize room for improvement.<\/p>\n

And, if you\u2019ve already lost people this year\u2026I won\u2019t say it again, but let\u2019s put it this way:\u00a0 if you still think you rock as a leader, you may just have a little distorted self-perception.<\/p>\n

So, get to boosting morale sooner rather than later.\u00a0 There are plenty of ideas out there on the web.\u00a0 Many don\u2019t even require a budget.\u00a0 Google is your friend.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve done nothing to date,\u00a0anything<\/em>\u00a0will be a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

There are no excuses for doing nothing.\u00a0 Even if your boss does nothing to boost your morale, that doesn\u2019t mean you need to stoop to his\/her level of leadership incompetence. (https:\/\/thecenturionreport.com<\/a>) <\/p>\n

Remember:\u00a0 You are the Chief Morale Officer for your group.\u00a0 Lead like one.<\/p>\n

NLPA Learning<\/b><\/a>:<\/b>\u00a0Looking for authoritative procurement templates, tools, webinars, and more? Stop trying to create resources from scratch and start taking advantage of having exactly what you need right at your fingertips in\u00a0NLPA Learning.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading<\/b><\/p>\n