Motivating Your Employees
a.k.a. Newsflash: Treat People Like People
Millennials are not the problem. The problem is that corporate America (and beyond) treats employees like human resources. I am not a human resource. Neither are you.
This is not a post about Millennials, though it amuses me to look back on how “we” anticipated their entrance into the workforce. No really, go click that link you just skipped over and read it. It’s hilarious. Apparently organizational leaders back in 2007 needed to avoid being “harsh.” They need to focus “more on coaching rather than bossing.” What the hell is bossing?
Fast forward five years to 2012, and the story doesn’t get much better. I’ll argue each of the three points of this article.
- Millennials do not need to “feel” heard. People need to BE heard. If they’re reporting to you and you’ve hired well they’re closer to the problems you’re trying to solve and you need their input. Moreover, leaders should set context and let their people make the majority of day-to-day decisions.
- Millennials, being people, need mentoring. Mentoring and coaching are skills all managers should have. If they’re missing, they should be developed.
- Shocker after shocker, people (not Millennials) care more about building relationships and being viewed favorably in others’ eyes than cash. This isn’t to disparage Maslow, he had an impact… there’s just more detail & complexity there.
In fact, the more I read about “Millennials” needing this and that, the more I find if I substitute the word “people” instead, the same statements apply. Okay, so how do I motivate my people?
The Decay of Conventional Wisdom
Our general capitalist way of thinking dictates that if I want someone to do something, I’m going to have to pay them. If I want it faster or better, I dangle a bigger carrot. This conventional wisdom is thankfully slowly being displaced by a realization that there are some surprises about how we are actually motivated when faced with creative (i.e. not routine/obvious) work. As it turns out, cash isn’t a useful carrot in these situations. We’re less effective when there are financial rewards that are contingent on our performance.
And despite the fact that the preceding two links are from 2009 and 2010 — and yes, I cheated by having them both be Dan Pink on the same topic — I’m going to roll back the clock even further to 1999, for what I think is the final answer. How do you motivate employees? First, Break All the Rules.
This outstanding book stemmed from a Gallup survey consisting of over 80,000 interviews of managers in 400 companies across a 25-year time period. Before we had Millennials to blame for all our employee woes. One of the most interesting discoveries is the correlation they found between productivity and a set of twelve questions. Guess what. None of the questions have anything to do with compensation. They have to do with understanding expectations, being able to learn, getting feedback/praise, and feeling a sense of connection with the people around you and with the mission & direction of the company.
But wait. I thought it was only Millennials that wanted this stuff?
Um, no. Turns out people want this stuff. So maybe it’s about time managers realized that people want to be treated like people.
Oh No! I Want to Treat People Like People. What Do I Do?
There’s probably more here than will fit in a short post — so let’s start with “where do I start?”
In my previous role, I used these questions as Gallup did, as a survey. All twelve questions are rephrased easily into something that employees can respond to via survey. Rolling it out is straight-forward:
- Set expectations. about your desire to improve employee satisfaction and tie that directly to (an honest) belief that employee satisfaction leads to business performance.
- Talk about First, Break All the Rules. How you read it, what you learned from it, and what the questions’ answers imply.
- Announce there’ll be a survey. The first year will be about establishing a baseline, looking for any obvious problems, and acting on them. Ensure everyone you’ll be transparent about the results. Encourage participation.
- Release the survey shortly thereafter, specify a fixed time period…for example: two weeks. Encourage participation.
- Release a reminder 48 hours before close. Encourage participation.
- Review results. Derive lessons. Discuss with your managers. Trickle.
- Make summary of results transparent with your team. Discuss observations. Thank them for their participation. Be clear about what changes you’re going to make to address identified issues.
- Follow-up on your promises. Make said changes.
- Repeat annually, comparing prior year results. Celebrate improvements. Analyze decreases.
If nothing else, you’ll learn a lot more about your team and the inhibitors to their increased performance. Coupled with one-on-one or skip-level meetings with your staff, it can be an extremely potent tool to move your team forward.
And then: keep treating people like people.
P.S. If you aren’t clicking the links in this one, you’re missing out on a ton of great resources.
If you found this worth your time, consider following @reefhack on Twitter, RT, and recommend this article by clicking the heart below.
Featured on www.managermint.com The Most Valuable Business Resource
Click Here to get your Free Annual Subscription to our Digital Magazine!
