Encouraging Others

Being a manager can seem like a thank-less task at times and we've met many managers who absolutely hate the responsibility of being 'The Manager'.  When you are new to management you normally see the role through rose-tinted glasses and feel like you are going to set this team on fire, but very soon it can seem like a poison challis.

Hopefully most managers realise that 'one size doesn't fit all' and what motivates one person is certainly not going to motivate another.  People like to be treated as individuals (as indeed they are) so take the time to ensure you know what makes them 'tick'.

Having worked for a really hard task-master he thought the way to reward me was to pay me me more money.  But the only thing I remember about working for him was when quite out of character he praised me highly for a piece of work I'd done and said it was 'excellent'!  That was worth more to me than any amount of money he could have given me!  I'd worked with him for years and he'd never praised anything I'd done (although he always valued my work when speaking to other people).

So what do I remember about my time in that company?  Not the pay, but the 'thank you' which was timely and sincere. 

Are you timely and sincere in your praise?  Perhaps that's just what your staff are waiting to hear.

Commitment in Action...

Having just returned from the Great North Run (spectator, not runner!) I witnessed first hand just how powerful a team that works together can be.

54,000 runners took part and the vast majority were running for a charity or part of a club.  They start out with a common goal - a desire to help a charity which they feel passionate about.  They support their charity by doing something extraordinary (the run).  Whilst at the start line waiting to go they see thousands of other people all lined up, having done weeks and weeks of training, all hoping they will achieve their goal of raising funds and awareness for their common cause (the charity). 

Whilst running the half marathon I'm sure that they have their own personal thoughts - excitement, nerves, not wanting to let anyone down and half way round I'm sure when they hit their 'wall' they are wondering why on earth they signed up for such a feat and where they can get a plaster for their blisters!

Once in sight of the finish line their minds will be reminded of a loved one or a personal reason they are supporting their chosen charity and on crossing the finish line emotions are running high that they have achieved their goal and the euphoria and relief of finishing kicks in.

Back in the charity village they are greeted by their charity officials and there is much congratulations, back slapping and tears as they meet up with their families and relay their highs and lows of the run.  The support teams offer tea, coffee, chocolate, goodies and massages - they may not have run themselves, but they play an equally vital part in achieving the shared goal.

What I found particularly wonderful about the GNR is that individuals have the common goal in mind.  They work singly but as part of a team with a purpose.  Nothing is going to knock them off track - if they come across an obstacle they get round it, over it, through it .... whatever it takes.

Imagine bottling that and having it driving your own company forward!  There would be nothing you couldn't achieve with the right people around you.  People with a common goal, a purpose, a passion, vision and a will to succeed, no-matter what.

It doesn't always take a tragedy to unite people - a strong vision with a great leader can achieve extraordinary feats with individuals and teams alike.

What does it take to ignite your team???

The Supermarket Example

Having been involved in retail for many years I am still fascinated by how people manage themselves and others.  My local supermarket has had the same manager for many years and in that time I never saw him once.

A new manager has recently joined the branch and has downsized a store as he prepares for his retirement.  Has his countdown to his life of leisure dampened his commitment to customer service and management of his team - you bet you life it hasn't!!!

I visited a couple of days ago and he was on the shop floor being active. Interacting with customers, tidying up shelves, talking to the staff about floor displays and rotas for the following week and each time I walked past him I was amazed at how 'engaged' people where with him.  He talked - they listened.  They talked - he listened.  And after every conversation he checked that everything was OK and thanked that person personally for their contribution.  I heard him do that 4 times in just a short space of time whilst I shopped.

Then as the queues were big and every available cashier was working flat out, he got on the tannoy system and spoke with great passion about the offers in store and how they could tie in with people's plans for the weekend - BBQ treats, treasure hunts for the children, the latest Disney cards that people could collect (and how someone has recently won a great trip from the store).  He discussed new wines in the branch and how you could save 25% by buying 6 bottles.  Did this sound like a marketing pitch - NO!  I watched people in the queues glued to his every word and smiling (along with the checkout staff).  This guy certainly knows how to add energy to the store and make the shopping experience great for not only the customers but for the staff.

If you are in retail today think about whether you are engaging with your staff or just getting along with your 'tasks'.  When did you last say "thank you" or "well done"? 

This guy was interacting with his customers, acknowledging his staff and making the shopping experience pleasurable - would you like to do that with your customers/employees too?  It's not hard, is it?

Be the difference you want to see.....

And watch the results .....

Mastering Employee Motivation

← People Don’t Leave Organizations…They Leave Managers!

What Have You Done For Me Lately? How a forward focus on just getting results can impact your team’s performance →

Commitment or Compliance…It’s Your Choice

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Bob Woodcock

According to author Daniel Pink traditional management methods are great if what you want from your people is compliance. The problem is that most of us in leadership roles  require far more than that in the new normal that exists in these post recessionary times. Without a committed and engaged workforce our ability to create sustainable business outcomes is severely challenged.

Pink has done some ground breaking work in identifying the true drivers of better performance in the workplace. It turns out that for simple, straight forward tasks the carrot and the stick work well as motivators. For roles that require algorithmic performance, the concept of “if you do this, then you get that” works as a performance motivator. However, if the task gets more complicated - when it requires some conceptual, creative thinking - those kinds of motivators don’t work. We’ve known for years that money is not the primary motivator of successful business outcomes. Science has shown us that performance, and personal satisfaction, come down to 3 factors:

1.       Autonomy

2.      Mastery

3.      Purpose

Autonomy is our desire to be self-directed, to run our own lives. This is where traditional management methods actually get in the way of performance. In their book “First Break All The Rules” Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman identified the differences between what great managers do and what conventional wisdom dictates. Their findings indicated that without fail the managers that concentrated on following had significantly better results than their contemporaries:

§  Selecting for talent.

§   Set expectations by defining the right outcomes.

§  Motivate by focusing on an individual’s strengths.

§  Develop the people on their team by helping them find the right fit within the organization.

Defining the right outcomes and focusing on the individual strengths of the members of your team will have a dramatic effect on the sense of autonomy that you engender. Traditional management focuses on setting expectations by defining the right steps for your direct reports. Regardless of what your leadership role is within the organization (leader of others vs. leader of leaders) when you establish what the target or goal is with one of your direct reports and allow them to determine the right steps to success are you provide them with the autonomy that drives both personal satisfaction and improved performance.

The shift from being an individual contributor within the organization to being a leader of others is a difficult one to make. Most of us that have made that transition didn’t get much in the way of training for our new role. We know what has worked well for us in the past and when it comes to crunch time we reach back to those experiences and apply them with our direct reports. Unfortunately much of what we did as an individual contributor has a negative impact when it comes to managing for results with others.

There are some simple steps you can take to ensure that you cultivate a true sense of autonomy with your direct reports. It is important to remember that autonomy and accountability go hand in hand. Allowing your direct reports to determine what the right steps are doesn’t mean that you will be abdicating your responsibility as a manager to ensure that targets are met and successful business outcomes are delivered. It is imperative to the success of your direct reports that you have frequent check-in conversations and that you both monitor the progress to the end result. That doesn’t mean that you should look for a status update every time you talk with the person. Establish a schedule of follow-up meetings and stick with the schedule.

It’s been said that good people don’t leave the organization they work for, they leave due to a misalignment with their manager. That’s often driven by the fact that their manager has been determined to motivate them by identifying and overcoming what s/he perceives to be their weaknesses. The fact is that people don’t change that much. As a manager you are wasting your time trying to put in what you feel was left out. Focus instead on the individual strengths and try to draw out more of what was left in.

Strength based coaching plays directly to mastery. Each of us would like to get better at what we do. I don’t believe that anyone I’ve ever managed got up in the morning and started the day thinking about how they wanted to go to work and do the worst possible job they could. It was only when I began to understand behaviour that I could see how my actions were impacting both the personal satisfaction and individual performance of my direct reports. Once I was able to apply the science of behaviour and truly understand what the motivational drives and needs were for the various people I began to see the shift from compliance to commitment.

I’m not going to say that this is easy. For many of us in leadership roles one of our strengths is the ability to quickly and creatively problem solve… individually. When someone asks us a question we give them an answer. Unfortunately that response does little to create the feeling of autonomy within our direct reports. Self-discovery is another important piece of the puzzle for both autonomy and mastery. The next time a member of your team asks you a question directly related to a specific target or goal take a deep breath and before you answer them ask them to share what they would do if they were solely responsible. Just one question and then give them the time to respond. Clarify if need be but let them respond. That should be the start of a great conversation between you in which they actually find the answer themselves.

It truly is your choice to make. I can speak from experience on both sides of the issue and I have to say that I much preferred commitment from my direct reports. Your role as a leader of a group of individual contributors puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to the level of engagement within your organization. In most cases this group of managers is directly responsible for the business outcomes of 70% to 80% of the workforce. Give them autonomy, mastery and purpose and watch them shine. Have great conversations and focus on developing their strengths. That’s the way to improve performance

How Can You Increase Employee Motivation?

Managerial Actions for Increased Motivation

from BuzHelp24
As we stress in this article, motivation is achieved through different factors with different people. It is therefore important that you find out these factors for each employee which can be put into action once identified. The best way of identifying these factors is to issue an Employee Appraisal.

If your business has a small number of employees that you can supervise and control easily, then you will probably have an idea what motivates each person and therefore not have to use the appraisal process to determine such factors (although you should use one for other reasons that concern the performance of your employees). If your business does have a large number of employees that you cannot control at any one time, then you may decide to delegate the task of identifying motivational issues to assistant mangers or immediate supervisors of the employees, etc.

For you to motivate your employees, you have to identify which approach to take: do you offer a financial or non-financial incentive? This will depend on what factors motivate the staff member but it may also be restricted by your company budget which cannot compensate for any wage increases or bonuses and therefore non-financial incentives have to be introduced. Poor pay may lead to staff being dissatisfied at work and therefore any non-financial incentives will not be effective for motivation. It is therefore important that you find the right balance between the two.

Financial Incentives

Increasing motivation through financial rewards is a method that is most common when businesses rely on the quantity of the output of employees. For those employees involved in production, you could issue a piece rate system where they are paid for each individual product they produce. In which case, they would be motivated to produce as much as possible in order to achieve a high pay: but ensure your quality control is effective to ensure customer focused areas are not traded-off for quantity. You could also introduce a commission payment scheme if your business relies on selling your product or services through the means of personal sales (telephone, door-to-door, etc).

You may even introduce fringe benefits instead of increasing wages or salaries such as company cars, private health, or interest-free loans from the business. These benefits are often valued higher than wage increases and can be less expensive for the business to provide.
Another financial incentive is the offer of a share of the company profits, say, 5%, which is split between your employees. This incentive can influence team working in the business but you may find that people benefit from other people’s work if they do not pull their own weight to help increase efficiency. It can therefore be said that profit sharing does not encourage motivation in all employees although it is highly effective in businesses with few employees. This is because they know that their performance will make a difference and will be evidenced by an increase in the business profits.

Sometimes staff may only have motivation to get a task done quickly without care to the quality of the outcome. In which case, you can introduce quality related bonus pay which determines their salary. This salary will be up for review twice a year and reflects their value in the business with respect to, for example, the standard they complete tasks as well as personal sales records, achievements, and so on. This will give the employee the motivation to complete tasks to a high standard and a desire to further excel in the future in order to gain a higher salary: and of course, the feeling of achievement (priceless).

Non-financial Incentives

You may feel that money is not an effective motivator in your business although it may have some effect in the short term: your employees may also see factors aside from money as prime motivators. For whatever reason you decide that non-financial incentives are more effective in your business, there are many forms in which they can be given.

You can increase motivation by giving employees more responsibility so that they feel their contribution is more valuable to the business and that their role is of higher importance. Further, you can promise the chance of promotion if they reach a certain standard or target. We briefly introduced the process of appraisal which is a huge motivator to employees. This is because they will be recognized for the value they add (or do not add!) to the business by reviewing their progress and achievements over a certain period.

The following are also motivators that can be introduced in your business. To some degree they can also be seen as processes that reduce job dissatisfaction:

Job Enlargement

This involves expanding the job of an employee that has them doing more work of a similar nature to what they already do. This may be allowing them to complete the whole task instead of just part of it, for example, packaging the products as well as manufacturing them. This process ideally removes the boredom out of the job by eliminating the repetitiveness out of tasks and allowing them to complete the whole process, further increasing their responsibility.

Job Rotation

This involves allowing employees to change the nature of their job periodically. For example, you may give the employee administration duties one week, marketing the week after, and then back to their original job of sales the following week. This cycle will then be on going. The purpose of this is that the employee, again, is satisfied by reduced boredom and also motivated by the achievement of increased skills. The business owner gains from cross-training and the potential for feed-back and improvement ideas.

Job Enrichment

Similar to job enlargement, you can enrich an employee’s job by expanding their tasks to give a higher level of responsibility in the nature of work they do. For example, they can be given the responsibility of ordering materials and making delivery arrangements instead of just manufacturing the products. This will not only expand their skills, but also give them an increased challenge (responsibility).

Summary

Without motivation in the workplace, your business will suffer from the lack of efficiency that your employees may fail to apply. This is because they have no incentive to perform tasks to a high standard or complete them on time. It is therefore important that you give them something to work for as a reward for their high level of performance, all being essential to the success of your business.

Everyone is motivated by different things and a majority of these factors are not money orientated: instead they react more effectively to incentives that offer personal recognition and achievement. In which case, you should determine what motivates individual people and further determine whether a financial or non-financial incentive is the solution.

There is a fine line between factors that motivate people and factors that prevent job dissatisfaction. In other words, some things do increase the level of efficiency in employees by reducing job dissatisfaction but are not motivators themselves. This is because your staff need to eliminate unhappiness in their job before they can begin to be motivated and this usually, and some say must, begin with an *acceptable* wage that they can live on.
BuzHelp24

Footnote:
The easiest and most cost effective way to recognise employee achievements is to send them a card with a personal message - sometimes this action can speak much louder than money!  For a range of suitable cards to motivate, inspire or celebrate success visit http://www.high10.co.uk/

Motivation in the Workplace

Taken from BuzHelp24
Managers today are not aware of the effects that motivation can (and does) have on their business, and it is therefore important they learn and understand the factors that determine positive motivation in the workplace. The size of your business is irrelevant: whether you are trying to get the best out of fifty of your staff or just one, everyone needs some form of motivation. Motivation is something that is approached differently by different businesses and the responsibility of its integration lies with all immediate supervisors of staff. However, it is the business owner who must initiate motivation as a strategy to attain corporate goals.

The aim of this article is to help you (as a manager) to understand the importance and effects of motivation by identifying key factors that determine the rate of motivation in your employees. These factors are linked directly to their individual needs, behaviour and attitudes as you will find out from the following content.

What is Motivation?

Motivation is the force that makes us do things: this is a result of our individual needs being satisfied (or met) so that we have inspiration to complete the task. These needs vary from person to person as everybody has their individual needs to motivate themselves. Depending on how motivated we are, it may further determine the effort we put into our work and therefore increase the standard of the output.

When we suggest factors (or needs) that determine the motivation of employees in the workplace, almost everyone would immediately think of a high salary. This answer is correct for the reason that some employees will be motivated by money, but mostly wrong for the reason that it does not satisfy others (to a lasting degree). This supports the statement that human motivation is a personal characteristic, and not a one fits all option.

The Importance of Motivation

Motivation can have an effect on the output of your business and concerns both quantity and quality. See it this way: your business relies heavily on the efficiency of your production staff to make sure that products are manufactured in numbers that meet demand for the week. If these employees lack the motivation to produce completed products to meet the demand, then you face a problem leading to disastrous consequences. The number of scenarios is extreme but you get the general picture.
Your employees are your greatest asset and no matter how efficient your technology and equipment may be, it is no match for the effectiveness and efficiency of your staff.

Motivational Theory: Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory

Motivation has been studied for many years stretching beyond the 19th century. As a result, a number of theorists have compiled their own conclusions and consequently a wide variety of motivational theory has been produced. Without going into the fine details and depth of all the motivational theory, we will use Fredrick Herzberg’s (1966) research to outline the main issues concerning motivation.

In 1966, Herzberg interviewed a number of people in different professions at different levels to find out two things:

• Those factors that motivated them in the workplace

These were identified as factors that gave employees an incentive to work resulting in job satisfaction. They are also referred to as ‘motivators’. These motivators increased the job satisfaction of the employee and further increased their efficiency.

• Those factors that prevented job dissatisfaction

These were identified as factors that prevented job dissatisfaction. These did not make the employees happy (or have job satisfaction): it just removed the unhappiness out of working. They are also referred to as ‘hygiene’ factors. Such hygiene factors, if not satisfied, had an effect of reduced employee efficiency.

Herzberg believed that all factors fell into one of these categories and therefore had separate consequences. His research concluded that some factors fell into both categories although they held a stronger position in one of them. See the diagram below for examples of the factors that he determined for each category.

By looking at the diagram, it shows that a sense for achievement, recognition of their effort, the nature of the work itself, and the desire for responsibility are all strong factors for motivation. At the bottom of the diagram, the way the business is run, how they are supervised, the work conditions and their pay, are all factors that can lead to job dissatisfaction if not met to the standards of the employee.

The size (or width) of the bars that represent each factor compensate for the level at which it is a concern. For example, from the diagram, the way the business is run is a higher dissatisfaction cause (if it is run badly) then the concern of bad working conditions. You may look at ‘pay’ and think that this bar should be a lot wider on the job dissatisfaction side, but most people would not take the job in the first place if they considered the pay as ‘totally unacceptable’.

Take another example: the employee does not see the lack of personal responsibility as a major job dissatisfaction, but when people do seek responsibility, it is a huge motivational factor for them: hence the long extension of the bar more on the motivation side of the diagram.

You will further notice that those factors encouraging motivation (job satisfaction) have little connection with money and are more associated with personal development and achievement. Hygiene factors concern more the employees personal attitudes towards the context of their job and involve money in most cases to provide a solution to the issue.

You may also have noticed that two bars on the diagram (achievement and pay) are shaped differently. This is to illustrate that, for Achievement, it is something that is only acquired for a short term and is therefore an ongoing need that is searched for over and over again. In other words: one week you may achieve, say, a good personal sales figure, and the following week your standard drops to a disappointing level in which you seek to achieve this figure yet again. The Pay factor (salary) also has a similar concern: you may increase an employee’s salary that removes job dissatisfaction at first, but in time (can be as low as days) the employee will increase their personal spending to what they are earning and will eventually, again, become dissatisfied. In such a case, it may be for your benefit that you offer an additional incentive to keep the employee further satisfied to prevent this on-going cycle from occurring.