Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts

Motivating Your Employees - Change Your Attitude

A while ago I used to have a manager that was a master of mobbing. We all "loved" her. She would burst into the room in the morning, always trying to surprise us while doing something illegal, she would never say "good morning", she would throw her laptop on the desk and start working as if none of us were in the room. Imagine our rest of the day - we were all sad, our motivation was gone (had we had any left in the first place from the day before :)), we were all looking at the clock hoping it would miraculously turn to 5pm on the spot so we could all run to the tram. I wandered along the factory all day begging for a smile for anyone to brighten up my day...just a little at least as the dark clouds came over me again as soon as I entered our HR office.

Well, do you get it? See what's wrong here? Of course! A manager is responsible for a lot of things and among them is team attitude. Your team looks up to you - you have a bad day - don't let them see it because they will borrow your attitude and have a bad day also. You are nice and smiling all the time - they will be happy and smiling all the time. Genuine smile, I mean, not fake, they're not stupid to buy it...

What can you do as a manager to motivate your team from this point of view?
-Never enter the office in the morning without smiling and greeting them;

-Always make eye contact while talking to your team members – it’s not fun for someone to stand by your desk and look at you while reading emails – that’s not a conversation;

-Treat your team members with respect – remember they help you achieve your goals – no, really! You’re not alone there. You wouldn’t be able to achieve your team goals without your team;

-Never take in the office calls or have discussions where you estimate you would get angry – go in a separate room – an angry attitude from a manager shouting influences everybody, even if the manager is not shouting at someone present in the office;

-Always offer negative feedback in a one-to-one meeting; positive feedback can be offered publicly;

-Try to leave your personal issues at home;

-Be positive, expect positive things from your team and they will achieve them – be negative and show them you don’t trust them (see my manager trying to catch us while doing something illegal – we neved did by the way) and they will dissappoint you;

-Speak nicely of people, not necessarily your team members – your manager, your colleagues, your family. Your team will see that you are a good person and will appreciate the positive atmosphere you are creating;

-Don’t be afraid to show them you have weakneses too – you are human too and they will see you as one of the team, having faith to come to you for an open discussion;

-Roll up your sleeves – don’t give them tasks and flee. Try to show them you are able to work together with them on the tasks even if for some time. I know managers are busy, but taking the time to work by them will make them respect you. Trust me. You don’t want them to see you as a God from above that is almighty. You want them to respect and care for you. You will have your ups and downs and if they don’t respect and care for you, you will be alone during your downs;

-Make time for them – even if a few minutes. They will appreciate it. A lunch out or even in the office together, a short meeting, a few minutes spent near your desk talking, try to make time for each of them;

-Be fair – tream them equally when they go wrong or when they are successful;

What else would you add to my list?
Take care,
Geo

Motivating Your Employees - Make People Feel Important

As I have mentioned in my previous article, motivating people is a difficult job for a manager, especially when you have only non-financial means available and your team is made up of various types of characters. Money is a good motivator but only for a while and only for lower type of positions. As you go higher, it no longer works, no matter how much money you decide to make available. That's when you need to think of other motivators. Making people feel important is one of them. It works for all categories of team members - juniors and seniors alike.

Making people feel important doesn't necessarily mean promoting them. And you need to remember that not everybody wants to be manager. For some it may be a huge pain in the back. Also, promoting the wrong people may lead to team disaster. Making people feel important may be sometimes much easier than you think. Here's what you can do:

  • Listen to people - this shows you care - listen to their problems, to their suggestions, even if you can't apply or solve everything at least give people a part of your time to show that you appreciate their effort in the team;
  • Ask for help - this makes people feel useful - delegate some of your tasks - it will help them and you equally;
  • Be polite - no matter how angry or frustrated you are. Never forget "Please" and "Thank you";
  • Reward people - don't take measures only when something is wrong to solve a problem - also act when people have done something positive;
  • Offer feedback - good or bad - this shows that you are following your team members in their actions, that you offer them part of your time, that you praise them when good things happen and that you care about their improvement when bad things do;
  • Encourage people;
  • Offer them some decision freedom - no matter how small, allow them to make some choices, to implement some of their ideas;
  • Show them you care about their professional and personal improvement - send them to trainings, organize team buildings, delegate (I've already said that, but it needs to be repeated here too), talk about what they want to do and help them, give them challenging tasks and objectives;
  • Show compassion when they have personal problems;
  • Allow them to have a life - let them go home on time to be with their families, encourage them to be efficient on the job in order not to spend the entire day at work, encourage them not to take work at home unless absolutely necessary;
  • Smile, be nice and honest;
  • Organize personal meetings with each of them to allow them to offer your their feedback;
  • Roll up your sleeves - don't run when the team has a big project to finish and tight deadlines- work near them doing sometimes tasks that are below your status - this will show them you care about them and about the team and you don't consider yourself too good and too high on the ladder to do entry level tasks;
What ideas do you have to make people in your team feel important?

Take care,
Geo

Why Do Top Performers turn suddenly into very Poor Performers?



I am sure that all experienced managers have had at some point in their career one of these guys in their teams – smart, capable people, top of the list, better than anybody else today and then bored, tired, annoyed by any task they get, sometimes dragging everybody else down the next  day. Sounds familiar?

Well, managers, did you think that you may be doing something wrong? Did you take the time to think about what may be happening? Here are the potential causes that you need to investigate deeper:

1.      Employee is bored – the average time that an employee should stay on the same position with exactly the same tasks is maximum 2 years, sometimes less depending on each individual. After that, the natural tendency, especially if we are dealing with young and ambitious professionals is to get bored and start seeking for new responsibilities and challenges. Managers need to make sure that the employees seek inside the company and not elsewhere and that their newly acquired skills are not wasted. What should you do as a manager? Prevent this by constantly discussing with the employee and by constantly trying to involve him in some new projects and challenges;

2.       Employee no longer trusts his manager – if this happens, then gaining trust back is very difficult to do. What may cause this? The manager doesn’t know how to deal with poor performance – he doesn’t know how to offer different rewards depending on performance (sometimes the manager may be impresses by the poor social status of a team member and award him bonuses even if they are not deserved – be careful, it may backfire!), manager is not fair, manager offers only negative feedback, manager is not a good example (i.e. he asks the employees to be always on time at work, but he rarely follows his own rule), manager is too weak when tough decisions should be made – reasons may go on and on; spotting this is not always easy to do – employee may no longer follow rules, may no longer do tasks on time, may visibly question authority. What can be done? Work hard to gain trust again – involve employee in decision making, offer fair feedback to all members of the team, reward good performance properly, be an example to follow for the team;

3.       Poor communication from the manager down – employee doesn’t have clear goals so he can’t know if he’s performing well or not,  employee is not aware of changes implemented or changes are being implemented via force, employee doesn’t understand his role within the wider picture, employees are not encouraged to express their opinion;

4.      Poor differentiation and recognition of good performance – manager must always be fair and reward good and bad performance accordingly; top performers must know they are top performers and the team should know why they were rewarded so they can gain their respect among their colleagues;

5.       Lack of feedback - manager never has time to discuss with an employee about his performance; he is always kept in the dark not knowing whether what he did was good or bad or if any objectives were actually met. What to do?  Meet at least once a month to offer the employee feedback or if something good or bad has happened, offer feedback instantly;

6.       Poor tools offered  -this may be really frustrating – not having a computer fast enough, not having all the software the employee needs,  not having access to the printer, the internet sometimes, books or even wanting to do something and not having access to all the information – all these may turn an employee from a top performer to one who doesn’t care;

7.       Professional growth not supported properly – this may be caused by not having enough positions in the company to offer the employee (and this is something that can’t always be fixed as it is connected to the business and the company policy only); however, some small things can still be done: allow the employee to learn from others by assigning him some of their tasks from time to time, delegate some of your tasks as manager, allow the employee to teach others and develop his training skills and last but not least try to find time to allow the employee to participate in the trainings he is interested in (even if sometimes this may lead to him wanting more and leaving the company – at least you motivated him to do his best while he was in your team);

8.       Poor measurement of performance – in terms of performance measurement companies are part of either of the 3 categories: those who don’t measure performance at all (there are employees who have been working for the same company for 7 years and  nobody bothered to offer them any feedback or give them any targets to achieve), those who have implemented some measurement system but this is not too good (either reviews are not done on clear time frames, are done when the manager remembers to do it or rules, feedback and rewards  are not consistent) and finally those who have a clear performance management system that works (reviews are done on certain dates, rules are clear, rewards for good or poor performance are clear and fair, everybody has clear goals, gets  consistent feedback and knows what comes next);

9.       Poor compensation, not in line with competencies and role – this is also something that may not be fixed if the company doesn’t have the resources; however, managers must at least discuss with the employees to see if they can be motivated by other means: days off, formal and informal dinners, relaxation spaces set up, fitness subscriptions, discounts on company products – all these may matter; also, managers must remember that compensation is an important reason for employees leaving the company, but only up to a certain level. Normally entry and middle level employees care a lot about money especially if they are young (because they want a family, a house, a car, they want stuff).  For the rest money matters only up to a point – after that point you may give the employee whatever amount and find out that they still leave (because of not having enough time to spend with their family, because of not enough development opportunities, because of lack of respect, because of not being involved enough in decisions – list may go on);

10.   No involvement in decision making – employee needs to understand when changes are implemented – so managers need at least to consult the team, even if decision is already made by the board, at least they must get the chance to offer their opinion. Otherwise, they will feel left out and exploited;

11.   No balance for family/personal life – a balanced employee is a happy employee. This is why, no matter what the employee tells you, he still needs some time for himself. Even if he doesn’t have a family, he needs time with his girlfriend, his dog, his parents, time to himself – whatever – he still needs to rest and think of his own problems. Work is NOT his life, even if he is young and doesn’t understand it yet. An overworked employee, even if he does it voluntarily, will turn eventually into an unhappy employee. This is a fact!

Well, did you see all this coming? Lots of potential causes for you as managers to investigate… This may seem a bit disturbing, but you really need to take the time to think about all this because losing a top performer is worst than losing your own pride as manager.

Take care,
Geo

Motivating Your Employees - Opening the Johari Window

A good manager is the one that people know and trust, the one that people are not afraid to share ideas, thoughts and fears with, the one that shows not only strengths but also weaknesses. Good communication is a critical key in a team. Only when your teams knows you, they will trust your decisions even when you are not allowed to share all the details with them.

A good tool to build engagement and motivate your employees is opening the Johari window.
What on Earth is that you may ask?

Well, you can find a lot of great details about it on Wikipedia if you want to go in further detail. It's a concept developed by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the US, in the 50s. I will not detail it too much - I will just tell you that from the table below which represents the Johari window, you need to start opening the Hidden area, the area which includes all the items you know about yourself and that others don't and would be useful to know for the well-being of your team.

The Johari Window
The Johari Window
All nice so far, but what to do exactly to open this area?
I will tell you what I did. I created a set of open questions, some work-related and some personal that we all answer during our weekly meetings.

At the end of each regular weekly HR meeting where we discuss important items for our department, I bring out a set of 5 questions that each of us has to answer (refusal is of course an option - nobody is forced to do it, but answering allows us to know each other better and allows the ladies in the team to know me better and understand my decisions).

5 questions in a session are enough because answering them (we are 4 people) takes us around 15-20 minutes, so that's enough for one session. You can use our ideas or create your own questions - the idea is to start communicating with each other and share thoughts and ideas, know each other better, know what you like or dislike and understand your fears and reasons for being proud - the purpose of the exercise is to bring the team together and create stronger bonds.

Ideas of questions to use:
1. What I like most in this company is that...
2. What I would improve in the way our team works is.....
3. What I like about you best is ... (here each member of the team tells each of the others what they like best)
4. The positive items that I bring to this team are...
5. What I would improve about myself is.......
6. I find it difficult to work with people that...
7. I would like you to support me when...
8. The most difficult thing about my work is...
9. During week-ends I love to...
10. I find balance in life doing.....

The list is practically endless - you can put in it whatever you can think of. Just make sure to insert personal details as well not only work-related; the team is stronger if the members have personal connections as well, not only work-related. And use it as often as you can. You will be surprised to see how many new things you discover about each other.

Take care,
Geo

Non-Financial Motivators

As HR Manager in a fresh company (by fresh I also mean new subsidiary of a larger one) your main job besides monitoring the market and drowning your managers in reports is thinking really really hard about how to motivate the company's employees. Simple as it may seem, it's a huge task if your budgets don't include salary increases and bonuses as often as the people may like and also if your managers keep shouting "Mind the costs, please!. We are planning to be a profitable company, not a non-profit humanitarian organization."

What can you do then? Well, put your thinking caps on, start reading HR books, browse HR websites and contact your fellow HR friends in need. Ideas will surely pop-up. Here are a few from my side:

  • Thorough recruitment process - start from the beginning; verify candidates' motivation to make sure you have no surprises later on; how can you verify that? ask them what they know about the company, about the position, where they have seen the job posting, how they have prepared for the interview, what are their short term future plans concerning career development; if they have no idea about the position, the company and they are just desperate for the job or want to be promoted in 4 months, forget about it. They don't want your company or your position. One more thing, don't conceal any information when making the offer - tell the candidates all about the salary, the benefits, about the difficulties they will encounter, about shifts, any contract clauses - you don't want them to find out one month after they are hired. They will quit and you will start recruitment all over again. Better avoid that and hire a candidate that is prepared and willing to accept all the conditions.
  • Detailed training plan for each new joiner - this means the best Induction you can think of and then a clear training path later on. By Induction I mean details about the company, the position, Human Resources procedures that might affect or help them, the team, the manager, job description, personal objectives. A proper induction can take even up to a week leaving the employee confident about coming to work and knowing where to go to get details or have a problem solved. Then, personal training plan can be discussed with HR and with the employee's manager allowing the employee to select a certain career path in the company and having all the instruments he/she needs to achieve that. 
  • Proper information channels - an engaged employee is an informed one; an employee who knows nothing about the company doesn't care too much about its status. Make sure employees receive enough information about company results, company plans, clients, perspectives. Knowing the big pictures allows each employee to understand his/her role in the business. Displaying an org chart for the employee to actually see their place is also useful to keep them informed. This way they also find out the structure of the organization and can imagine their future career path.
  • Proper communication between manager and employee, between top management and employees and between colleagues and teams; employees need to feel like part of the whole and need to understand what's going on around them. If they can be involved in decisions affecting their work or at least consulted, even better. Channels you can use for communication: regular newsletters, short emails from time to time, larger scale meetings where all employees are allowed to come and meet the managers, scheduled meetings with top management allowing each employee to speak directly to the "big boss", printed bulletins and reports, company intranet with plenty of news, internal boards with printed materials displayed, employees being invited to other company subsidiaries to meet other teams and exchange information.
  • Support offered - make sure each employee has someone to rely on at first - at least for a while. A Buddy program which includes connecting an old employee with a new one who can go to the first with various issues anytime can facilitate proper integration in the company.
  • Regular performance evaluation -  each employee needs to know what their job is, what their objectives are and how they've done throughout the year; two meetings each year are OK. Employees need to know when they have done a good job and also what's there to improve; rewards like salary increases or bonuses can be added, but we're discussing non-financial motivators, so I'll skip that. Simply telling the employee how they are doing makes them feel appreciated and allows them to know that someone cares about their job. 
  •  Internal promotions - making sure that as many positions as possible are covered from the inside; making sure that employees are involved in trainings that prepare them for that; making sure that all open positions are published internally first and that the recruitment process is fair and transparent.
  • Fair recruitment process for external candidates that are being recommended bu employee for the job - hiring someone's friend or family is OK but only if they pass the same recruitment process like everyone else and they get the position in a fair manner. Employees need to trust HR and management.
  • Work environment - try to make sure as managers and as HR representatives that employees have all they need to perform a good job; if the company can't afford all that, at least make sure that you show the employees that you have done your best. Listen to them, encourage them, talk to them first and try to avoid disciplinary actions and any other negative motivators unless absolutely necessary. Try to make the environment as pleasant and open as possible. A dictatorship doesn't work for most employees.Terror and intimidation as well.
  • Allow employees to have time for their families and personal life. You need balanced individuals in your company not robots. Only balanced and happy individuals have an open mind and not only perform a good job, but are also open to innovation.
  • Facilitate good communication between departments - allow employees to know each other, team buildings are not always expensive, but can do wonders. Also, employees working together from different locations work better if they have seen each other at least once. You don't need each department to work perfectly separately, but your entire company as a whole to achieve great performance.
  • Encourage employees to be task oriented not time schedule oriented. Where possible, allow those who are efficient and finish their job (well done of course) go home earlier.
  • Remote work - where possible allow employees to work remotely from time to time - this increases engagement because employees get time for themselves and can solve family matters in the mean time (mothers who don't have a babysitter available can work from home for a few days); also, they save money on transportation to work.
  • Always reward results - not necessarily with bonuses. There are a lot of ancient methods that still work - employee of the month board, public congratulations during a meeting with the entire team, a day off, asking the good employee to train others, etc.
Here are just a few items that we have implemented in the company where I work.
Any new ideas from your side are welcome. Please post them as comments.

Kind Regards,
Geo