If you were to ask someone why people work, you might hear, “People work only because they must earn a living, and they will do everything possible to avoid it.” In the early 1900’s Henry Ford said, “The average man won’t really do a day’s work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it.” For Ford and his early production line employees, that philosophy made sense. Is this the sales management philosophy which should be used today? Maybe it should be used in some cases, yet recent studies have clearly shown that people do not always hate their jobs and that they work for something beyond money and their “daily bread.”
Managers, of course, differ greatly in their approaches to motivating their employees. This difference is often based on their past experiences and the assumptions they make about their team. Sitting in the manager’s chair can lead to a dangerous distortion of perspective. The pressure of making sure your employees are on target to reach their production goals can cause you to become overly focused on “monitoring” their progress (or lack thereof). However, focusing exclusive on data can turn even the most gifted manager into nothing more than a “nagger” who is constantly riding employees to get those numbers up. As a manager, you must never lose sight of the fact that your success, and that of your entire team, does not rest on your ability to read production schedules and nag them if they are falling behind. Instead, your best hope for success is to discover how to motivate them with the feedback, training and coaching that will meet their needs and help them get back on the fast track. As a wise person once said: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
One fascinating way to view the idea of employee motivation involves treating employee satisfaction and employee dissatisfaction as two separate issues. When people are dissatisfied with their work, they generally complain about the lack of need fulfillment in areas such as pay, physical working conditions, administrative or supervisory practices, benefits, status, company policies, and interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, when employees describe times in their working careers when they were really satisfied and particularly motivated to produce, they often refer to things like a real sense of achievement in doing something worthwhile, a feeling of recognition for their work, the satisfaction in the work it?self (actual tasks), the feeling of responsibility and trust given to them in the performance of their work and the feeling of advancement ? primarily the opportunity to “grow” as a person through increased competence and ability to realize one’s potential.
It is important to note that the set of “dissatisfiers” concern maintenance issues surrounding the job (pay, policies, working conditions, etc.), whereas the second set of real “motivators” involve factors more related to doing the job itself (stimulating challenges or satisfying results that provide a feeling of accomplishment). Isn’t it interesting that companies usually rely on things like pay and benefits to motivate employees, when employees themselves report that it is the nature of the job itself that they find motivating ? or not.
It is important to point out that if employees are deprived of attractive working conditions like good pay, supportive management and useful benefits, they will quickly and definitely become DIS-satisfied, and usually vocally so. However, such conditions alone may not be enough to provide the motivation for an employee to push himself to the next level. He may not be dissatisfied without those extra challenges, but he may never achieve his full potential, either.
What does all of this mean for a manager who wants to find ways to motivate people to excellence? Well, first of all, you have to do the best you can to provide appropriate working conditions for your employees – fair compensation, good benefits, safe and comfortable surroundings, positive work environment, and respectful, open leadership. However, you must also concentrate on ways to help your team members expand their abilities or increase their opportunity to make a difference somewhere. They need more that just the perfunctory pay stub ever two weeks; they need the satisfaction that comes with knowing that what there are doing with their lives counts for something meaningful.
Re-Print Permission
This article may be reprinted in it's entirety if the following
conditions are met:
February Management Quick Tip of the Month – The Art of Employee Retention
Businesses make a big deal out of customer retention, but what about employee retention? After all, your employees are your bridge to your customers. Good employees bring you new business and help you hold on to loyal customers, but do you know how to hold on to your employees? If you are counting on seeing red flags that will tip you off that an employee may be leaving, don’t count on it. Most dissatisfied employees are very careful NOT to tip off management that they are looking for a new job. Your first warning will probably be the resignation letter. If you want to keep your most important, most productive employees, you will have to work at it. Keep them in the loop regarding important changes that may be coming. Schedule regular times to chat with them; get to know them and discover with they care about and what they need. Open doors for them to achieve greater success. If you don’t, they will open their own doors and walk right out.
