Five Key Mistakes Which Can Kill Motivation, Morale And Engagement
What is morale like in your organisation?
What is morale like in your team?
And if an organisation is facing a lot of tough challenges, restructuring, or jobs are under pressure, is it possible to maintain strong morale despite the situation?
Whilst the tone for the type of place you work in has to be set at the very top, it’s the job of the managers to implement day in, day out. They’re the “front line”; their behaviours and expectations will set the standards for how people feel and respond to all sorts of situations.
Can a manager improve morale regardless of circumstances?
Yes. I believe they can.
Being a manager is always a challenge. Managing the people bit is always tricky, but maintaining morale, engagement and motivation is a critical part of any manager’s role.
Even in good times a manager needs to maintain engagement and minimise complacency. When business is slow, or there’s lots of internal change and pressure, a manager needs to know how to respond and work with their team in such a way as to keep people on board.
Whatever the strategy for the team or organisation ….
A manager has to win hearts and minds if he or she wants to see their team perform at their best.
But building such high performing teams doesn’t happen accidentally.
It is the result of behaviours, values and beliefs which underpin the way people work together. Sometimes these values or beliefs are unspoken, sometimes they operate at an almost sub-conscious level: but they are still affecting the attitudes, behaviours and performance of every single individual within the team and wider organisation.
It’s up to the manager to communicate “How we do things around here”.
Sometimes, however, despite the best of intentions, despite setting and clearly communicating the expectations and vision for how people work together, some things sabotage the results. Take a look at the following and see if any of these apply to you or your organisation.
FIVE COMMON “KILLERS” OF MORALE
- INCONGRUENT ACTIONS
When the boss does or says one thing – then turns around and does or reinforces the opposite, employees are quick to see the inconsistencies. The more your staff see this happen, the more they lose respect for and trust in the individual manager or the wider organisation.
High trust environments are built on consistent and congruent actions.
Erosion of trust dampens morale and creates negative emotions inconsistent with high productivity. - NO ACTION
Another common failing is leaders who “talk a good talk” – that is they state grand visions, plaster values and belief statements everywhere – but then take little or no action to ensure these grand statements are actually followed through.
It is hard to expect your staff to take vision statements seriously when staff see that nothing actually happens. They can be forgiven for thinking “we’ve heard this all before”, or “here goes yet another meaningless initiative.”
Managers must act on their vision – and they must act in a reasonable time frame. - OVER-COMPLICATING THE VISION
Sometimes leaders state visions so complicated people can barely read them – let alone remember them.
If people can’t remember the vision, chances are it isn’t simple enough. - LOST IN DETAIL
Some managers are so detail oriented that they simply find it hard to understand the idea of vision. They are consumed by detail, and give little attention to thinking about tomorrow and the “big picture” in a creative way.
It’s not that details aren’t important, but they should not be the sole focus. - SABOTAGING THE VISION
Sometimes, some people within the organisation try to sabotage the vision. They understand it, but try to work in the opposite direction. Other people know they are doing this; and they expect the leadership does too. If nothing is done to stop these efforts then those who are genuinely trying to adhere to the vision end up thinking, “What’s the use?”
Managers must act swiftly when they see this happening. And it begins, not with a reprimand, but with a question – to understand why people are behaving in this way.
Do any of these exist in your team or your organisation?
By taking time to uncover some of these “morale killers”, and taking steps to change things, a manager can improve morale – at least within his or her own team, and sometimes, even despite morale issues in the wider organisation.
Talent Management – What Every Manager Needs To Know About Talent Before They Manage It!
There’s much talk of talent management in organisations these days, and HR and L & D departments wrestle with the most effective way of developing a talent management programme which truly delivers the required outcomes.
One frequent question managers ask me is: “How do I manage someone who is just not the right “fit” for the role?”
Getting square pegs into square holes is always a challenge – even for the greatest managers – but there are some things you absolutely must do and understand, and some things you absolutely should avoid!
Some of the most exciting and robust research of the last three decades I believe has come from Gallup, who have made it their focus to study excellence in organisations; where it exists; how it manifests and what we can learn from it. After years of research and study into peak performance some interesting ideas have emerged which perhaps challenge some of our perceptions and beliefs about human talent and ability.
Their work helps explain why, in order to develop any truly effective talent management programme, two key things need to happen:
- Everyone needs to understand some basic principles about what talent is exactly, and why some of our most common assumptions about talent are fundamentally flawed.
- Managers need to learn how to effectively recognise and manage talent to maximise overall organisational performance.
So if you’re a manager, and you want to develop and encourage excellence in performance, where do you start?
Step 1: Understand two of our most common assumptions about excellence are fundamentally flawed.
Assumption 1: Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything.
Assumption 2: Each person has greatest room for growth in his or her area of greatest weakness.
It’s often easier to identify and describe poor performance than it is excellence. We can all describe, often in great detail, what someone’s weaknesses are, and from our early experiences as children in school, we learn to focus on those weaknesses with the intent of trying to improve them. Reports tell us to “try harder” or “concentrate more” at those subjects in which we display weakness.
When we move into the world of work, that same approach to personal development and our career path continues: we learn to identify the weaknesses and then somehow help people overcome those weaknesses by some form of development in that area.
All the focus and intention is on making us “more well-rounded” individuals – to bring our weaknesses up to the level of our strengths.
But excellence in any field of human endeavour you choose simply doesn’t work like that!
If you told Roger Federer he was good enough at tennis when he was young, and asked him to improve his golf, would he become a Tiger Woods?
If you asked a young lawyer who seems naturally gifted at criminal law to improve at corporate law, would this make him a better lawyer?
If you had to have heart surgery, would you rather it was from someone who had spent years perfecting and specialising in this field, or have a General Practioner look after you?
And when you were at school, did you focus hardest, work hardest and concentrate most on the subjects you weren’t good at, or the ones you loved, and which came easiest to you?
WHAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT TALENT
Every one of us has natural talents: things we seem “hard-wired” to do; which come easy to us and which we enjoy doing.
And the more we focus on and work on those areas, the closer we can get to excellence.
It’s easier to make a grade A an A star, than it is to make a grade E into an A star. At best, you’ll make an E into a C, and you’ll probably meet with a lot of resistance and unhappiness along the way!
Focusing on improving weaknesses results in mediocre performance.
Focusing on improving natural talents and strengths results in excellence.
TALENT IN ORGANISATIONS – SOME FACTS
Gallup interview over 1.7 million employees and found:
- 20% feel their strengths are in play every day
- 8 out of 10 feel “miscast” in their role
They also found there was a direct correlation between staff being able to do what they do best every day and customer satisfaction, profitability and staff turnover.
EFFECTIVE TALENT MANAGEMENT SUGGESTS WE ESTABLISH SOME NEW ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT TALENT
Assumption 1: Each person’s talents are enduring and unique
Assumption 2: Each person’s greatest room for growth is in the area of his or her greatest strength.
Outstanding managers know:
- Every role, performed at excellence, requires talent.
- Excellence is impossible without talent.
- You cannot teach talent.
- Experience, brain power and will power are secondary for excellent performance.
So these managers select and place individuals based on talent first.
They know the rest can be developed through coaching, training and practise.
Step 2: “Become as articulate about describing excellence as you are about describing failure.”
Disney
We are all quite good at describing what someone is not doing well, or the behaviours we don’t want to see! We are perhaps less well practised in describing what we really need to see if we are to encourage excellence!
The critical key to effective talent management is matching the right talent with the right role. We need, as managers, to understand specifically what makes our star performers in any role as good as they are. What exactly is it that they are doing, or thinking or feeling which is different to your average performers in that role?
What is interesting is that, if you study your stars, you will find there are similarities in their answers, and these give you clues about what you need to see in anyone else you recruit into this position, or place in a particular project.
Gallup suggests managers:
- Study your stars in a particular role. What do they feel are the most challenging aspects of their role? What do they seem to do, think or feel about the different aspects of their job, particularly the most challenging aspects?
- Draw up a role profile based on the answers your stars give you.
- Create questions you can ask in a “talent interview”.
As long as organisations and managers believe we can learn to be competent in almost anything, and that we can grow most in our areas of weakness, we will continue to promote people to management who shouldn’t be there; to re-shuffle people in a restructure without really paying attention to whether this role will play to their natural talents or not, and to suffer the consequences of square pegs in round holes.
 |
 |
Management Training Resources: Are You Cut Out To Be A Manager?
Have you read the recent article (Why So Many Workers Hate Their Bosses) posted on the CMI network where Jay Robb, a freelance writer, comments on a book by Bruce Katcher, entitled “30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking And What You Can Do About It”?
Pretty strong stuff, and perhaps a little sensationalist in order to sell newspapers/books?
Maybe – but you only have to run a search for “bully bosses” on you tube and it comes up with 368 videos. Type in “bad bosses” and there are 29,600 videos to choose from! In some of the management forums or newsletters I visit the threads which are discussing how staff can “manage upwards”, or maybe trying to uplift and inform readers with resource management training materials and articles about conflict management skills often end up with literally dozens of posts from people who are clearly deeply disenfranchised in their work. OK – some of them may be “serial whingers” – but in my experience, having worked with thousands of employees across dozens of different types of organisation, everyone has some experience of a “bad boss”; can quite clearly tell you what makes them “bad”; and it’s the same reasons which come up, time and time again.
Katcher has run staff satisfaction and engagement surveys since 1993 and found staff have issues including feeling disrespected, unrecognised, unable to voice opinions openly, frustrated at what they see as poor decision making and uninspired by de-motivating leadership. Interesting that the massive Gallup research looking at hundreds of organisations and hundreds of thousands of employees, also finds these same issues as being the most critical in terms of management performance.
Both Gallup and Katcher cite similar reasons for this failure of management: promoting people because they were good at their previous job or because of length of service, rather than their ability to connect positively with others; a culture which is permeated with “control” type of management, so leading to controlling bosses spawning similar clones, or lack of adequate training to hone the required management skills.
This so strikes a chord with me.
I started out in the classroom, many, many years ago. Within weeks of standing in front of dozens of high energy, expectant and unforgiving teenagers, one question formed in my mind which was to go on to shape much of my last 35 years of work as a teacher and manager: “How do I engage, motivate and enthuse these bright individuals to bring out their full potential?”
Believe me, there were many young student teachers I saw come into the classroom who were brighter and more academic than me – but they could not teach to save their lives. Managing others in the workplace demands no less skill than that of the classroom.
Motivating, enthusing, tapping into “discretionary effort”, is a skill set requiring some very specific behaviours and attitudes, and, actually, some understanding of human psychology.
Some individuals have an almost intuitive understanding of how to connect positively with others; how to forge good relationships and how to produce peak performance. Some have the raw potential to be able to develop this skill set – but require a desire to learn and grow and practice those skills until they are second nature.
And – in my view – some are simply not “cut out” to be managers. They take the post because it is the only way of gaining status or more money, or it’s “expected” of them, but once there they feel distinctly uncomfortable and often feel frustrated and harassed.
Perhaps this is best illustrated by the comments of one of my participants at a recent workshop helping managers understand more about how to motivate others. The group had considered motivation, worked on some of their own motivational drivers and we’d come to the final part of the session where we were reflecting on the concept of talents, talent management, and how an understanding of this can help develop staff in a meaningful and productive way. Suddenly an MD of a company piped up : “I realise now I just want to be left alone! I’ve spent the first part of this workshop thinking I’m not interested in any of this, my top motivational drivers do not lend themselves to wasting time trying to engage other people -and this is too much like hard work! So what do I do?”
The group answered for him: “Find someone who is and let them do it for you!”
This is a classic case of “square peg, round hole”. Bottom line? In such a situation both manager and staff are unlikely to be performing at their best – and actually, are probably both aware of this fact and uncomfortable about it. (This particular individual decided to step back from managing and expressed relief he could get on with “what I’m good at”.)
There are implications for all organisations in terms of talent management; in terms of training and in terms of structuring so they can reward talent in the most appropriate way, which may, or may not be promotion to managing others. In my experience, managing and developing others is a complex, yet richly rewarding activity – but it is not for everyone.
As Katcher and Gallup show, it’s a bad idea to do nothing, because the statistics show more people leave bosses, not companies. If they don’t leave, they keep showing up, but become 9 to 5ers, doing just enough to keep out of trouble.
Perhaps we should all be asking: “How can we more effectively fit square pegs into square holes?” and allow those with the talent to be managers to take on the challenge, and those who do not, more effectively utilise the talents they do have?
|
|
How to Successfully Manage Your Boss – And Increase Your Chances of Promotion
Two critical skills, which the highest performing managers have in spades, are the ability to influence and persuade. The most obvious targets for your powers of persuasion are your team, and sometimes your peers in different departments; but just as you need to manage down or sideways, it’s also critical you know how to manage upwards.
To help you make the right impression, here are four simple rules to remember, which will move you in the right direction.
1. Find out what the expectations are – and exceed them.
Sounds obvious and simple – yet in my experience it’s neither! Try to answer the following questions
- Do you actually know what your manager’s top priorities are?
- How clear are you about the order of priority your manager has for each area of your performance?
- How clear do you think your manager is about his/her expectations of you?
Sometimes expectations are written – but more often than not, they are unwritten expectations, which your boss may never have really clearly articulated to themselves, let alone you!
Put it this way – if you don’t know for sure what will score you top points with this individual, you may find yourself chasing down the wrong rabbit hole.
And this is NOT about currying favour, or ingratiating yourself. This is about having a clear understanding on both sides about what is important, so you both know and agree where you should focus most of your time and attention. It actually makes your job easier.
So – if you don’t know the answers to the questions above – make a date in your diary to discuss this with your boss! (And before you actually have that meeting, make sure you read technique 4!)
2. Anticipate and address a boss’ concerns
The trick here is a technique from what we call Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and is about being able to see the different “perceptual positions” around an issue. Put simply this means seeing something through someone else’s eyes, so you understand their thoughts, feelings, worries and perspectives. This is more than just being good with soft skill training.
An obvious way is to ask them! And we’d definitely encourage you to fnd the right opportunities to do just that. However, sometimes there’s neither time, nor is it appropriate. So what do you do then? You put yourself in their shoes. And when we say in their shoes – we mean wearing their shoes and looking through their eyes! This is not how you would feel in their shoes. You’re not them!
So, this is easier said than done. But here’s a few killer questions to ask yourself:
- What will my boss be anxious about?
- What do his bosses expect of him?
- How does what I do to help him/her look good?
- If I/we do “x”, what might he/she be concerned about?
By answering these questions you’ll be much clearer about what you need to do to both pre-empt and address their concerns. It also significantly increases their perception you really understand where they are coming from, which in turn significantly strengthens the trust and relationship between you.
3. Consistently look for ways to add value.
This is a really simple rule. Bosses are more likely to listen if you speak in “can-do” language, and you are organised, and sound enthusiastic and eager to deliver results.
Look ahead when discussing a project, rather than dwelling on what’s already occurred.
Follow through on promises. And adopt a “no-excuses” policy. Failing to produce results almost guarantees a boss will doubt your abilities. So, if you haven’t quite achieved what you set out to do – rather than saying what you’ve not been able to do, start with what you have achieved; be specific about what barriers there were, and summarise your plans to get back on track.
Your boss has pressures of his own. Don’t add to them.
4. Know your style – and know their style; and adapt your behaviour to suit their preferences.
A great analogy from relationship expert Shay McConnon is that of the “hot chilli trap”. What is this? It’s when someone assumes that, because they love hot chilli, everyone else does too! Patently, some people do not like hot chilli!
If you’re in a foreign country you at least attempt to learn “please” and “thank you” in their language and show respect for their customs. It’s just courtesy. You adapt your own behaviour to show respect for the differences of perception.
To assume, because we speak the same language, we see things in the same way – is quite clearly erroneous, yet we still persist in believing the mantra “treat others as you’d like to be treated.”
Absolutely not! Treat others as they would like to be treated.
So what does this mean for you in your relationship with your boss? It means the more you get to understand their style and preferences, and tweak your style to match, the more likely they are to warm towards you. If you lean towards an eye for detail and precision, but your boss just wants the big picture – give it that way. What is their biggest strength? Capitalise on it. What is their central goal? How can you assist? If they are extroverts who like to talk through ideas, provide that opportunity. If they are introverts who like to be able to read through something, and ponder it first, present your proposals in a way which will help them assimilate the information and ask questions.
Respect how they like to be treated.
And what if they don’t show the same respect for you? Well, that is a subject for another article!
