Reaping The Value of More Than Satisfied Employees
Many organizations strive to have satisfied employees – they even create surveys to ensure that their people are feeling OK at work.
Today, in the business environments we now have around us, that’s simply not good enough.
Having employees who are satisfied with working with you is a good thing. In fact, when you see the numbers, many people simply do not enjoy work at all.
It’s no way to live your life, through just existing during your working hours – probably the biggest proportion of hours you spend awake.
Having highly motivated employees is one of the ‘holy grails’ of business. It’s great for the work they do. It’s even great for them as people too – so it’s a great way to have in the workplace you lead.
The great news is that as a manager of your team of people, you can satisfy and motivate them all pretty much on your own. Every action you need to take is within your control, with perhaps the small exception of the pay level they receive, which in larger organizations can be trickier.
Employees who are incredibly focused on delivering the results – and beyond – that you want from your team, are the aspiration of every manager.
Yet even with this knowledge, it’s amazingly challenging to achieve by all but the few managers who have unlocked the door to success.
One reason for this is that many managers simply fail to appreciate the value of turbo-charged employees and the vital difference they can make.
A difference not only to the performance of the business, but also to the pressures and stresses on the manager, as well as the culture that exists within the workplace overall.
‘Satisfied’ people in your workplace has that cozy feel to it. It’s a term used to measure how people feel about their workplace and, to be frank, is an absolute minimum.
However, having a well-motivated team is an energizing, challenging and truly remarkable experience, which everyone who leads others and achieves, will always remember fondly.
Highly motivated employees are a much bigger, brighter way of being, than simply satisfied, so it’s time to raise the bar and ensure we’re working on having a bunch of really switched-on employees, rather than settling for merely ‘satisfied’!
Simply by taking the time to appreciate the ways that you yourself feel motivated and replicating that is a great place to start.
Appreciating contributions that employees make is one way; making time to spend with them one-to-one is another.
Just by noticing a job well done and saying a personal ‘Thank-you’ is another. By treating them as actual human beings with feelings in your team is another.
These might sound like simple tactics to adopt, yet so many managers fail to show these small civilities. By taking just that fraction out of your day, you will start to develop employees who are one or more steps beyond feeling merely satisfied.
And everyone will be a real beneficiary of that.
(c) 2010 Martin Haworth. This is a short excerpt from one of 52 lessons in management development at Super Successful Manager!, an easy to use, step-by-step weekly development program for managers of EVERY skill level. Find out more at http://www.SuperSuccessfulManager.com.
Workplace Relationships – What Does Responsibility Mean?
Managers and employees have shared responsibilities for ensuring that they have a relationship between them that is strong.
Let’s get clear about what this actually means in practice.
In the workplace, everyone interacts with each other. This is how society organizes itself and communicates together at work. These relationships are valuable for the opportunities they create to improve performance of individuals, as well as benefiting them, by creating a more useful and interesting place to work.
Each person in the team has a responsibility and a vested interest in making these relationships work, for their mutual benefit.
When you are a manager, there are steps you might take to rebuild a damaged relationship. Or perhaps it’s vital to start off a whole new team of people and hit the ground running by creating the right environment for working together.
As an employee, you need to have a voice that’s heard in an appropriate setting and also, where you can, show that you too can add value by the contributions you offer.
In practice, ‘responsibility’ is all about doing your bit (and maybe a little more) to oil the wheels of the relationships you have with all of your colleagues, at whatever level of hierarchy they might be, such that everyone is a winner.
This is not a time to take sides, so this is vital for everyone who shows up each morning to do their bit. Whether you are one of the senior management team or newly recruited this week, it doesn’t matter.
There are five critical activities that anyone creating a workplace relationship needs to be aware of – and be prepared to put into practice.
1. Show Commitment
By being onside and decided to make the difference, whatever the history, you are starting a process to build relationships, even if it means you have to rethink your position as well a bit.
2. Let Go Of The Past
Relationship building can be made much more difficult by ‘history’. This is a time to lead from the front, whichever position you are coming from and bury your own hatchets, ready for progress.
3. Be Interested in Others
You’ll build relationships faster if you dump talking all about yourself and make sure you ask questions that will help you get to know people better. Yet, this isn’t actually the point. It’s that you are showing that you are interested that counts.
4. Take a Breath
Leaving space for others to say their piece is a vital part of building relationships with anyone, remembering that when you are prepared to listen, you will stand out in a crowd, where others simply do not do this, making you all the more attractive for the ongoing relationship.
5. Create Trust
Following through with what you say you will do; being as open and honest as possible; giving and accepting feedback, as well as showing confidentiality and discretion, are all tiny and still vital tactics to adopt when building new and maintaining existing relationships.
These are the actions of all sides of the responsibility calculation where relationships are created or lost.
Everyone has a part to play and everyone is just as equally a contributor to the overall challenge, for which the outcome is always going to be of great value.
