It’s Just a Job, Right?

I read a lot of articles and attend many webinars and conferences on how to create organizational cultures that motivate employees.  I love sharing the nuggets I take from those with you.

This month’s posts share a summary of a podcast from a company called Essential Communications, along with my notes that dig into each point a little deeper.  If you like what my post has to say, you may want to check out their website and see what else they have to offer you.

http://essentialcomm.com/podcast/your-teams-best-interests-part-one

Take care of your people – especially your direct team.  As I’ve said before, people don’t quit their jobs because of their organizations.  (Not usually anyway…)  What causes them to quit – in more than 80% of the situations – is their manager.

Are you managing your people well?  

When employees believe their manager has their best interest at heart, they are more satisfied and more productive than those who don’t believe that.  Treat your people well, and you will be rewarded!

Here are some ideas to show your employees you have their best interests in mind:

1.     Be sure your employees understand their job. 

While this idea probably seems obvious and you think you’re doing it (and doing it well), there’s a lot more to understanding a job than having seen a job description (though that’s important too!).  

It’s important that each employee understand what they are expected to do – and know how they will be measured against those expectations.  Do you share your performance goals with your team?  Do they know how they are doing on a regular basis?  (See tomorrow’s post for more concrete information on giving feedback.)  What tools are you using to objectively measure productivity and performance?   Have you shared those with your team?

It’s also vital that each employee know how to do the job they are assigned.  Have your employees been trained in their specific position?  (If they’ve been promoted, there are likely skills they haven’t done before.)  Have they been observed doing the job and given specific feedback on what they are doing well and how they can improve?  Do they have someone (accessible and qualified) who they can ask questions about their tasks?  Does ongoing training occur to provide updates and to fill skill gaps?  Do they have the resources they need to be able to do their job successfully?  Which resources would make their job easier?  What barriers exist that make doing their job challenging?  How are they expected to overcome those barriers?

In this area – how to do the job – I would also say you can succinctly address a lot of employee issues.  Many times, managers will complain about a team member’s work, and it turns out there was a lack of training or a miscommunication – the team member didn’t know what was expected of them or they didn’t know how to complete that task successfully.  Before you write someone off as a bad performer (or a bad attitude), dig a little deeper:  find out if they have a training issue (which you can fix) or a commitment issue (where they don’t actually want to do the work – and nothing you do will change that).  This will allow you to effectively take the next step.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, be sure your people understand how they job contributes to the larger picture.  How does their job fit into the company’s mission or vision?  How are they contributing to the betterment of their team, their department, the company, its customers, or even the world at large?  The more we can do to make our employees see that their jobs matter – to us and to others – the more important they will feel… and the more effort and energy they will want to expend in doing a great job.

Read future posts to learn how to:

2.     Deliver lots of feedback—both praise and developmental.

3.     Create opportunities for new responsibilities.

4.     Allow employees to have high visibility.

5.     Position people for promotion.

6.     Be the resource they need.  Share the view from your vantage point. 

7.     Provide professional development.

8.     Offer career development.

9.     Be fair.

10.   Tell your team how to succeed with you.