Motivating Those You Manage

Motivating Those You Manage

“People are simple, complex, and multifaceted.”  Dr. Michael Beshears

This holds true to a great degree concerning motivating people in the workforce. Everyone is different and yet the same in many ways. Often authors of management textbooks make this clear in their discussion of the many theories related to motivation and what studies have shown that seems to be important to individuals in the workplace. However, often authors of managerial textbooks fail to apply the human touch to the application of these techniques and theories.

This is where this article shall focus.

Why do people invest their money? The answer is they usually want their investments to pay off with the best return possible for their future. This is why individuals will literally spend hour upon hour seeking the best way to invest their hard-earned funds in various ways, i.e., regular saving accounts, mutual funds, bonds, stocks, etc. One educates his/herself and then empowers their investment to work and produce. One then monitors their investment utilizing various methods, (i.e., indicators of performance and then make adjustments as required).

Answer these questions for yourself.

How successful are those that never educate themselves on the best ways to invest?

How successful are those that never invest or empower their funds to produce?

How successful are those that invest but seldom monitor their investment?

A manager has two tools at their disposal, knowledge, and time. It’s up to them to decide how they may invest in these to acquire the maximum return for the organization’s future.

Here you as a manager must invest your time in learning what your employees really want from their workplace concerning morale and satisfaction. Authors of managerial textbooks typically acknowledge that there is a difference between workplace morale and satisfaction. However, seldom realize that one often goes hand in hand with the other. There are various tools at the manager’s disposal such as job satisfaction surveys, complaint procedures, and suggestion boxes. I recommend analyzing these, but do not discount the obvious. That is simply asking the employee their true feelings. The best method to do so is threefold. The first is simply walking and talking with the employees with one-on-one contact as you stroll throughout the organization. Keep in mind you’re the boss so do not think that an employee is automatically going to open up to you simply because you finally decided to one day walk around the organization. Your presence has to be known and expected as a normal routine that is predictable and non-threatening in nature.

You also must be on your guard against those that may wish to undermine your management. That is utilizing your presence as an opportunity to go over their direct supervisor’s head if you will allow it. If this happens and it will, always redirect the employee back to their supervisor so they understand that such issues should go through their direct supervisor. You’re not blowing them off, but rather allowing their supervisor to take care of their concern(s). This is to be expected so be cognitive of this. Still investing your time to perform this function will pay off with employees opening and approaching you and this should be your goal.

Secondly, discuss often with middle management their feelings and insight regarding the organization’s overall morale and climate. Still keep in mind you may be their boss and they may not open up freely at first, especially in a public forum. It has been my experience that no one likes to air his or her section or departmental problems in a public forum. So ask questions one on one behind a closed door preferably in their office and not yours, allowing them to sit behind their own desk or both of you on a sofa in a non-domineering posture. It’s important that you utilize your body language and voice tone to reinforce that you are honestly concerned and seek their valuable input.

Lastly, you may wish to schedule appointment times depending upon the size of your organization to speak with each employee. If your organization is extremely large you may delegate this to your middle managers and have them schedule a time to brief you on their findings and recommendations. Again, this is best done one on one, without a public forum. This can be very time-consuming as when I did so I would schedule appointments to last at least one hour for each employee.

It has been my experience that it usually took at least 30 minutes to simply get the employee to relax even as we sat on a sofa or at a small table in the office, preferably a round table. Here we are attempting to remove communication barriers and reduce any anxiety the employee may have while in the boss’s office. Remember the object of the discussion is not to intimidate but to communicate.

Another motivator is public recognition for achievements in the form of a public presentation of an award. I’ve seen this done two ways and I must say that each can be very rewarding to both the staff and the employee recipient. The award may be a framed certificate that is easy to produce and cost little. It can either be presented in a mass meeting with entire organizational participation or as many as may be available or presented in the employee’s place of work in front of his/her sectional or departmental co-workers. I recommend that a photographer is on hand with a camera and that pictures be made.

If the organization has a newsletter or other publication, the picture with a caption with the employee’s name and the reason for the honor stated should be placed in it. Awards should be plentiful and organizational-wide recognizing everyone from housekeeping personnel to the groundskeeper. Here is your chance to be innovative, but keep in mind that the over-saturation of awards will take away from the perceived value of the award, and the accompanying recognition. I have been in organizations where the award was simply called “You Were Seen Doing Something Nice”. Here an employee for example was observed assisting a person change a flat tire in the parking lot of the organization. There was no specific form required only a short note on a piece of paper that was presented stating the observation and the employee received public recognition for his good deed. I really liked this concept as good deeds seemed to be going widespread throughout the organization and morale was really lifted as people received public acknowledgment for doing them. What a great idea I had; I mean someone had. 🙂 

Anyway, you too have good ideas, and each will work if you invest the time to put them into practice. The payoff may surprise you. These are but a few techniques to consider and apply, but there are many more. Here again, utilize your textbook and see what you can think of as possible employee motivational tools or techniques.

Dr. Michael Beshears

About the Author: Dr. Beshears has an associate degree in general studies and a dual baccalaureate degree in criminal justice and psychology from Drury University. In addition, he has three graduate degrees, one in criminology from Indiana State University and another in health services management from Webster University. Plus, an additional 18 graduate hours in public administration. His Ph.D. is in business with a specialization in criminal justice from Northcentral University. Dr. Beshears after 22 years of honorable service retired from the United States Army in 1998, at the rank of Master Sergeant. While on active duty he was the  Non-commissioned Officer of the Year at 2 different commands and an Army Leadership Academy Honor Graduate. He has an extensive background and first-hand experience in online andragogy instruction, as one of the first Internet (online) course developers and instructors. Since 1994, he has instructed 10,000+ online and traditional students in criminal justice, corrections, and management.