Employee & Staff Motivation The Role of Management - by Larry Josephs www.mnsalestraining.com

When employees and staff no longer feel that they have a “career path” they lose their sense of dedication and commitment to their employer. They now have “just a job” and with that comes lost productivity while they have “one eye out the window” in search of their next job; and “one eye on their work”, doing just enough to justify their existence and not get fired.
Motivation for Employees - The Role of Management
As a leader in your company you can empower employees and improve motivation in the following ways:

Place yourself in their position.
Employers are too well insulated at the top and they have lost touch with the rank and file employees and no longer can relate to the employee and feel what they are feeling in this uncertain world. Even if the CEO is not stealing the profits and converting them to a hefty bonus or incentive plan, the perception may well be that, after the ENRON and WORLDCOM cases came to light.

The job of upper management is to find out what the employees are feeling, and reconnect with them on all the reasons why they chose to work for the company. Rekindle the fire about their Career Path and give some assurances that your Strategic Plan calls for the company to be around well into the future and that you are financially solid.

Another great reason for doing this is the TEAM will come together again and the increased productivity will in fact underwrite such a positive move by management. The employees need to know that they are in control of their own destiny, since any lost productivity will further damage their very existence that they were worried about in the first place.

The real problem is, the new generation tends to think that they should be paid first, then they’ll do the work. That’s like asking a Pot-Bellied Stove to first give you heat, then you’ll add the wood! You hear it everyday. It’s the employee’s famous radio station WIIFM: “What’s In It For Me?” Human Resource Managers conducting interviews will point to WIIFM as the biggest mistake candidates make when they interview, and in some cases before they agree to the interview…they are quick to fall back on the WIIFM and they totally forget about the need to “sell themselves” during the process.

It’s never been a question “Can the employees do their job?” They would not have been hired if they could not do their job. The question always has been: “Will the employees do their job?”

Management has an obligation to their employees, no different than a Battlefield Commander has an obligation to their soldiers. Before you go headed into battle…“take care of your soldiers” and should you find yourself in a tough situation…“your soldiers will be quick to take care of you!” If your employees truly believe that you are doing your best to make it a great place to work, and you show recognition and appreciation for their efforts, the sense of commitment comes back and they will once again enjoy their work, and forget about looking for another job.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: “The human mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions!” Point your employees in the direction of a Career Path and help them achieve their goal of safety and security for their families. That’s all they expect of their employer. Enjoying the job is an added bonus.

Ralph Waldo Emerson gives this advice to management: “If you have developed the ability to handle people, you don’t need anything else. However, if you haven’t developed that ability, it really doesn’t matter what else you may have. The removal of human friction is 90% of the job of handling people.”

Larry Josephs is the founder and seminar leader of MNSALESTRAINING.COM, INC. www.mnsalestraining.com and has been a consultant to management and international Seminar Leader on sales training and motivation seminars since 1973. Ljosephs@mnsalestraining.com