The 3 "B's" to Greatly Improve Employee Motivation

Have you ever caught yourself saying “if only my employees would….”.  Chances are you have since the majority of business owners complain about such things as “Why do my employees give the bare minimum?”, “How do I get them to stop complaining and gossiping?”, “How do I get them to contribute more in meetings?”, and “How do I get them to keep their word and their agreements around following through with what they say they will do?”  Does any of this sound familiar?

Many business owners feel stumped when it comes to dealing with these issues.  The short answer to all of your questions about how to change the behavior of other is…you can’t.  We can never control what others do.  They chose their behavior and the more we try and control what they do, the more resistance we usually get.  Can you relate to that?

So what can we do to motivate the people around us to give us their best?  What do we have control of?  Well, we do have control of the consequences that are a result of another’s behavior.  And we do have control over the way we communicate in order to greatly improve the chances of being heard in a way that is intended. 

With that being said, the following ways that you can be to influence those around you in a greater way than trying to control what they do are:

Be Positive- In the realm of setting consequences, it’s easy to point out negative behaviors and then punish those behaviors.  As a manger, relying too heavily on negative consequences or feedback will result in employees doing just enough to avoid the pain of hearing those things.  Therefore they will never give you their fullest effort.  On the flip side, rewarding good behavior with positive consequences will greatly improve the chances of them being happy, therefore less complaining and gossiping, and more real effort on a daily basis towards their job.

Be Clear- People feel safe in an environment where they know what to expect.  Clearly defining the expectations of how the company operates with one another, their clients, and the outside world will build a context in which the employees can flourish, knowing what to expect of themselves and others.  Having a clearly defined culture statement is a must for any successful team.  That way everyone knows the rules of the road when they chose to work for your company.  And you have something to hold them accountable to. Chapter 19 of Unshackled Leadership, www.unshackledleadership.com, contains detailed instructions on how to create such a culture statement.

Be Consistent- this is key in any relationship, personal or professional.    Your consistent OR inconsistent behavior sends out a message to those around that they can count on.  If you consistently reward good behavior and address unacceptable behavior, the team will come to count on that.  If you are inconsistent, your team will also come to count on that.  The latter creates a lot of uneasiness in people as they never know what to fully expect.  As difficult as it may be, being consistent in your communication and behaviors creates a great level of safety, loyalty and respect.

Right vs.Happy

They say that the two things that are too controversial to write about are religion and politics and while I’m not about to jump into either subject, they both provide a great example of a point I do want to make: life always only provides you with two choices: you can either be right or you can be happy! Unfortunately, far too many people think that the way you get to be happy is by being right. It just doesn’t work that way. Whether you like it or not or agree with it or not, those two choices are mutually exclusive.

Is anyone reading this happy about what’s going on in Washington or any other branch of politics? Isn’t it profoundly upsetting and even somewhat disgusting that our Congress can’t seem to get anything done. All the Democrats do is blame the Republicans for ever problem we have and the Republicans do exactly the same thing. Why is it that there seems to be no ability on anyone’s part across the political spectrum to get anything meaningful done? Simple answer: no one seems to be interested in being happy. They’re all too busy trying to be right. And I’m willing to bet that if you align yourself with one party or the other, you too believe that what your party is for is “right” and what the other party is for is “wrong.”

Same story with religion. Every group has their doctrine and, of course, it’s the “right” doctrine, even perhaps the only conceivable doctrine. You saw this played out big time in Ireland many years ago and you now see this played out in Iraq and many other countries in the middle east today.

While it’s bad enough that this passionate need to be right at all costs pits political parties and politicians against each other and people of one religion against those of other religions, it also goes on in our companies and in our personal lives. If you go into most companies, what you find is an environment characterized by arguments, conflict, competition, pettiness, gossiping and righteousness. Have you ever experienced any of those things? Of course you have. You may even see it at work on a daily basis. And what drives all of that is this passionate need to be “right,” even if it means that happiness is unavailable.

If any of this makes any sense, and I surely hope it does, here’s my suggestion. Choose being happy. Now I’m sure that in reading that, your reaction is: of course I want to be happy! Unfortunately, what it means is that you are willing to give up the need to be “right,” about everything. It means giving up being judgmental, making people wrong, taking sides, playing win/lose and good/bad. It means you let all of that go. Sound like a touch assignment? Not really, because doing so comes with a huge reward: you get to be happy! Give it a try and see for yourself.

Leadership Strategy – “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

In many leadership workshops, people are asked to think about a great leader they’ve known and list the qualities that made them such a great leader. 

What would your answer be??

We’ve worked with some amazing leaders and here’s my answer.   

They were outstanding in ALL of the following areas:

•  People skills
•  Business skills and knowledge
•  Technical knowledge in their industry
•  Visionary

Many people are great in some of these areas but not all.  When a leader excels in all of these areas, success is inevitable.

One of the biggest challenges for leaders is in the area of people skills because this is not as “black & white” as the other areas.  It involves what’s often referred to as “soft skills”.   Leaders need to know “how to win friends and influence people”, as this motivates and brings employees along with the company’s vision and goals, resulting in outrageously successful companies. 

In preparing for a recent talk on leadership, I came across my yellowed and worn copy of Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.  One of the chapters gives simple steps on how to make people like you.  As I read these, I reflected on my list of amazing leaders and, interestingly, they did all these things.  AND the result was everyone loved and respected these leaders and were motivated to do everything they could to help make the company successful.  Here are Carnegie’s six “rules”:

1. Make the other person feel important—and do it sincerely

2. Become genuinely interested in other people. 

3. Remember that a man's name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language. 

4. Be a good listener.  Encourage others to talk about themselves. 

5. Talk in terms of the other man's interest

6. Smile 

Pretty simple, yet very powerful!   As a leader, if you are not doing these things already, try them on for the next 30 days and see what a difference it makes.  Let me know.  I can be reached at Lois@UnshackledLeadership.com.