I was facilitating a workshop with a group of employees when
I said, “Imagine yourselves and me on top of two very tall buildings, with all
of you on one of the buildings and me on the other one. Down below the people look small because of
the height. Connecting the two tall
buildings from the rooftop is an I-beam.
A fall from that height is sure death.”
Then I asked, “Will you cross the I-beam if I were to ask
you?”
The answers were no.
Then I asked again, “If I were at the other side of the I-beam
and I am holding something close to your heart, will you cross if I told you
that I would drop it and/or you would lose it forever if you do not do my
bidding?”
The answers were a little bit more positive.
I smiled and said, “What is it that will make you cross and
risk your life to do my bidding?”
The answers varied
and they were expressed in the following terms:
my family, love, power, fame, achievement, recognition, fortune, health,
etc. I then handed them a piece of paper
and asked them to list the things they mentioned as something they were willing
to risk their life for.
Next, I asked them to pair up and take turns to tell each
other their life story by focusing on
what is important in their life and as they listen to each other, they should
list on another piece of paper that which they think motivates their partner. They can ask questions or ask for some
explanation and as they do they should list as many things they think drive or
motivate their partner to action.
Once they were finished with their stories and their list I
asked them to give their list to their partners. There were some participants with a frown on
their brows. It was obvious that there
was no match between their own list and the list made by their partners.
I asked, “What could be the reason why we have a situation
like this?”
After some hesitation, and with some encouragement, one
participant said, “I think I may have been influenced a lot by the expectations
of others on me. When I selected that
value that will make me cross the I-beam, I think I made my choice not out of
conviction but out of years of conditioning.”
Another one said, “If my life story doesn’t reflect the
values that I profess, then I need to really do a lot of self reflection. People are probably thinking that I do not
walk my talk.”
Several persons said that when they were asked by their
partners they probably did not explain themselves clearly; therefore they could
have been misjudged.
I followed up their comments by asking several questions, “Why
would conditioning influence the way someone may make a decision, or why would someone
not walk his talk, or why would someone not try to explain himself clearly?”
I received several answers, “Someone may be acting on the
basis of unexamined assumptions… Someone probably does not truly understand
oneself…It may be because of indifference…one may not really care what others
think…It could be because of fear of disclosing oneself because of the lack of
trust.”
Again, I asked several questions, “Why is it important to
know what you would give your life for?
Or why is it important to know what a person uses as guide to live his
life? Why is it important to understand
what a person considers in making choices or in making decisions?”
The ensuing dialogue acknowledged that self-knowledge is
critical. “Self-knowledge gives a person
a compass and his values would be his north star…He would know what to live
for…He would know where and on what he should spend his time on or what future
to create for himself…He could find organizations or causes to align with…And
since people are different from each other, what one person finds valuable
another may find it of less value and therefore may put less effort to it than
one who finds it valuable…To one who finds value in something, the action
toward it is a reward in itself and the fulfillment of ones aspiration. His motivation would be clear.”
I asked, “And why would it be important to know and communicate
to others what is important to us?
A participant said, “I read somewhere that the world always
gives way to a person who knows what he wants and is motivated to get there.”
I asked, “And, why should we care that others understand us and
get to know us and what motivates us?”
Another participant said, “Because it explains to people why
we do certain things certain ways. It
allows people to help us reach our own destination. It avoids misunderstanding and paves the way
for collaboration.”
ORGANIZATIONAL APPLICATION
When a company is formed, it has a clear purpose and a clear
goal and an established way of doing things.
When they hire people, they are looking for maximum contribution.
When an individual joins the company, he is taking on a job
that will help him fulfill his own aspiration, fulfill his dream, and live his
value. When the individual’s aspiration,
dream and value is clear, and there is alignment with the company value, the
company and the individual gains mutual benefit from the partnership.
In setting performance development plans, many employees who
do not have a clear view of their own values would feel strongly pulled toward
the company’s direction or goal. Without
a clear understanding of the personal significance of his work, the employee
would feel exploited by a company who clearly knows their corporate values,
mission and vision and demands maximum contribution from each employee. The employees who do not have a clear idea of
what is important to them would feel that their energies are all primarily
devoted to or exploited for creating values only for the shareholders or the
customers. They feel like grist being
grounded to form as a meal for somebody else.
They “burn out” easily and may leave the company disillusioned and
disappointed. Or worst, they may stay in
the company and “rust out,” creating disharmony in the workplace.
It is, therefore, important for companies to first help
young and new employees clarify their own values before they explain their own
corporate values and help them find alignment with it. Some companies may resist this activity
because an awakened employee may then demand maximum satisfaction of his
values, which an unenlightened company may not understand and may therefore not
be willing to support. To an enlightened
company, however, this act may help strengthen the partnership between the
company and their new employees and could encourage better collaboration in
achieving goals in these rapidly and violently changing times.
For many business organizations the shift from being product
centric to becoming customer or service centric unleashed forces that could be
compared to the shifting of the earth crust in an earthquake. The shift from being product focused to becoming
customer focused shifted the tectonic plates of the business world creating
havoc to many established companies and the tremors and aftershocks could still
be felt up to now and still creating changes in the business landscape.
Arthur Yeung, Philips Chair Professor of HRM, CEIBS, in his
talk to one of the IT companies who invited him for a presentation to the company’s
global HR group said the following:
a. The
key performance indicators have shifted from market share and sales revenue to
customer loyalty and profitability.
b. Customer
strategy used to be to go after everyone, now companies became more targeted
and selective;
c. Products
and services were standardized offering before, now, they are customized to
different customers;
d. Product
features and better prices were common practice in the past, now the talk is
about customer solutions and superior services;
e. Organizational
capability used to be built on technology leadership, cost and quality, now, it
is built on service and speed; and
f. The
sources of differentiation before were hard and tangible assets, now it is the
intangible and soft assets (people).
Some relatively new companies who built their business model
based on the above changes succeeded magnificently. One company I can think of in this category
is Dell Computers. Some old successful
companies whose business model did not change quickly almost went under and
only when they began to see their business from the eyes of their customer and
customized their offerings did they begin to turn around. One company I can think of in this category
is IBM.
The architects of today’s organizations worry about the
aftershocks that continually shake the business world. To protect their organization they need to
rebuild or build it to make it a customer or service centric organization by
designing the organization based on specific customers in mind and the types of
employees who interact with or who serve them.
Service has now become equally important if not “more” important to keep
customers.
The Chairman of the Board of an IT company in Taiwan, said
that the market had changed so much even from the short period since he
established his company. But he said
that the basic purpose of business had remained the same and that is to create
value for the customers and shareholders and employees. He said that when business stops creating
value and worst, if it destroys value, it begins to lose customer, investors,
and good employees.
He asked, “How do we know the business is creating
value?
Someone who was not so sure said, “Revenues, I think.”
The Chairman said, “Right.
Thanks. Our gross margin is 97
percent of sales. Who do you think
created this value?”
A group of managers almost said in a chorus, “The
employees.”
The Chairman nodded in agreement and said, “It has now
become a cliché, but the real asset of our company is its people. If I divide the total amount of assets of the
company by the number employees, the per capita contribution of each employee
would be a little over a million and a half dollars.”
As the Chairman paced the floor he said, “And they do this
by thinking of the customer… they are not thinking about producing beautiful
products nor turning in good reports or showing colorful power point
presentations, but thinking of how his work could create more value for the
customer. The employee is here to
satisfy the customer’s need for value.
And if there is something that he is doing that does not contribute to the
customer value he should be motivated, and empowered to stop or eliminate it.”
After a pause, the Chairman asked, “I am sure all of you
know why we need motivated employees.”
One of the managers seated at the far end of the coffee shop
said, “Because we want our customer to experience nothing but value creation.
One bad experience destroys trust and it is not good for us. If you see one cockroach, you think there
might be 20 more lurking in some dark corners of the house.”
The Chairman picked it up from the statement of the manager,
“Yeah, right. Similarly, one bad experience
and our customers and shareholders start to wonder whether that is really all
there is to it or whether there is something more lurking around the next
cycle. Each employee has to make sure
that cockroaches in our work are eliminated. We need employees who pay attention.”
We need employees who care.
Because of one recent event that destroyed value for our customers, we
have so many setbacks - our asset value dropped by 25%. Did you know that in one particular product
there was only a 50% license renewal?
Who knows what else is coming?”
Everyone was aware of the event that the Chairman was
referring to and the consequences of that event. Everyone was also aware of the deteriorating
quality of work that led to the event and one of the contributing factors could
be the rapid growth of the organization.
Sixty nine percent of the employees were very young and had less than
one-year experience with the company.
The Chairman was holding this meeting with his key managers
in a small coffee shop. He looked around
and said, “Why did we come to this coffee shop?
Why not to the other coffee shops?
Is it the coffee? Is it the
caffeine? Or is it something else?”
One of the managers at the back of the room said, “No. If it is just the coffee, I would be taking
it in the office pantry.”
The Chairman asked, “Why?”
The manager said, “It’s also good coffee and it’s free… and
it keeps me awake.”
The Chairman said, “That’s why we give it to you for free.”
After the laughter, another manager said, “First, I think we
are in this coffee shop because they listened to us and accommodated our need
by opening early to fit our schedule today.
Second, they asked enough people to come a bit earlier to serve us. Besides, the more popular coffee shop may not
want to turn off their regular customers who may not be able to come in because
we could occupy most of the seats. ”
The Chairman said, “So, at different times of the day and
depending on the need and depending on who we are with, and assuming that you
have enough money… because I assume I am paying you well, you would go to
different coffee shops, right?”
There was some chuckling in the audience, but everyone said,
“Right.”
The Chairman said, “It is the same with our company. We are willing to accommodate our customers
by providing them services that others are not too willing to provide and we
have the experienced engineers who are good at creating solutions for the IT
managers of global corporations. These
customers come to us because we have people who can do vulnerability assessment
for them, who provide offsite outbreak prevention services, provide timely
updates, and provide damage clean up services that is expensive but reliable.”
Someone who is obviously referring to a dominant software
company asked, “How about the software company who had recently bought a
company like ours and had now become a threat?”
“Well, they can bundle the same services that we have to
their popular offering but it doesn’t mean that everyone would need that kind
of package. Some customers want
something more than a program in a package.
Some customers want advice and consultation from people rather than from
a program.”
A manager said, “Different strokes for different folks.”
“That is why we have survived in this very competitive
market. Nobody in the industry has the
same people that we have. But at the
same time, not everyone also needs the same type of coverage that we provide…
that is why you will notice our customers come only from big enterprises whose
need matches our core competency.”
“What about the consumer market?” someone asked. “It has been growing much faster now than the
enterprise market and had been the source of strength of our competitor.”
“We need to improve in this area by hiring new people who
can create a separate business model that creates value for a whole new
distribution chain. We need to establish
new alliances and relationships and train new and different types of employees
to give them a different set of competencies.”
“It is still about people.
The Finance Manager who accompanied the Chairman on this
particular trip wanted to emphasize the importance of caring for customers and
related a story of a small parachute company that has found it difficult to
improve their quality beyond 97%. Their
concern is meeting the delivery quantity and filling up the order. For every 100 parachute they produce they
almost always receive a 3% defective report.
The Finance Manager said, “The employees thought that as
long as they are filling up the orders on time the defective rate was too small
to worry about. One day, all that
changed, when they heard the news that the son of one of the employees died in
the war because his parachute did not open.
From then on, everyone made sure that all their deliveries were nothing
but good parachutes.”
The Chairman and the
Chief Financial Officer were obviously aware that people could make a
difference if they wish to and that consideration for employees is as equally
important as concern for productivity.
Authors like James L. Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W.
Loveman, W. Earl Sasser, Jr., and Leonard A. Schlesinger in their article
“Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work” said that “the lifetime value of a
customer can be astronomical… and once you have quantified the impact of the
employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity on the value of the products
and services delivered, you can build customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Employee satisfaction is critical in ensuring customer
loyalty. It is the root of customer
retention, which is the key to business success. It means paying attention to what is
important to employees and what motivates them because it pays long-term
dividends for the company.
TECHNOLOGY OF MOTIVATION
The question is: How
do you keep employee satisfied and aligned with the productivity goals of the
company? Simply put, how do you motivate
employees to achieve the organizational goals that increase productivity and
the fulfillment of the individual?
How do we ensure that there would be no more cockroaches
in the work place? How do we ensure that
employees look after their job in a manner that is satisfying to the customers
and shareholders?
- Greater Self awareness
I think that people do things for their own reasons and will
resist any type of manipulation.
Therefore, all motivations are self-motivation and any increased energy
applied to a certain activity should not only result in the achievement of
goals but also the satisfaction of the need of the individual employee.
The awareness of the individual about what is important to
him should make it easy for him to make choices in life in terms of the career
he will pursue or the work he will undertake.
The company would therefore be wise to increase the self-awareness of their
employees because that is the best way they can realign with company objectives
and put extra effort into what they are doing so that both the company and the
individual gains from the partnership.
Many companies spend time to create purpose statements and
company visions and hope that their employees find personal alignment with
them. I have not done any formal
research on this one but I suspect that without conscious effort in helping
many of the young employees define their values, and help them realign their
non existent or ill defined values with that of the company it may prove to be
difficult to get that alignment.
No doubt, there are some employees who are self driven and
very motivated to perform, but they may be doing so for their own reason and
not necessarily because of the purpose statement and company vision posted on
the walls of most company offices.
There may be some other reasons why purpose statements and
company visions created by consultant for most companies may not be effective.
a. Many
employees may have not really spent enough time with the company, either
because it is a new start up company or the company may have gone through
mergers and acquisition and had been restructured where many of the older
employees were given attractive package to encourage them to leave thereby
leaving behind only new employees.
b. Employees
may see the written purpose statements and visions only as window dressing
either because the company is not practicing what is written or the company has
changed and did not bother to change its purpose and vision statements or the
purpose or vision had been distorted and took a life of its own which could be
entirely different from current reality.
In any case, clarification of the employees’ value and communication
of the corporate values is important in getting alignment in the employee and
corporate values. Employees look for
significance and the company purpose could provide something each employee can
rally to.
Another reason why it is important for the company to help
employees gain greater self-awareness is the fact that most young employees may
be at different levels of needs.
According to Maslow, within every human being there exists a hierarchy
of needs. These needs are:
a. Physiological: includes hunger, thirst, shelter, sex and
other bodily needs
b. Safety: includes security and protection from
physical and emotional harm
c. Social: includes affection, belongingness,
acceptance, and friendship
d. Esteem: includes self-respect, autonomy, achievement,
status, recognition, and attention
e. Self-actualization: includes growth and self-fulfillment.
According to Maslow, only after each need becomes
substantially satisfied does the next one becomes dominant. From the standpoint of motivation, a new and
young employee may have difficulty aligning with the higher purpose of the
company. And since environmental
factors, such as technological, business and economic changes can threaten the
viability of the company, even older employees whose needs may have reached the
higher levels of the need hierarchy, may experience their needs going down the
hierarchy thereby also changing their motivational needs.
A greater self-understanding could help both the company and
the individual employee in their quest for higher productivity and higher
fulfillment.
- Pygmalion in the Office
Ovid, in his 10th book of Metamorphoses, told the
story of Pygmalion, a prince in Cyprus, who sought to create an ivory statue of
the ideal woman. The result, which he
named Galatea, was so beautiful that Pygmalion fell desperately in love with
his own creation. He prayed to the
goddess Venus to bring Galatea to life.
Venus granted his prayers and the couple lived happily ever after.
There were movies and plays that were created using the same
theme where the expectation of a person became the reality. In each film or play a man takes a woman
and recreates her, usually through a physical makeover but sometimes the
makeover goes deeper into thoughts and manners.
Each movie or play also has the man falling in love with his creation
now that she is the way he wants her to look, dress, and act. The most famous play that used this theme
was “Pygmalion” written by George Bernard Shaw which was also set into film as
“My Fair Lady”
I think the most memorable line of
Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl who was made
over to be a lady by Professor Higgins, was what she said to Higgins’
friend Pickering. She said, “You
see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, the difference
between a lady and a flower girl is not
how she behaves, but how she’s treated.
I shall always be a flower
girl to Professor Higgins, because
he always treats me as a flower girl and
always will be, but I knew I can be
a lady to you because you always treat
me as a lady, and always will.”
It is the same thing
in the office. According to Douglas
McGregor, if we think our people do not have the initiative and expect them to
always need direction, they would. If we
think people are looking for ways to make a contribution and expect them to do
so, they would, also. Either way would
be right because they would perform according to our expectations.
Let’s get back to our first discussion about values and what
people or employees consider important.
The best way to stay on the positive side of expectation is to consider
all values equally important. Then, as
we consider the values of each employee and the motivation they have for
working, we would only be expecting good things to come out of it. All corporate goals provide the focus that
guide an employee in the performance of his duties but the alignment of the
value of the employee provides the motive power that drives the achievement of
the goal.
By understanding what is important or valuable to an
employee a manager can set a performance expectation that is both focused and
personally motivating. A manager or
supervisor could help the employee by asking each employee to relate, that
which is valuable to him and relate it to the goal of the role that the
employee is assigned to. Or if the
employee could not see it himself, the supervisor should be able to demonstrate
his interest on the employee as a person and in supporting the employee’s own
personal values and goals by getting alignment with the employee’s value and
corporate value by establishing the goals together with the employee as shown
below:
“To
establish a team of engineers within 12 months and train them to be
certified in the process that will
ensure the company to become one of
the top 3 in network security and
enable me to learn and grow/gain
knowledge
To increase to 90% customer timely
response in Q3 through effective collaboration with the other departments in
order to reduce stressful
situation to maintain my health.
To reduce false alarm from 15 to 3
per month to gain the trust of
customers and help the company
recover lost ground in the industry
and allow me to gain the
recognition that my family and I treasure.
To ensure 98% operational day to
day efficiency everyday through
effective process execution in
order to establish harmony (love) in
the organization.
There are several ways the supervisor or manager could tip
off people of his expectations by:
- Predicting the success of the employees because expectations tend to be self-fulfilling
- Providing opportunities that would fulfill the employee’s values and coaching him positively
- Communicating his confidence on the employee capability to do the job by showing high expectations.
d. Keeping
a warm atmosphere for high expectations in the work place. Each employee must be given stretch goals or
more assignments, which become more challenging and provides them higher
visibility.
- During meetings, the employees must be given opportunities to speak out or offer opinions.
- At every opportunity, there should be more praising than criticism.
- Expecting improved performance
Performance reviews are opportunities to determine the
future of the employee’s performance.
The process begins by discussing the goal and asking the employee to
evaluate his own performance based on the agreed upon goal and metrics. During the performance review session the
supervisor and manager should nod when a good point is raised, should maintain
good eye contact, keep a favorable tone of voice, make supportive statements,
keep a friendly atmosphere, be more accepting of differences in opinions, and
become more encouraging.
At the end of the performance review, the employee must feel
more positive and encouraged to do much more in the next cycle.
Good managers produce good employees who perform well and
feel good about themselves.
Where there are employees who perform poorly and feel badly
about themselves bad managers could not be far behind.
You get nothing less than what you expect.
- Work Itself and the Work Environment
Some time ago, when I became a country manager of an
established multinational company I was very eager to try out new ideas in the
work place that could utilize the diverse skills and abilities of the employees
and provide new excitement in the office.
I have read something about job enlargement and I immediately
implemented some job rotation in order to give the employees some flexibility
only to find resistance from the employees themselves who were suppose to
profit from it.
With the new skills that they are learning and with some new
level of responsibility the employees were asking for higher pay or incentives,
which surprised me. I thought they would
welcome the new challenges and find the assignments exciting. I thought it would motivate them to learn new
skills and become more productive
I did not know then that the individual motivation could be
affected by group norms. There were some
unwritten rules prevailing in the company and I have not fully understood
it. I knew they all have the ability to
learn new skills and perform but the
group performance norm seemed to prevent them from doing
so. The changes I introduced even slowed
down the organization and the economic crisis at that period in time aggravated
our condition.
The company had been around for more than 100 years and many
of its ways of doing things are pretty much set up. It was also a mature industry and it was
always going through a cycle of overcapacity and under capacity within a
certain period of time. While the
position of the country manager at that time had a very high influence on
hiring, firing, discipline, promotion and salary increase, the job assignments
were highly structured and the addition of any additional function was
grudgingly accepted and mostly resisted.
It was not a happy situation for all of us.
When I read about Hezberg and his theory that relates to job
enrichment I thought of changing the way I was managing the company by
utilizing the experience of the people in the organization. I began to ask employees how we could do
things better and overcome our own difficulties. We held meetings to brainstorm on strategies
and the actions to undertake based on the selected strategies. I also began to remove some controls,
delegated more authority and relied a lot on personal accountability. Many of the employees enjoyed the autonomy
and the direct participation in brainstorming activities. My job enrichment experiment was more
successful than my job enlargement experiment.
I thought that I have already found the way to define a work
that motivated people until we began to use personal computers
First, the HR group asked for it to crunch numbers in their
salary surveys. Next, the Accounting
Department began to use it to encode and store data. And when the Internet expanded and allowed
many companies to start sending emails, the secretaries began to replace their
typewriters with computers and our Teletype machine vanished and the use of the
fax machine diminished. Cellular phones
that were getting smaller by the year were slowly replacing the personal pager
and were making it possible to lessen the dependence on the fixed
landlines. Not only was information more
readily available, employees had also become readily available even if they do
not want to. Communication to anyone
became much easier although it did not mean people became closer to each other.
The explosion of new technology speeded up business
processes and began tearing down national borders and legal barriers. Business and travel across borders became much
easier than before. As a result,
competition increased, new suppliers vied for a share of the market, and new
customers demanded new services. There
was a website that kept world prices posted and received bid for offers that is
good sometimes only for a day and sometimes for a month. Customers can also visit websites of
suppliers and compare products and services.
It was difficult to maintain higher prices for products and services
that could not be differentiated.
Someone said, “Customers want more for less at they want it
delivered at the speed of light.”
Society was bombarded with information that was coming from
all over the world. It was not too
difficult to imagine that it would affect social values. The young ones easily picked up wearing jeans
and listening to MTV type of music.
Economic systems were also affected with new and substitute products. Some factories closed down when it cannot
compete with products produced somewhere else in the world. The organization had to adjust and adapt to
the new situation and had to continue to change to fit its new goals and
changing strategies.
After a series of restructuring, flattening of the
organization and outsourcing the new organization and the work inside it had
changed dramatically. How does this
affect the motivation and job satisfaction of employees?
The assignment of an employee to other parts of the world
may affect those with families who may not want to move their domicile. Advancement and growth in a very competitive
industry may require people to work long hours leaving little time for other
personal pursuits. With a flat
organization the responsibilities of an employee may require him to straddle
both the professional career track and the people management career track,
which may not necessarily be his preference.
So, it is a choice between achievement or family;
advancement or leisure; power or knowledge; etc. It could mean that as managers or supervisors
we may need to look for people with particular values suitable to the new
condition that we think will be happier in the new situation or it may also
mean that employees may keep transferring as conditions change in the
workplace. There was an article that
predicted that a young employee would move at least seven times in his career
lifetime. That would mean changing
places or work every five to six years.
One particular aspect of employee benefit that may no longer interest
employees would be the retirement benefit that get vested only after 10 years
in the company.
The challenge that managers are facing now is how to employ
the new technology in ways that will still utilize the diverse range of skills,
experience, aspirations, and expectations of employees to achieve organizational
goals.
In some countries they have experimented with paying people
to work at home so that they do not have to pay for expensive office space
downtown. It gave employees relative
freedom in the way they work, their output rate, etc. But people began to miss the opportunity to
socialize. And they began meeting in
small cafes to keep in personal touch with co employees.
Some work nowadays is organized around selected customers or
market segments. Diverse people are put
together in teams to work a process that cuts across departments with the
expectation that it will lead to customer satisfaction. The organizational design fits the goal and
the work involved gives most of the employees some control of the variances in
their work.
In the past, work had been broken down into simple elements
to simplify training, easily substitute people, and asks supervisor to just
focus on the task being done. Today, the
focus on customer and the knowledge and problem solving skills required to
serve the needs of the customers had made it necessary to put together a team
of people with diverse background and diverse expertise and led by someone with
good communication skills. Because of
the complexity of meeting customer changing needs in a world where competition
is intense, diversity provides the assurance that the solution provided had
considered many aspects of the problem and had looked at the consequences of
each alternative. But without good
communication skills it would be difficult to motivate people and instead of a
breakthrough the situation can result into a breakdown.
A team begins as a collection of individuals without shared
responsibility. To motivate the employee
and create a high performance team an inspiring purpose and a compelling vision
must be created for these individuals and an alignment of individual values
must be found in order to elicit sharing of responsibilities for the outcome of
their work together.
But motivation in a group, as we know, may sometimes not
produce the kind of collective result inherent in the collective strength of
the group because people can hide in numbers.
When this situation happens the total effort is always less than the
individual collective strength. When
there is a group, some members may loaf and expect others to do the job. Or other employees, feeling that others are
not doing their share, would not put in extra the effort.
To keep the motivation in the team high, it was suggested
that rewards or incentives for performance be given to the team and be allowed
the responsibility to decide how the reward should be distributed. At the beginning the distribution may not be
equitable but as they learn how to distribute the reward properly, recognizing
the individual contribution to the result, is believed that the team members
will work harder to make a contribution and work together to produce better
results.
The other problem in forming teams would be in the
size. In the Philippines, it is common
knowledge that as Rotary Clubs becomes bigger, it tends to form smaller groups
within which later on forms into a separate clubs. It is the same with teams. Big groups, allows formation of subgroups and
create a problem in performance because each subgroups could develop a
different agenda that could be different than the bigger grouping. When heated discussions and long debates
becomes the rule in a team then it is time to review the membership and decide
on the right size that would allow work to flow smoothly and where one could
pinpoint accountability for results.
The motivation of individual employees is affected by the
group’s growth stage, group performance norms, and by technology and the
changes it brings. At the forming and
storming stage individual values and ability may be more important than the
group performance norm, but when the group has reached the norming and
performing stage the group norm kicks in to force conformance to an unwritten
performance level independent of ability.
Technology brings in new ways of doing things and new
situations that may favor employees whose values are more related to
challenges, action/adventure, travel, creativity, power, responsibility,
achievement, wealth, etc.
And since it is difficult to duplicate particular knowledge
and skills, retaining talents is critical and more difficult because employees
nowadays demands maximum satisfaction which other companies who are also
looking for the best people are willing to meet. Some companies have adopted benefits like
stock options that could be exercised over a shorter period of time seems to be
of more interest to employees
Taking in new staff can be disruptive to existing
employees. It takes time to develop
their cultural awareness, develop their product, process, and organizational
knowledge.
Many companies are sponsoring more company activities to
enhance more interaction between departments and employees with the hope that
as people get to know each other they would be more open and more willing to
collaborate with each other.
4. Focus
The complaint of most visiting “firemen” from the head
office is the seeming inability of Pilipino employees to focus. When asked if there are any problems or
issues most employees would say, “No problem.”
This reply is surprising to them because based on the goals
of the company they can see all sorts of performance problem in the
operations: the customer complaints that
they had been receiving; the quality of work that is coming out from the
operations; the difficulty of filling up senior positions; productivity;
attendance and tardiness, etc.
The corporate vision and milestones to mark the progress of
the company toward the vision may be clear to the employee but it is not quiet
sure if it is clear to them when it should happen because the dates had been continuously
moved. There may also be some difficulty
with the employee’s annual performance development plan and the semestral
performance review program for the year because they are not required to set
monthly goals and activities nor are they required to plan for the day.
When I was asked to run a workshop on time management, I asked
people what they would like to have which they do not have yet, they would
easily pick the following: a million in
the bank; a nice big house; a big family; a nice big car; a trip to Paris; etc.
Then, I asked, “How much money have you already saved to pay
for your dream?’
No response.
If you will take note, each of their dreams does not have a
deadline to mark the space and the time when the dream should manifest itself. Therefore, there doesn’t seem to be a need to
do anything. No problem.
A dream with no timeline does not occupy space nor does it
occupy the mind.
I handed out a piece of paper to each of the
participants. On the paper is a grid
with two dimensions: the x-axis is the
estimated average number of years a man can expect to live and the y-axis is
the level of achievement a man can aim for as he moves through time.
From year one at the left hand bottom corner of the grid I
ask them to draw a line across to the top right corner of grid forming a
diagonal line. At the end of the line at
the top right corner of the grid I asked them write their epitaph, i.e.; “Here lays
a loving man remembered by his wife and kids for his kindness and
generosity.”
Then I requested then to go back down the diagonal line and
at each stage of their life I asked them to mark the milestones that would make
their family remember them as a loving man.
I suggested that some of them might want to be remembered
for their genius, physical prowess, looks, financial wizardry, etc. I asked them to go through the same exercise
by going down the diagonal line and marking the milestones that will ensure
their legacy at each stage of their life.
Next, I asked them to pick the current year on that
grid. I asked them to state their goal,
and make a plan for twelve months that will help them in living the legacy that
they have selected for themselves. On a
monthly basis, I asked them to list what has to happen to achieve their
goal. And I followed it up with a series
of similar requests:
1.
Pick the current month, state your objective, and on a weekly basis,
write the activities that you will
undertake?
2.
Pick tomorrow, state what you want to achieve, and show me a “to do
list”
After the list is finished, I asked, “If you divide this
list into that which is related to your legacy, how many are related to it and
how many are not? Are you focused?”
Next, I asked them to do the same exercise for their
career.
1. Draw
a line on the x-axis beginning from your first day of work for pay up toward
age 60 at the top right line of the grid.
Sixty is your retirement year.
How would you like to retire?
2. What
milestones would you have per year?
3. How
would your next year’s activities look like per month?
4. What’s
your work goal next month and how would next months program look like?
5. What’s
your work goal next week and how would you plan for it?
6. What
do you want to accomplish tomorrow and what is your “to do list”?
Having a goal to accomplish for the year or the month or the
week or the day should focus the mind on the following:
1. What
has been accomplished? Could it be
applied somewhere else?
2. What
has not been accomplished and why not?
What are the barriers?
3. Could
it be done faster? Could it be done
differently? Etc.
With this focus, each time a visiting “firemen” comes around
to ask how things are in the Philippines, it would be easy for them to identify
the performance issues and the actions that have to be taken.
I once joined a teambuilding workshop held in a place in
Pagsanjan. There were several very
physical games that we engaged in but they were all either on the ground or
close to the ground except for one. It
was a 10-meter long wire rope tightly strung across two tall 3 story high
poles. The objective was to cross the
wire rope within ten minutes from one end to another without falling. Overhead the wire rope is hanging guide ropes
2 to 3 meters apart. You can hold on to
one as you stand on the wire rope and grab hold of the other one as you walk
sideways across the wire rope. The
distance between the guide ropes is far enough to force you to almost release
the first one to grab hold of the next one thereby placing you in a very
unstable and precarious situation.
A harness was fitted to my body and a rope hanging from a
pulley was attached to the hook of the harness to make sure that if I fall I
would not be harmed. As I was about to
climb up the pole ladder, the facilitator said, “You do not have to do it, if
you don’t want to.”
I felt it was a mighty bit too late to back up. I felt all eyes were on me.
The facilitator said, “If you want to do it…the goal is to
cross the rope within 10 minutes. The
goal will guide you what to do. Do not
wish you were back down on the ground.
Do not think of the difficulty because you will tarry. Focus on the goal. It will erase your concerns”
As I climbed the ladder I felt my leg and arm muscles
straining under unaccustomed exertion.
As I reached the higher levels I began to fear the consequences of a
misstep. When I reached the top I was
short of breath and when I looked down I almost choked with fear. I trembled a little because I was unaccustomed
to such heights without much protection.
“Focus on the goal,” I told myself because I was doing
exactly what the instructor told me not to do.
I had only three choices:
freeze and stay where I was; move and try to cross the wire rope; or
jump. Just standing on a wire rope that kept swaying was tiring enough, so it
was not a good option because I would soon fall out of fatigue within ten
minutes. If I jump without having tried
anything would be foolish and cowardly and seemed a waste of my time in climbing
up the ladder. Crossing the wire seemed
to be the only one related to the goal and the only good and honorable option…
and if I fall in the process, so be it.
“The goal will guide you what to do.” I reminded myself. I forced myself to concentrate on crossing
the wire rope. My mind was focused on feeling the wire rope with my feet and
holding the guide rope with one hand as the other grope for the one in
front. My mind was focused on balancing
myself, not holding too long on each rope, and taking each step carefully in
order to control the swaying of the wire rope.
In that moment, it did not matter whether my neighbor had a
bigger house; it did not matter that my car was a 10 year old; it did not
matter that I did not win the argument with my friend the last time we were
together – all that mattered was the next step… and when that was done, the
next step that followed that.
It was amazing how clear my mind was. The issues in reaching the other side of the
rope were clear: quick and vigorous
moves increase the swaying of the ropes; stopping too long in one place breaks
the momentum; and if you lose sight of the goal you will fall.
One step was all that mattered. One moment was all that was in my mind. Step by step; moment-by-moment – then, before
I knew it, I was at the other end of the wire rope, surprised that I made it…
surprised that I did not have time to think of falling.
5. Other
Mechanism
a.
Use of standards/the law
It is believed that the Philippines is muddling
through because its citizens are indolent.
The question is: “Why is it that when they go abroad, the Pilipinos are
great workers?” What motivates them
outside of their country? Is it because
the rules of the game in the Philippines are not very clear? Based on Murray’s theory, the achievement
needs among Pilipinos are not manifested because the competitive situation
apparently has not been clearly identified and the standards are not clear that
is why the need is not aroused. People
say there are no standards and that “it is whom you know not what you know that
is important.” Bribery is flagrant in
the Philippines. It is another method of
achieving one’s end. But it cannot be
used as a standard because it is unethical and there are many who would shun
from such methods. When there are no
standards and the rules are dependent on connection and bribery then it is no
surprise that the achievement needs of Pilipinos are not manifested and their
motivation to improve remains low.
In companies where the rules of the game are clear,
many Pilipinos are motivated to compete and excel.
- Social Psychology
How about the strong affiliative
tendency amongst Pilipinos? Based on
Murray’s theory, “Pakikisama” (affiliation) is very important to Pilipinos
because of the need for security. Fear
creates anxiety and anxiety drives us to seek alliances or affiliation.
But our anxiety is not apparent
because we do not complain as a people.
Maybe it is because the livelihood of many Pilipinos is dependent of the
favors of those in power. There are many
Pilipinos whose job in the government is a result of political favor. Those who are not in the government and may
be working for some family corporation where the whim of the owner or the
relatives of the owner could be considered as policy their stay in the company
may also be viewed as a favor granted by the owner. And then there is the farmer whose economic
wellbeing may be heavily dependent on the landlord kindness to allow him to
work the land and/or to extend credit to him.
This same farmer may also be at the mercy of middlemen who owns the means
of distribution, and has access to post harvest facilities that most farmers do
not have
In the past, the threat of
punishment from those who are in power increased the attractiveness of forming
a union of farmers or labor workers.
Today, the need for affiliation
remains strong with Pilipinos, but the anxiety is now based on the need to know
what is happening around the world.
Globalization had created a whole new world where information had become
vital to professional growth and business viability. With the growth in the professional field,
professional association and affiliation seems to have replaced the labor
unions in importance.
In companies, where they hire a lot
of professionals, they motivate their employees by providing them the means to
join professional associations like FINEX (Finance Executives), PRSP (Public
Relation Society of the Philippines), PMA (Philippine Marketing Association),
etc.
- Use of a Crisis
A crisis focuses the mind very
quickly. And that which would take hours
or days to do is done with dispatch. A
crisis or a present danger is a good motivator
In some companies they use a crisis
to stimulate people to focus and take action.
At one time an IT company caused the computers of their customers to
crash, the management tried to reach every employee, in spite of the fact that
it was the weekend, and asked them to report to the office for an emergency
meeting. When everyone that could be
gathered reached the office, the President stood on one of the tables, demonstrative
of the impromptu nature of the meeting and enumerated the gory details of the
situation. She then laid down the new
direction, the steps that was being taken and the support that was required
from all those who were present. The
response was electric. Everyone stayed
on for work over the weekend, food was ordered and stacked in the pantry for
those who were hungry, and new mattresses were ordered just in case the
emergency proved to be intractable which may require everyone to man the office
for a few more days without going home.
When the initial crisis was over,
the company continued to post on their website the trend of the company’s stock
price. Since most of the employee
received stock options, their interest was not only to solve the problem
quickly but also to make sure that no more problems occurs in order to assuage
the market that the company was all right and the customers were back. When the crisis is personally experienced,
it becomes a more effective means to motivate.
Some training programs also use a
mini crisis to make people feel the consequence of not demonstrating the right
behavior. It is a way to motivate people
to learn new skills or behavior. For
example, an engineer who may have been required to discover the needs of client
is told to go ahead and do it without being told how to do it. Of course, the results are predictable. The engineer would go in all sorts of
direction without producing much result.
He wastes his time and that of the client. He gets frustrated and gives up. Later, the facilitator will introduce the use
of the right behavior and make participants feel how easy it is to obtain that
which he formerly found difficult to obtain and make the participant feel the
absence of discomfort as a result of the use of a new skill or competency.
This mechanism is also used in
disciplinary action. It is a negative
motivation but it could be effective in some cases. The comfort level of the employee is
disturbed when they are suspended and not given pay or when employees are
demoted after several infractions. This,
however, may be useful in factory settings where most jobs are routinary and
skills could easily be learned and laborers are not too difficult to replace. It is a bit more difficult to do in some specialized
jobs where knowledge for certain jobs is hard to come by.
Another way to make people act is
to ask them to imagine a situation where something important to them could be
taken away or increased.
In some training programs they have
questions that clarify what motivates a person with the following question:
How would you feel if your present satisfaction of
this value is greatly reduced (column A)/or increased (column B)?
|
Satisfaction Reduced
|
Ranking
|
Satisfaction Increased
|
|
It wouldn’t bother me
|
1
|
It wouldn’t matter
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
Moderately concerned
|
3
|
Happy
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
Devastated
|
5
|
Terrific
|
After
going through a whole list of values, the participants were asked to add column
A & B for each value. There will be
a few items that will stand up for having higher sums.
Value: A B C
Achievement 4 5 9
Spirituality 3 3 6
Travel 1 2 3
Family 3 4 7
Power 5 5 10
The idea is to clarify the motivation of an individual by
checking or evaluating the individual’s feelings of gaining or losing
something. These extremes bring out more
clearly to someone what is really important to the individual.
The effect of the fiscal crisis,
terrorism, economic slow down and environmental issues tends to move the need
toward the baser needs in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And management has to be aware of the
shifting needs of the employees based on the news that plays on the fears of
people. The shift of people’s needs should
be met by management action.
An anecdotal example of this is the
job applicant who promised to do anything just to get a job so that he could
have a steady income to feed his family.
Once taken, he focuses on his job and works really hard for the 6 months
(probationary period to lapse) in order to have the security of the job
according to the law (or sometimes they join the labor union to gain a
semblance of security). After receiving
his papers welcoming him as a permanent employee he works on his relationships
inside the company in order to belong or be accepted. Once he feels accepted in the group, he works
for recognition in his work by trying to make a difference. When he feels he has the status, he begins to
select or seek the kind of work he really likes to do either inside the company
or outside of it. When conditions change
and his employment is threatened, his needs change too and begin to move down
to try to make his contribution felt.
And if that is ignored, he tries to get the support of his group, and so
on down the hierarchy of his needs.
Based on Maslow’s theory, most of
the Pilipinos who are poor, could not aspire to higher needs. The government finds itself in a Catch
22. They cannot improve the condition of
the people because they do not have the money and they cannot get the money
because the people do not have enough to pay taxes. The poverty in the country makes it difficult
for most Pilipinos to think beyond basic needs.
For some of those lucky few who had been able to meet their basic needs,
the criminality and terrorism in the country make them fear for their security.
And for those blessed minority who had been able to succeed financially and
able to live in relative security of their guarded village and chauffeured
cars, the feudal structure of society prevents them from the feeling of belonging
because it is not easy to mingle with the powerful upper crusts (old rich) of
society, thereby creating barriers for more social interaction and a wholesome
feeling of citizenship. And even if one
has reached a level where one could feel self-esteem, the volatility of the
global market and world politics threatens to wipe off gained grounds and could
easily nudge one to fall and come crashing down from a higher hierarchy of
needs.
A movie plot could be written using the same
scenario.
The powerful and the rich
spurn a young aspiring leader. He
campaigns hard to gain power and security.
He co opts the powerful and the rich by asking an old, rich and powerful
politician to be his running mate.
He knows the population is
tired of the old order. Patronage
politics is rampant. Graft and
corruption is seen not only at the lower level of government but also at the
highest. The insurgency remains
unsolved.
He projects himself as the
champion and the hope of the people for the future. The population is tired of the old
politicians. He projects himself as a
war hero. People wanted action and he
made them believe he is the man who can take action for them.
He wins. He begins by building roads and
highways. In the past it was difficult
to do so because of the difficulty of getting the right of way.
He highlights the dangers
of communism and builds the army to fight the insurgency. He introduces agrarian reforms in a hurry
sometimes at the expense of the landlord.
He allows demonstrations by organized labor and the opposition and
denounces the bombings that accompany all the demonstrations and marches. But when the main politically rally of the
opposition was bombed wounding and killing prominent opposition leader he
declared martial law.
In power, he dismantles
the feudal structure of society. He
imprisons some politicians. The disappearance of many labor leaders and
oppositionist is also attributed to him.
He breaks the monopolies of the old economic order. Graft and corruption seems to have vanished
but it was actually systematized and centralized. Since the population did not see it openly
and since the population is tired of the politics of the oligarchy they are
willing to go along with him in changing the form of government.
And, the world conspires
with him; the world economy grows and as all boats rise during high tide the
economy of the country also grows with the world economy. Then a superpower and the world give him the
recognition because of his anticommunist stance. He openly displays this world recognition to
the population to support his popularity.
With his new popularity he begins to build a “new society.”
He wanted to change the
mindset of the people. He allowed the
construction of a cultural center to display the culture and artistry of the
Pilipino. He supported the printing of
new books to record the mythology of the origin of the race in order to
overcome the perception that the civilization of the race only started with the
conquest by foreigners.
But time and the tide of
world economy caught up with him. The
price of oil doubled and wreaked havoc on the local economy. Prices soar.
He develops tourism through the “Balikbayan (visit the old country)”
program. And when that was not enough,
he promotes the use of Pilipino labor in the world labor market making the
words “OFW (Overseas foreign workers)” popular.
For a while, the success of these two projects sustains his popularity.
But the price of oil
continues to increase and adversely impacts the economy. The people become restless. An opposition
leader offers an alternative but is assassinated for his effort.
There is massive flight of
capital.
The opposition saw an
opportunity to take the initiative after the assassination. They display the body of the opposition
leader as he was murdered. They play on the anxiety and fears of people. They cleverly projected the idea that if this
leader can openly do the dastardly act on a popular opposition what chance does
a small citizen has. The leader is
portrayed as lacking in empathy and out of touch. They play on the security needs of the
people. “Hinde ka nagiisa (You are not
alone.)” becomes the rallying cry of all the protest march and rallies that was
held every Friday.
At about the same time,
information technology through the satellite came into the scene. CNN, interviews the leader and in a moment of
annoyance during the interview agrees to a snap election. During the election, there is massive
cheating and intimidation and it is all captured on tape by CNN, which is
showed to the world.
Aging and dying, the
forces around him that had been supporting him before began to move to secure
their own individual positions. A close
and powerful ally of the aging leader got wind of the plot of the leader’s
relatives to oust him from power. The
former close ally of the leader calls the young and idealistic army officers
who are all closely identified with and loyal to him and together drew up a
hasty plan to protect themselves from an impending disaster.
To enhance their chance of
survival, they lied. They called on the
General who heads the armed forces and tells him that he was on the list of
those who will be eliminated by the relatives of the dictator who are planning
to take over power. In an overheated
situation when rumors were flying it is not easy to check the veracity of the
information. The tension is great and it
will not be too difficult to see the General moving over to the rebel group who
is now holed up in one of the army camps.
The church that had been
the outspoken critic of the government especially after the assassination
called on the faithful through radio to support the beleaguered group by being
present in the camp where the rebel group is holed up.
With the General on their
side, they design a “psy-ops” plan that capitalized on the economic difficulty
of the people and projected themselves as representing the oppressed people
facing the military might of the old leader.
When the military had
completely surrounded the camp and annihilation seemed imminent the rebel group
announces without proof that the last election was rigged and it was actually
the opposition who won. This motivated
the opposition and the left to move and take over the rebellion by swearing in the
opposition candidate and bringing in more people to support those who are
already gathered in the camp.
As more people join the
rebels the armed forces blinked. Other
units of the armed forces begin to join the rebel groups. As the situation drags on, the publicity
generated by the event because of the coverage by the international press
starts to gain worldwide support for the rebels. The aging leader who lost touch of the needs
of his people is soon forced by world opinion to leave the country in
exile.
And for one brief moment
the rebels basks in the glow of victory.
But they were soon eaten up by the revolution they spawned and lost
control of the agenda of the nation because the population, leftist and the
opposition who grabbed power with them did not trust them because of their
strong links with the previous government.
On the basis of the above script, the leader adapted
to the needs of the people by providing land for the landless (basic needs); by
establishing law and order (security); by promoting the local culture
(belonging); by promising greatness (status).
But when the changes in the environment shifted the needs of the people
he allowed the opposition to take the initiative and lost control of the
situation.
The murder of the opposition leader, however,
simultaneously destroyed the self-esteem of the nation, shamed the country in
front of the world for such an act, made the population fearful for their own
existence, and felt there was nothing more to loose when investors fled the
country and the interest rate rose to more than 50% that is why the people were
ready to meet the tanks with bare hands.
- Build a Corporate Culture
There is this Chairman of one of
the software companies who changed his company strategy from being product
centric to becoming customer centric. He
is a very warm person and a charismatic leader.
He realized the importance of flawless execution of the strategy and the
need to get his people on board. The
salary package of his company is very competitive; its HRM is comparable to the
best companies in the world; and the many activities in the organization aim to
build a human community in its own corporate village. But he can’t seem to get
people to work as a team. In one of the
meeting he had with the global HR team his frustration was very palpable.
He said, “I want people to be
themselves in this company and I want them to develop and become the best of
what they could be for themselves because that is the only way they can become
confident and competent to execute our new strategy and become creative to stay
ahead of competition. This is the only
way this company is going to be number 1.”
“But why is it not happening?”
He took a colored pen and drew
furiously on the flip chart near him. It
was the Johari window.
“People are not giving the best of
themselves because of fear. They do not
feel safe. So, this upper left quadrant,
which represents the self, is pushed and squeezed into a smaller quadrant. This employee keeps secrets. He does not come out to contribute. He does only what he is told. He feels victimized. He protects
himself. He becomes very defensive and
puts the blame on others when he fails.
He doesn’t take risks.”
“How can people give the best of
themselves or more of themselves when all they can feel is their small self?”
“What we need is an environment
that could make people feel safe. It
should be an environment free from fear.
Then and only then could each employee begin to accept himself or herself,
establish collaborative relationships, and align with the cause or mission of
the organization and become more customer focused…then and only then could they
have the courage to become more accountable, take the risk to execute, and
learn fast from their mistakes.”
“We want leaders who are able to
establish a safe business environment for our people in order for us to gain
operational excellence. We cannot
tolerate managers who sow fear and who intimidates their subordinates because
we would never be able to make the journey from being our old product centric
way to the new world of being customer centric.”
Well said. Everyone in the room was quiet. And I could not have phrased it better myself
nor could I have used the Johari window and connected it to the Maslow hierarchy
of needs better than he did.
- Teach
“Come. Follow me,” said Christ to
his disciples and even after three thousand years people followed in His
footsteps. He demonstrated what has to
be done and people followed Him.
Gen. McArthur was famous for always
visiting the frontline and always standing ahead of his troops. McArthur probably believes that the best form
of motivation is demonstration.
I have never fought in any war, but
when I watch war movies, I can always almost feel the courage of the soldiers
overcoming their fears when they see their captain stands up and moves towards
the enemy line and shouts, “Charge!”
If leadership is about influence,
the best way to influence the followers is to walk your talk. Or as some people say, “Monkey see monkey
do.” Action speaks louder than
words. One study showed that
communication is 56% body language. By
demonstrating it could be done, subordinates gain the confidence to try and
learn in order to do the job and achieve goals.
The power of the leader emanates
from the objectives or goals of the group.
And one of the dimensions of his influence comes from the belief of his
followers that the goal is achievable.
The best way to show that it is achievable is to teach people how to
achieve the goal.
SUMMARY
In summary, the practical application of motivation consists
of the following:
- Self Awareness
- It would be wise for a company to
help people discover their own individual values in order for the company to
form an alliance with each employee for a win-win situation.
-We cannot assume that all
employees, especially those who have just graduated from school know what is
really important to them, understands their purpose in life and have a clear
vision of their future.
-However, a company almost always
have corporate values borne out of experience, written purpose statement to
guide people in their work, and a clear vision of what the company would be in
the future with milestones to measure its progress.
-That being the case, the employees
would always be prone to feel that the company is taking advantage of them.
-To avoid such a situation, the
company to help people discover their own values in order for the company to
form an alliance with each employee for a win-win situation.
- Pygmalion in the Office
-A manager must always communicate
his expectations for high performance to his subordinates because these
influence the performance of an individual employee.
-The manager must design and
utilize the performance review process to recognize the appropriate performance
factors.
-When managers give rewards it must
be directly related to achieving a certain goal and not widely distributed
across so many other factors like seniority, or attendance, or cooperation,
etc.
-The reward itself must directly
meet the needs and expectation of the individual, i.e.: power (give him a promotion), recognition
(throw a party in his honor), honor (give him a certificate he can hang on his
wall), support (write a letter that he can show his family and friends), etc.
- Work Itself and the Work Environment
-I think people join a company
because they believe that it will help them achieve their dreams of either
gaining power (promotion & responsibility), or recognition (growth &
fame), or professional expertise (interesting work & honor), or a community
of friends (affiliation & advancement), etc.
-When condition change and the
employee feel that his needs are not being met the managers should recognize
the changes and seek a new alignment of goals and values to ensure a win-win
for both the company and the individual.
-Managers using work processes that
cuts across functional borders by necessity would be leading teams requiring a
high level of communication and facilitation skills that unifies the diverse
experience, and expertise of the team members while at the same time meeting
their individual expectations. Take care
that the size of the team does not become too big so that people are involved
and their accountability is clear.
.
- Focus
-I think that managers should begin
most business conversation with the discussion of the goal of the individual or
of the group before asking about performance issues. This will prevent an employee from talking
in generalities and ending up by saying, “No problem.”
-After talking about the goal for
the day or the month or the year, the manager could then ask, “How are you
doing against the objective? Are the
plans to achieve the objective being implemented?”
- Other Mechanism
- Use of standards/the law
-The company policy is a very
useful tool to motivate people but implementation is the key. Once a manager makes an exception there will
be lots of employees wanting an exception.
Therefore any exception must be something that the manager can defend.
-Some small companies who have
grown hesitate to adapt the use of a written employee handbook for fear that
managers would blindly implement the policy and loose their ability to exercise
leadership. These companies point to
their past experience of running the operation without a handbook.
-Most of the rules are
unwritten. It’s the culture or the norm
that people feel and are influenced with.
If the organization is stable the norm will hold but if the organization
is growing rapidly the norm may undergo changes, which could be negative or
positive.
-To run a bigger organization that
is growing rapidly and expanding into new markets managers would need standards
that could easily be communicated and transmitted.
-Care however must be exercised in
designing the policy so that it encourages higher productivity and performance
rather than encouraging norms that is not directly related to performance.
- Social Psychology
-Working across culture would
require managers to learn how people relate to each other and how we deal with
time and how we deal with the environment.
-Social interaction, or meaningful communication, presupposes common
ways of processing information among the people interacting. These have consequences for doing business as well as managing across cultural
boundaries
-The Pilipinos most often times rely on relationships, connections,
memberships, feelings, and personalities.
To them, time is cyclical rather than sequential. Time is not something divided into hours or
minutes but more like a ribbon that extends from the present to the past and
the future. And most of all there is
someone more powerful than the individual who rules his life.
-In other countries the opposite
could be true and when you put different nationalities together in one company
a manager must be sensitive to the different cultural norms and behavior in
order to be able to know how to motivate people.
-With the coming of the
information age, the professional class in business has grown and their
motivation most often than not lies in professional recognition and affiliation
more than economic rewards.
- Use of a Crisis
-The Chinese has a symbol for a
crisis. It is made up of two parts: danger and opportunity. It could be used sparingly to motivate people
- Build a Corporate Culture
-The accumulation of successful
solutions in a certain industry produces a set of logical assumption that forms
into a corporate culture.
-The core assumption guide people
on how they should behave and if it fits how the individual wants to behave
there is a culture fit
-The corporate culture is similar
to a country culture and to the professional culture. It is concerned with how employees or
members, leaders, and other stakeholders treat each other, how they deal with
the productive use of time, and the accountability of each individual in
achieving the organization’s purpose.
-Is a shared system of meaning with a process
leading to automatic
solutions to
frequently recurring problems
- Teach
-Leadership is personal. A leader has to be with people to show and
demonstrate the way.
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