Daniel Pink argues that there are three main elements of internal motivation, which he calls ‘Autonomy’, ‘Mastery’ and ‘Purpose’. These may seem pretty much common sense, but many managers forget how internal drive to motivation may be. Pink’s ideas may well identify why external motivators don’t work effectively all the time. Let’s take a look at the three ideas and see if we can marry up why they are so important:

Firstly, Autonomy

Our default-setting, say, Pink, is to be autonomous and self-directed. Most management today conspires to change this setting from intrinsic to extrinsic motivation. To encourage intrinsic motivation, autonomy is the first requirement.

People need autonomy over task (what they do), time (when they do it), team (who they do it with), and technique (how they do it).

Then, there’s Mastery

While external motivation techniques require compliance, Pink says that the latest motivation requires engagement. Only engagement can produce mastery, becoming better at something that matters. Mastery isn’t just the ability to be able to do things well; it revolves around being able to carry out optimal experiences where the challenges we face help us to grow and stretch our capabilities.

Smart organisations supplement day-to-day tasks with stretching tasks, not too hard but not too easy. There are three elements to this drive to Mastery:

It is a ‘mind-set’ – it requires the capacity to see the abilities you possess as infinitely improvable.
It is a ‘stretch’ – it demands effort and deliberate practice.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             And it’s ‘progressive’ – it’s impossible to fully realise, which makes it frustrating, challenging and attractive, all at the same time.

Purpose

Human-beings seek purpose – a cause greater and more attractive than just themselves – and businesses are starting to realise this. Purpose-maximisation is taking its place alongside profit- maximisation, expressing itself in three ways:

Goals that use profit to reach purpose,

words that emphasise more than self-interest,

and policies that allow people to match their work with their passion.

These three ideas may well prove why many businesses can’t get the most out of their people, because they are relying too heavily on the extrinsic forces to get people to be driven. But more force is always exerted when the person wants something they themselves have decided go for. So Pink’s ideas add value to the motivation debate and allow us to se what is really driving peeople’s performance.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Is there anything you can do to manage absenteeism without risking claims of discrimination? Yes, there is. There are several things you can do to protect your team and business, including a) understand the scale of the problem, b) discover the underlying causes and c) take a positive and methodical approach to solving the problem. You can read some interesting ways to get absentees back to work here

First, can you actually measure the effects of absence?

One way is the Bradford Factor, which takes account of the fact that persistent short spells of absence are much more costly and disruptive than occasional long ones. It measures irregularity of attendance as follows:

Bradford Factor = S x S x D

In this equation, S = the number of spells of absence over a time period (say, one year), and D is the number of days absence in the same period.

For example, if a person has been absent for one period of 10 days, the figures would read: 1 x 1 x 10, which equals 10.

But if they were absent for 10 separate days over the same period, the figures would read: 10 x 10 x 10, which equals 1,000.

It may only be a crude measure, but many employers use the scale as a realistic comparison of disruption.

So, you need to formulate a policy in order to tackle absenteeism effectively. The most effective absence management policies are based on the following principles:

* A balance of concern for cost and concern for people

* Keeping people informed

* Quality Information

Whatever your absence management policy, there are some actions you can take to help you achieve better results in this area:

Act Early: If you notice increase in absence or changes in the pattern of absences, investigate and take action before it becomes a major problem. You don’t want it to become so overlooked that it is seen by some as an acquired right to extra leave.

Seek Advice Early: Some issues may involve medical, psychological, legal and contractual situations, so try to get specialist advice before making any decisions on how to approach it. Avoid impulsive decisions and actions, and get HR or your people development department involved. Talk about chances and opportunities for transitional roles for the person who is the subject of your absence enquiries.

Be Methodical: Collect data consistently and carefully. Keep good records, see that everyone has a return-to-work interview and communicate fully and completely with people involved. This way fairness and relevance never becomes an issue of contention.

Be aware that some people may take absence because they have outgrown their role and are ‘rebelling’ against the systems or processes you are running. Boredom can be just as stressful as overwork, so be aware of the rationale people use to justify their being away from work.

If it has become a real problem, discuss other opportunities the person may have within or without your department. You don’t want to pass the problem onto someone else within your organisation, but you cannot afford to carry passengers, so let the person know that you need their help in dealing with the issue as well.

That way, you are offering them the chance to deal with their absence issues in an adult and professional way. Help the person to realise the impact their absence is having on results and their team mates. Employ a culture of care within the department, and encourage people to bring their problems to you before they become the foundation of a culture of absence.

Thanks again

Sean

(Image by Avital Pinnick) 

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Whatever the reason, many new hires simply don’t turn out the way you thought they would. There is no fail safe technique for ensuring someone starting with you will perform in the way you expect them to. Their values may not ring true with your team, or they may not get on with their colleagues, or they may have personal issues that spill over into the workplace.

You may have to act swiftly to limit the damage this bad hiring decision may cause you. I have a few ideas that might help:

First, face up to the problem. You may feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about the situation. You may not have noticed something obvious at the interview, and you may feel frustrated and guilty about what may lay ahead; like, having to get rid of a person and go through the long recruitment process again. So, there are several stages you can go through before removing the person from their position.

1) Ensure you and they have clear objectives. Go back to the job description and the objectives they need to hit and make sure everything is clear, with no ambiguities. Make sure they understand what is expected of him or her. Is there an aspect of the role that needs describing in greater detail? If so, make it happen and keep a close eye on how the person responds.

2) Review your induction programme. You need to strike a delicate balance between the new person adding value to the organisation and making sure the systems and processes in the organisation are well-followed. Some sensitivity at this stage is normal, but revisit what your expectations are during this induction period and highlight any anomalies that may be present.

3) Do they simply need more training? There may be a skills gap between someone’s former experience and the new job requirements. The decision to employ may look poor, but it may simply be a case of the person not getting enough skills training or coaching to appear competent. Could they shadow someone else, or have a mentor for a longer period to see if that reduces the concerns you may have?

4) Is the level of support adequate? Maybe they need a bit more supervision on the job before they pick it up properly. Has the level of guidance been enough to allow them to grow quickly into the job? Different people have different learning styles, so it’s possible they need to be trained or supported in a different way before they grasp the principles.

5) Find out their perceptions of the job. Have an early performance review or job appraisal to discover their views on how things are going. This gives you both an opportunity to bring up any issues that may be covered up. Discuss, performance targets, quality issues, time frames, compliances, or whatever it is that is giving you cause for concern. This will allow you to bring up the concerns you have without it appearing personal just to them.

6) Check out your coaching style. Coaching is a good investment in people, as it allows you to develop their skills while keeping an eye on their performance. It will check on their levels of resourcefulness, too, so you see whether there is a real reason to keep them motivated and in your future plans.

7) Consider extending the probation period. Practically, it is easier to reverse a poor hiring decision before the probation period is up. Once full employment has been granted, the legal requirements that have to be followed are more complicated. You must demonstrate you’ve given the employee every chance to turn things round, so an extended probation period allows you both to see whether the future with be better with or without them. Naturally, you need to forewarn them about the consequences of lack of improvement

8 ) Create contingencies if the person should fail to improve. Is there another role within the organisation that would suit them better? Could someone else fit into the role they are currently holding if you do have to let them go quickly? Would they be disruptive if you asked them to leave early? maybe compensation for early leaving would be better than putting up with poor performance longer than necessary.

There is no value in prolonging a poor hiring decision; it’s always best to tackle the situation head-on and in a professional way. This ensures the least damage to morale and the organisation’s performance.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

After 20 years of research and 60,000 exit interviews, the Saratoga Institute reports that 80% of turnover is related to unsatisfactory relationships with the boss. Talent retention and engagement will remain one of management’s highest priorities over the coming years. In fact, in the current global economic situation with its ever-increasing reliance on talent and technology, retention and engagement are critical to an organization’s survival.

Organisations therefore need to focus on three areas to retain and engage their talented people:

Employee development – Support learning and growth.

Find ways to continuously develop and grow workers’ talents. Enrich and enliven employees’ work, making every effort to increase the time they spend on desirable and innovative work. Help workers identify opportunities for moving laterally as well as vertically. Link workers to mentors, coaches, leaders, or colleagues who can offer guidance and support.

Management style – Inspire loyalty.

Ask employees what they want from their work and what it takes to keep them motivated. Provide constant feedback – clearly, truthfully, and respectfully – and, in return, listen closely and carefully. Look for creative, meaningful ways to recognise and reward workers. Create a culture of inclusion – valuing not only differences of race and gender, but thoughts, experiences, and attitudes as well. Hold managers accountable for retention and then give them the training and the tools to do it.

Work environment – Create one that people love.

Let fun happen. Share information freely and regularly. Give people space – providing the freedom to get the job done in ways that work best for them, from their schedule and attire to their approach and process.

There are many complex reasons why some organisations are more successful than others in attracting and retaining the best people. However, studies reveal some common patterns. The most significant of these clearly boil down to questions of leadership.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Follow us here on Twitter

Not sure if you would all agree with that, as some managers I’ve recently talked to say their people are leaving for more money. But isn’t that exactly the same thing? If they want to leave for more money, are they really saying that you do not recognise their contribution and they want to go to a company that does?

A recognition scheme can help you to improve retention and morale by giving your employees a sense of belonging and a feeling of actively contributing to the success of a wider team.

A well thought out recognition scheme can help you to:
• Reinforce employee actions to mirror company values
• Promote your brand
• Foster a sense of belonging and a recognition culture
• Reduce recruitment costs – the average cost per employee currently stands at £8,200
• Empower line managers to award positive behaviour
• Improve customer service levels – For every 1% increase in staff loyalty a 0.5% increase can be seen in customer loyalty – (Study by Harvard Business School)
• Create a more productive team
• Reduce attrition

A good recognition programme will include awards and merchandise incentives, rather than simple money bonuses. Cash incentives could cost up to 6 times as much as non-cash incentives and provide similar results. Over time employees come to expect cash incentives and as such, rather than recognising performance that goes above and beyond the norm, cash incentives lose their value over time.

So you need to identify what kind of things will not only motivate your teams but also provide the recognition they are looking for.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Follow us here on Twitter

The main reason for it was underperformance.

Just 4% of employers have never regretted their decision to hire a new member of staff, research by Reabur.com shows. Other common reasons were exaggerated qualifications and experience on CVs, not being good at the job, a negative attitude and poor timekeeping.

Now, the latest CBI/Harvey Nash Employment Trends survey has found that a higher number of employers are planning to take on staff over the next six months, compared to the previous six months.

So, how do you deal with this dilemma? What can you do to ensure the best chance of taking on the right person?

1 Recruit to the business needs
Have close collaboration between HR and the functional area that you’re hiring into and spend time thinking about what the business really needs. The time invested will help you to make the right decisions.”

2 Be person-specific
When resources are tight, how do you deal with high volumes of applications? Have a crystal-clear job spec and an uncompromising selection process. Ensure that you know exactly what you want, put it in writing in your ad and keep it close in mind when checking applications.

3 Keep an open mind
The best person may not be from your field or even your industry. There are managers out there who have excellent life experience, though not too much specific experience. But take into account what can and what can’t be trained into people. It’s much harder to train attitude than skill-sets

4 Have a proper process
Harvard Business Review, surveyed 50 chief executives of global companies. They found hiring practices to be disturbingly vague . . . relying heavily on subjective personal preferences or on largely unquestioned organisational traditions often based on false assumptions. Good, competency-based interview questions — as opposed to CVs — will test for attitude and commercial acumen, now ranked above technical ability by many senior recruiters.

5 Communicate the message
Tapping into top talent is still tough. You have got to have a good proposition and communicate it in order to get through to the right people. Recruiters cannot expect to pick up a bargain at a high level. There are always skills that you need to pay a premium for.

If you find you’re able to recruit to a high level, you reduce the risk of regretting your hiring decisions and you’ll leave the 96% who make bad decisions.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Follow us here on Twitter

I find it interesting that one of the world’s top ten brands actually measures through analytics why their people stay and progress with the company. Many companies we work with never get round to asking the basic questions as to why people work there, never mind analysing it so they can help them develop.

Have you asked why people stay with you? What motivates them to come to work each day and stay loyal to your company?

If you want to maintain anything like the loyalty that Google enjoys, maybe you should start thinking seriously about what you are doing and can do to keep your people loyal to your company.

Take a look at Google’s top three reasons why people stay. Firstly, the mission of the company. It states “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It’s clear, specific and makes people want to believe in it.

How does your mission make your people feel? Do they aspire to be better simply by reading it and do they want to live it? Or do they even know what your mission is?

Secondly, Googlers stay because of the quality of the people there. Ask yourself whether that’s one reason why you have staff loyalty; because they are happy with the quality of the people they work with. This needs a commitment to development and learning and advancement throughout the whole company, and will create an environment of creativity and innovation, if it is nurtured.

Thirdly, it’s the chance to improve their leadership skills while they work there. Do your people have the opportunity to learn, advance, create, produce, grow, develop and progress through job enrichment and shared responsibilities? Remember, if your people aren’t growing in their jobs, they are hibernating, and may be simply waiting for something better to come along.

Naturally, not all of us can aspire to be like the Google’s of this world. But we can all share a bit of the attitude and commitment they show towards their staff. With zero per cent turnover of staff in the last twelve months, and an average of 100 resumés received every day from aspiring co-workers, it appears the company has a knack of keeping employees loyal. Let’s hope some of that magic can rub off on us!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

The truth? Managers don’t only look at salaries when they determine who they’re doing to layoff when times are tough. They look at the big picture and try to determine how they can save money without losing quality workers. If it comes to choosing between a higher paid employee with a great attitude versus a lower paid employee with a terrible attitude, the lower paid employee may just find himself on the chopping block.

So what can you do now that you’ve found yourself in the position of survival? Here are a few things you can do, both as an employee and from a managerial standpoint, to make your life a bit easier.

• Acknowledge the fact that you can’t do everything and do your best to prioritize. Do the most important work first and let the rest wait.
• Remain as positive and realistic as possible at all times. Do what you can and don’t fight the natural flow. You have no control over your organisation’s overall progress and, if things end badly, it won’t be due to your lack of performance.
• Make sure you act like a leader. Your remaining team members will be looking to you for guidance and reassurance.
• Use your managerial and communication skills to keep in touch with other departments. Make sure you have systems in place to ensure you’re still helping each other effectively despite changes in staff.
• Let your employees know that you still expect high quality work but that you do not expect them to turn into super-people overnight. Acknowledge that they are human and may not be able to simply absorb the work left behind by past employees.
• Offer support to your team members, especially those who aren’t coping with the new changes and stresses as well. Do what you can to let them vent without losing track of their goals.

Layoffs are sad but not abnormal. Do your best to regroup and move on. You still have a job, and you’ll want to keep it as long as possible.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

So how do you deal with someone who is difficult, on all levels, on a regular basis?

You need to start out by doing your homework. What exactly is it that causes EmployeeX to be so difficult. Why does he always complain? Why does he feel like other take credit for his work (or why does he take credit for the work others have done)? Everyone can be difficult on occasion – due to stress or a problem at at home – but EmployeeX seems to always have some sort of problem.

When you’re doing your homework, look for facts. Think about the inappropriate behaviour you have witnessed or think about the situations where you have multiple witnesses who can tell you what happened. Heresay, gossip, and rumors won’t help you solve problems. Are you making the problem worse in the way you respond (combative vs. combative)?

Your next step is to make a plan for confronting the employee in question. Determine the severity of the situation and, if it warrants such action, ask a HR representative to sit in on the meeting. It’s not fun to do, but you absolutely have to tell EmployeeX that his behaviour in the workplace is simply not appropriate. Talk to him and see if you can determine exactly what it is that causes his behavioural issues. Don’t interrupt him, repeat back parts of what he is saying so that he knows you are listening, and try to set some guidlines that dicatate more appropriate behaviour at work.

In the end, you’ll come up with some sort of solution. EmployeeX will either embrace the opportunity you’re giving him for change or he’ll stray further away. If that’s the case, you’ll need to get him help or – unfortunately – sever your working relationship.

It’s OK to do that if you find there are no other options. The trick, as a manager, is knowing how to recognize when you’ve run out of options.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Development

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

• Listen to your employees. Your team members, if you listen to them, have valuable ideas and most of them want to contribute to the process. Listen to what they have to say and make sure they know the lines of communication are always open.
• Help them find opportunities for growth. No one wants to feel as though he or she is stuck in a dead end job for a lifetime and you, as a manager, can’t expect them to be happy in the same position forever. Help your employees identify opportunities for growth, both short-term and long. Employees working towards goals are always happier.
• Encourage flexibility. I’m not saying you have to adjust their schedules every other day and make ridiculous concessions but you can find ways to encourage them to find balance between their work and persona lives without decreasing productivity. This means not being rude when they’re really sick or when they need to take care of their children.
• Encourage personal wellness. Healthy employees are happy employees and stress is certainly not healthy. Surprise them with special breaks, give them gift certificates to their favorite restaurants or spas as an acknowledgment of their loyalty, or have a yoga instructor come in for a morning class. They’ll appreciate the break from the regular routine.
• Finally, please remember to say THANK YOU to the people who work for you. Whether they’re permanent employees or independent contractors, everyone appreciates knowing you recognize, acknowledge, and appreciate the things they do. Nothing else you do will matter if you never utter those two simple words.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”