I saw this post “Guide to Motivating Employees” on OPEN Forum by independent writer and editor Katie Morell:

Walk around the office of Dixon Schwabl in Victor, New York, and you’ll see countless paper notes tacked inside the employees’ cubicles. Each handwritten piece of paper from founder Lauren Dixon complimenting them on specific ways they have done a good job are a point of pride for the employees.

“The biggest complaint most employees have is that they don’t feel valued,” Dixon says. “I write these notes every Friday and it really keeps motivation high in the office.”

Read the whole post to gather ideas for your own managing toolbox.  Managing employees is a skill and in order to increase your effectiveness in working with your staff, it take willingness to try something new, tweak it for your group and keep honoring your employees in different ways.

Be well,

Pat

What Is Coaching
Are you clear around what coaching provides for you and your employees?  Coaching is a management buzzword though many people haven’t fully comprehended what it is and how it can benefit them.  There are all types of coaching:  executive, personal, career, spiritual, relationship and not last, manager’s ability to coach their team members.  What if you just don’t understand what coaching is and the value it offers.

Don’t Know How to Coach
Are you telling yourself that it’s too difficult to do and you are just not good at it.  Anyone can learn the skill of coaching when they see the value and are willing to stretch himself or herself to learn something new.

Before you assume you have limited skills in this area, think about times that you have listened to your employees, planned goals and deliverables, held your employees accountable to completing the work and respecting each of them for what they bring to the table.   You may know more that you think.  What you may need is a system to help you implement coaching as your primary management interaction with your employees.

Not Enough Time
It takes too much time is one of the top reasons that managers expressed when they think about coaching.  What if the time invested upfront would ultimately save you time and add to your department’s productivity and the overall happiness of your employees.

Culture
No one supports coaching at your company and they are only interested in speed and the bottom line.  What if you could increase your bottom line results by implementing a coaching style of interaction with your each of your team members?

A Good Manager Provides The Answers
Many managers are proud they are the point of contact for solutions.    Coaching puts that responsibility on the employees to provide solutions.  A manager’s job is to develop people and not necessarily provide all of the answers. 

Can’t Trust Employees
Do you believe that you have to micromanage your employees, keep them on the narrow path in order to get work done?   Coaching style of management starts to reform employee’s level of accountability so you can relinquish micromanaging.

Too Many Direct Reports
There are too many people that report to you and you can’t possibly give them all the time and attention they need and still manage the department.   What if you could learn a system that would provide you with the 1:1 coaching relationship and still meet your bottom line?

Coaching is a powerful motivational tool.    Initially the coaching style of management feels awkward, yet once you master the process you will see a big difference is your effectiveness with your team members and their levels of productivity.

Final Thoughts
I’m writing a series on coaching for managers and this is the first of many posts that will address coaching as a management style.   Included in the follow up posts will be about the coaching process, how coaching creates change, basics of coaching, coaching opportunities, how to communicate using coaching, how to measure your success after implementing a coaching management style.  

As you learn the mechanics of coaching, your comfort level will increase.  You will attract stronger employees as well as upper management’s recognition that you produce the best results.  If you want to develop your ability to effectively manage employees, then decide to utilize coaching as your management style.

Pat

Keep it Simple

If you focus on 4 areas, you will find that your employees will perform better and be happier with their contributions in the company:

1.  Clear Around Expectations

As a Human Resources Manager, I’ve listened to many employees state that their manager wasn’t clear about what they wanted.   Their manager will tell them to do something and when they did their best and returned with a completed project, there was always something wrong and the manager was not happy.

Managers expect employees to be mind readers and to know what they want.  In some cases, the manager is not clear about what they expect the outcome to look like.   If you are one of those managers, you will lose a lot of your time following up, being disappointed and not getting the results you want and need from your employees.

Instead, take the time upfront to formulate and write down:

• what you expect the outcome to look like,
• what behaviors or performance levels are necessary for the employee, and 
• what the timeline is to meet the business deliverables.

You may not necessarily get this perfect right away, though the more you keep addressing expectations and clarifying these to your employees, you will see a decrease in errors and employee confusion that will ultimately add more time your schedule.

2.  Prioritizing Projects

There is usually more to do than can be done in a given time period, so it’s important as a manager that you know what’s important and communicate priorities to you employees.   Business needs do change, but if priorities constantly change, employees will lose motivation to perform at high levels.  They will think that it doesn’t matter if they work hard because their priorities will only change in midstream.  

In many subtle ways, we lose employee’s focus as well as their commitment to the company and to their performance.  Don’t just feed projects to do, also include the priority level for each project.   If you forget, allow your team members to clarify priorities.

3. Plan regular meetings with employees

The paradox of time is that you need to spend time in order to gain time.   However, every minute you spend with employees planning you will get back in performance levels.   What does a regular meeting look like with employees?  Most managers don’t have regular 1:1 meetings with their employees nor do they have department meeting on a regular basis.

Schedule time and create an agenda for 1:1 meetings as well as group meetings.  Be clear around how much time you can offer them – ½ hour for 1:1 meetings and maybe 1 hour for group meetings.  Maybe you only have 15 minutes to offer at this time.  It all depends on what you want to accomplish. 

Whatever the time table, make sure you are there focusing on the agenda and eliminating distractions.  If you are in a 1:1 and your phone keeps ringing, schedule a small conference room or go to the local coffee shop to focus on the person.   

Employees yearned for more feedback and clarity from their managers…the right kind, focused on their performance and concerns, as well as helping them create solutions for their well-being and increasing productivity.

Important – always keep your scheduled appointments unless there is a true emergency.   An emergency is not because you got behind…there is always opportunity to get behind at work, so it’s not a good excuse.  If you remember this, you will also be emulating accountability for our employees.

4. Listen

Listening skills are not strong points for many managers.  Managers are juggling so much these days; we scantly listen and only look for the basics of information and then move on to other subjects.

I’ve received feedback even as a Human Resource Manager that I failed to listen to an employee.   We are all human.  Employees are all right with our humanness if we learn from it and make a conscious effort to rectify the issue.   I’ve learned to listen. 

In addition to listening to your employees, you need to listen to yourself when interacting with employees.   Your time is important along with the needs of an employee.    So be clear around how much time you have and communicate this to the employee.   If you only have 10 minutes, do laser listening and be available for the person at that time.  If you need additional time, reschedule a follow up meeting.   There are times when emergencies occur and we need to step out of our structured timeframe and everyone recognizes a true emergency.

Final Thoughts

Keep focused on these 4 basic steps:   Be clear around your expectations, prioritize workloads for employees, plan regular 1:1 meetings and/or department meetings and be present when listening to your team members.   If you follow these basic steps, you will find that managing employees is less stressful and can be enjoyable and in addition, you will gain more time for yourself to meet your deliverables.

Your Thoughts

Where do you find the struggle as a manager?    Is it clarity, time for meetings, prioritizing or listening?   Do you feel a manager needs more than the 4 basics in their management toolbox?  I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on saving time as a manager.

Pat

Managing Employees Amazon Favorites

So how do you balance empathy and performance?

People are not movable parts of an organization.  They come with their own warranties and guarantees or in many cases, no guarantees.    The fluidity of the manager’s ability to manage all the various parts of his team rests on his or her ability to connect with each person they manage.

A manager, who can tap into his empathy muscles when interacting with each employee, can learn to identify with the feelings or thoughts of another person.   We will never entirely understand another person, though if we are open to listening to the other’s point of view we build stronger relationships.   We learn to sit across from the individual and see the world as they see it….as best as we can.

If you are having a difficult time eliciting empathy for an employee, imagine you are the employee sitting in front of your manager with the same issue.   This will soften your personal reactions to the employee in front of you.  Empathy is an important skill to learn.

What does this offer you as a manager?   First, the person senses and knows that you are present and accepting of their feelings.   Second, you can learn what motivates this person, which allows you to set up a personal contract with them.   Third, you let go of your own anxiety in interacting with employees.

Where does performance expectations fit into the picture.  Listening to an employee doesn’t mean that you are not able to set expectations around performance.   When a manager can sit in front of an employee, listen to the employee, and still be clear around performance expectations, he or she will have master the art of managing.

Why is empathy important for elevating performance levels?   People are complex and their life’s experiences intertwine with their business performance.  Expressing empathy doesn’t mean you give up control, rather you gain more control as you clear space to understand the individual.    Nor does empathy mean you are constantly dealing with the same issues, but rather because you are listening, you can set into motion potential solutions focusing on performance. 

For example, two distinct scenarios could use a dose of empathy.  One you will automatically understand and the other you may react with frustration or anger.

An employee has a sick child and needs to be out of work to care for the child.   This employee performs well, consistently shows up for work, and you are open to their issue because of their past performance.   When you sit in front of this employee, your empathy rises quickly and you are open to helping the employee.   However, if this employee’s personal issue continues for a longer period and influences the overall performance of the department, you may need to set different expectations.

Another employee, who also does their job well, comes in complaining again about another problem in the department.  You may find yourself creating a wall between the two of you, tired of listening to the constant stream of complaining.   If you bring in empathy and are present with the employee’s frustrations, you will automatically distant yourself from the issue.  You will release your negative reaction and create space for the two of you to be more productive in your discussions.    A chronic complainer wants attention, and you can set the parameters around how much time you have, and still be available for this individual.  

Both of these two situations can influence an employee’s ability to perform at higher levels.    Without attachment to the story they bring, you can listen and allow them to share their issues.   There are no guarantees that listening and being present to an employee’s issue will increase performance.   If an employee’s performance doesn’t meet expectations, you need to go to the next step. 

The dance between empathy and performance is a personal journey for each manager.    In our hurried world, we feel it is an indulgence to be empathic with others.    It’s just the opposite.   Really listening and allowing others to express their issues, will allow you to help them move forward.  

For very busy managers, who want to stretch their empathy muscles, why not set a time limit for each employee and be present throughout that time.  For example, you can tell the person you only have 10 minutes right now and if it will take longer, than they need to schedule a different time.   If the person takes the long-winded road to describing their issue, again define a time limit, and be present within that time.   

Empathy allows you to be present with the other person, acknowledging their issues, and helping them find solutions to stronger performance.   If you are the issue, it may be more difficult to allow empathy in, yet, if you do, you will find that you are no longer the issue with your employees.

Pat

Other Topics
Managing By Employees Strengths
Basics of Managing Employees
Do You Procrastinate with Performance and Behavior Issues?

BOOKS
Skills for New Managers by Morey Stettner 

A-HA! Performance: Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce by Douglas Walker and Stephen Sorkin 

Managing to Have Fun: How Fun at Work Can Motivate Your Employees, Inspire Your Coworkers, and Boost Your Bottom Line by Matt Weinstein

I believe that it’s difficult to motivate an employee –
rather, motivation is something that comes from the individual.

It’s easy to de-motivate an employee.

Look at the new employee, most of them are highly motivated when they first step through the door, so what happens to them after 6 months on the job.   If an employee loses a percentage of their motivation after 6 months, image the loss to the company as the employee increases their longevity.

I’ve worked in one small company that was incredible in hiring highly motivated and bright individuals who were focused on creating success for themselves and for the company.  I watched all of them fight off a micro-managing negative manager to the point that they became disgruntle and their performance levels decreased.   No type of rewards program would increase their motivation.   All of them eventually left and moved onto more productive work relationships with new managers.

I’m not indicating that reward programs are a waste, rather they aren’t the first place to venture to correct an unmotivated workforce.   An employee performs when they feel their manager respects them, they can contribute to the success of the company, and there is a community within their department or company.

Are you dealing with a motivation issue?

Studies show that supervisors or managers have the greatest impact on the employee.  With that fact, a good place for you to start increasing your employee’s performance is to first review how you may be demotivating your team members.

Ways to de-motivate employees

• De-motivation occurs when an employee feels the manager doesn’t appreciate them
• Too much work for any one person to do
• Not enough direction from the manager and this lack of clarity decreases their ability to perform
• Unfair practices – a manager that favors one employee over others
• Disrespectful comments to employees, especially when spoken with others around
• Constant micromanaging which indicates that the manager doesn’t trust the employee
• Not communicating important work related information to the employees
• Underpaying your employees
• ….and the list goes on.

Final Thoughts

The manager isn’t the only part of the equation of a happy employee, but they are significant in the employee’s productivity levels.   If an employee feels respected by their manager, they tend to form positive relationships with co-workers.

Take the time to review your beliefs and behavior towards your employees.   Managing employees takes time and effort and if you are willing to observe yourself and change your de-motivating behaviors, you will see a noticeable change in the productivity of your team members.

Pat

Check this article out:

In Harvard Working Knowledge read an article written by David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer “Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation.”

In the workplace, “Shooting the Messenger” is an expression to describe a manager who reacts harshly to an employee that bears bad news. This person is brave enough to step into the manager’s office to share their concerns. Yet, the manager doesn’t want to deal with the problem so they lash out instead.

I worked at a company that sold a product that required a Customer Support team to handle customer’s questions and problems. One employee in the Customer Service department regularly had something negative to say about the product. Since they dealt with customers who used the product every day, this individual was keenly aware of the product issues. He was a messenger from the customers, yet the manager took little he shared because he felt the employee was being negative.

The manager felt that the employee only complained but never provided solutions to the issues. The manager was correct as well as he missed the valuable asset the employee was bringing. This asset was the potential improvement in the product, which would only add more value for the company.

Yes, there are employees that complain and have no interest in being part of the solution. That’s where your input is important. In managing employees, you need to balance input from employees as well as guide them to think on their own.

How Does a Manager Shoot the Messenger

A manager can shoot the messenger several ways:

• Give the employee lip service, but basically ignore them.
• Managers become overwhelm and prefer to ignore the issues.
• Give the employee a bad performance review because of their complaining.
• Make it difficult for the employee with disrespectful behavior towards them.

How to Change

• Instead of seeing complaints as a problem, step into the world of reframing. See the complaints from employees and customers as opportunities to increase value for the company.
• Learn to manage your employee’s complaints. You do this by being open to the content of the message. The more available you are to listen to the employee, the better able you are to discern important information vs. employee’s style.
• Set expectations to all employees. You will listen to them and they will bring their best ideas for a potential solution. Even if their ideas are not functional, it doesn’t matter. You are setting the expectations for innovation, creativity and the ability to think.

Final Thought

Don’t shoot the messenger. Instead, encourage all employees to be active in uncovering issues within your department. It doesn’t mean that you can tackle everything, but rather you have a great list of enhancements to increase the value for the customer as well as enhance the workplace for your employees.

Pat

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Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace by Ron Zemke, Claire Raines and Bob Filipczak

A-HA! Performance: Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce by Douglas Walker & Stephen Sorkin

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It would be great if all managers had employees that arrive at work on time, never complained, were self-motivated to perform at above satisfactory levels and were happy to at work. This doesn’t always happen.

Since there is diversity in the workplace, employees come to work with different perspectives and attitudes, and your job is to maximize the effectiveness of each person’s contribution.

How do you manage an employee that creates havoc by their personality? For starters, keep this in mind:

• You can’t control another person’s behavior but you can control your response to it.
• Be aware of your own level of comfort or discomfort with challenging employees.
• When managing employees, it’s not about their personalities – rather focus on addressing their behaviors and the impact on the team and business.

Some challenging behaviors:

• Do you have an employee that complains a lot? What about the reactive employee who easily expresses their frustration or anger. These individuals can be disruptive to everyone on the team.
• What about the employee that does just enough to do 75% of their job but no more than that? Maybe you try to motivate then or just ignore them and take the 75% effort. This employee’s impact is more subtle, yet the team knows about this borderline performance issue. The saying “you are only as good as your weakest link” is perfect for your overall team’s perception regarding standards of performance.
• The employee that constantly knows it all and is not open to listening to any input.
• Do you have an employee that is dishonest – lying?
• …fill in your own current employee situation.

How to deal with difficult behaviors:

• Become detached from the employee’s behavior and reduce your own reactions to the issue. An intense reaction on your part to their behavior will feed the employee’s defensiveness.
• Focus on listening – find out if there is a particular issue for the employee that is causing this behavior.
• Understand that difficult people are trying to control their environment. Your goal is to help them see alternative behavior solutions to their need for control.
• Be clear on what performance levels and behaviors are standard for every member of your team.
• Provide specific feedback how their behavior(s) is affecting the team. Tell them exactly what behavior(s) must change.
• Ask them how you can support them while they are correcting the behavior. You will learn what part of their behavior they are willing to own, as well as let the employee know that you are there to support them in being successful.

Final Thoughts

In managing employees, remember it’s not about attitude but rather about specific actions on the part of the employee. The more specific you are around what is acceptable behavior, the best opportunity for success on the part of the employee.

If you have coach, counseled, provided clear expectations around behavior and the employee is still not able to make the necessary changes, then you need to make a decision regarding the employee’s ability to add value to your team.

Keep in mind that you not responsible for the employee’s behavior…they are. Your responsibility is to provide clear and supportive expectations around performance and behavior for your team members.

Pat

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” –Harriet Braiker

Take a moment to ask yourself where you put your emphasis on – excellence or perfection.

Do you have an understanding of the difference between excellence and perfection?  Being clear around the differences will help you make better decisions for yourself and in managing employees.  Let’s first define the two words:

Perfection: the quality or state of being perfect: as freedom from fault or defect

Excellence – very good of its kind : eminently good

What is perfection?

We are all aware that people process differently in the same situation, given their life experience, beliefs, knowledge and skills.    Put this all in the mix and we can’t possibly subscribe to something that is the same every time.   Perfection is a moving target and impossible to attain.

Perfection is fear based, attachment to being right and filled with rigidity.

Perfection is based on one’s performance, whereas excellence is based on constant improvement to the outcome.

The paradox is that sometimes perfectionists are fearful to move unless it is perfect which can influence the productivity of the individual.   Perfection is:

“…the practice of demanding of oneself or others a higher quality of performance then is required by the situation.”

(M.H. Hollender, “Perfectionism”)

What is excellence?

Excellence still addresses the variables of work situation, using those differences to maximize the strength of the outcome.    It’s taking the issues and asking how we can be better.  It’s about aiming towards excellence, knowing that we are doing our best at any given moment.  It’s a process, a journey, a way of living, a belief that we can continue to strive to be better for the rest of our lives.

Excellence is movement, whereas perfection is static trying to freeze a moment in its ideal.

The individual who strives towards excellence “…take a genuine pleasure in striving to meet high standards unlike the perfectionist who strains compulsively toward impossible goals.  Those who pursue excellence are willing to accept a less than perfect performance without feeling inadequate.”
(D. Burns, “The Perfectionist Script for Self-Defeat.”

Even in difficult times, we can still strive for our best.   In difficult times, perfectionists complain that the situation is not perfect.  Complaining depletes energy and productivity.  Whereas those who strive towards excellence sit in the moment and asked “how I can deal with this situation for the best outcome for everyone.“

Excellence is doing our very best, knowing that mistakes will be made and using that information to continue to strive towards our goals.

Excellence is embedded with the understanding that one continues to grow.  Perfection makes the assumption that one must have it right all the time.

The fluidity of excellence challenges the rigidity of perfection.

As the manager

So how does this apply to your role as a manager?  In the mix of managing employees are yours and your employee’s knowledge, skills and attitudes, along with the  company’s ability to provide the work best environment.

What do you expect from yourself and from your employees?    When you are interacting with your staff, you are constantly sending messages to them – do your best or be perfect.

As managers, we do our best when we provide clear expectations, along with coaching and counseling to guide each person to be their best.

We do our best when we are willing to allow our employees to make mistakes and learn from them.

We do our best in managing employees, when we focus on their strengths as that is where their potential for excellence lies.

Focus on excellence – yours and your employees.

Pat

How would you evaluate your frustration or anger levels?   For some managers, anger is a chronic behavioral issue that influences their productivity and effectiveness of the team. In this case, it’s really more about the manager’s unhappiness in their role.

Others bump into their anger on occasion and do express it.   We are all human.   So how do we use our anger to gain the most from this powerful energy?

Emotions affect everyone…good or bad.   People react differently to the same emotion.  Some employees get motivated if their manager is upset with them, others crawl into a hole like a wounded animal licking their wounds.   We also react to anger expressed from our manager or a peer.

I make a basic assumption when I’m working with people…reacting with anger isn’t good for them or me.   However, I do have a right to feel anger or frustration.  What I do with the emotion can enhance or deplete the effectiveness of my team.

When managing employees,  anger provides information to us.   If you are angry at the performance or behavior of an employee, how can you best relay that message to them?  Remember anger is a result of something that happened.  The situation is in the past, so there is nothing you can do to change the action of the employee.    What you can do is:

• Stop before you react to the employee.   Use this energy wisely…to your advantage.
• Analyze what issue is upsetting you.   Be aware of your own feelings and the reason behind them.
• What about the employee – is this new behavior/performance or a chronic issue?  Use this information in your decisions.
• Create a discussion plan with the employee.
• Set up time to meet soon after the incident.
• Follow up to insure that the behavior or performance is corrected.

You are being watched closely by your team…it’s part of the job.  They will use that information to create beliefs around how you will treat them, should they trust you and whether they enjoy their job.  Studies have proven that retention and productivity of a company’s talent is directly impacted by the supervisor or manager’s style.

It’s a big and challenging job to be a manager.   We are not perfect and will never be, though we can motivate ourselves to be a stronger manager.    The advantage we can give ourselves is to step back and think about what is the best way to handle a situation.  When we do this, we elevate our self-confidence as we have wisely used a powerful emotion to the best of our ability.

We always have time to evaluate the past and decide to do something different the next time.

Pat

21 Ways to Hire and Keep The Best People by Brian Tracy

Effective Manager Series by Brian Tracy

Managing employees requires tenacity if you want to be effective in your role. You are required to manage the daily operations of the department as well as manage the people who handle the work. The balance between the two, and sometimes opposing functions of your role, is a constant battle. Here are some questions to ask:

• Are you more comfortable handling the paperwork and prefer to let your employees to do their best?
• Do you only deal with an employee’s performance or behavior issue when it reaches a major issue for you or your department?
• Do you immediately handle employee issues, no matter how small?
• Are you clear around your expectations for performance and behavior?
• After you discuss an issue with your employee, do you follow up to insure that their performance or behavior has changed to meet expectations?

Many managers struggle with their reluctance to deal with an employee regarding performance or behavior. When do you intervene and when do you give room for individuals to express themselves in the role?

Some concerns by managers:

• Don’t want to rock the boat, especially when the employee is performing the function even if not up to expectations.
• Fearful that correcting an employee’s performance or behavior would spark a decision for the employee to leave. Then where will you be…no one to do the job.
• You are not sure how to discuss issues with employees and are concerned the employee will become defensive.

What can happen if you don’t deal with employee issues:

• Employees are not clear around expectations so their performance level may not increase.
• Each person’s performance and behavior influences the rest of the team members. If you increase performance levels of one person, you will increase the levels in others.
• Employees’ notice how you deal with issues and their performance will follow your lead. If you are sloppy with your guidance, they may incorrectly believe that it doesn’t matter how they perform. Non-performance on your part actually reinforces lower performance.

Note: When you handle the small issues you can potentially influence the overall efficiency and performance of your team.

…are you a procrastinator with performance or behavior issues?

If so, then start today to create clear expectations for yourself and your employees.

• Observe your own reactions to employees…you already know what is not working.
• Monitor the performance and behaviors of each person on your team. Decide the specific areas that need improvement.
• When you have already identified an issue, create a plan to discuss the issue with the employee.
• Follow up with employees to keep them aligned with expectations around performance or behavior.

Allow yourself time to learn how to deal quickly with small issues with your employees. Start small, look for one or two each day, and you will eventually create more awareness and efficiency in communicating with the people on your team.

Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To Do and What To Do About It by Ferdinand F. Fournies