IT is charged with providing an ever-increasing line of products and services to the business. In our nanosecond world the quality of those products and services is paramount. To meet the desired level of service quality management needs to become an essential part of IT.

Many best practices have the goal of improving the quality of these services and products delivered by IT. They are essentially, quality management systems. There are certain basic principles of quality management that every best practice should follow.

Just as the keys to successful IT Service Management is “It’s The People Stupid”, the keys to customer focused quality management is, “It’s the Customer Stupid”.

The first principle in a quality management is to be customer focused. IT serves many customers, both internal and external. Each uses different products and services. Each will have different uses for those products. Each will have different requirements for those products and services. IT must meet the needs of everyone and to do this IT must be customer focused.

There are four keys to becoming customer focused. Since quality management needs involvement of every person enlist your department heads to direct their managers to help in each of these steps for their department.

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

Identify All of Your Products and Services

The first step is to create a catalog of all of your products and services. In IT this catalog will be vast and should be broken down by department to simplify your system.

This catalog should include any product or service that a department within IT produces. Products include data products such as reports. Services include tasks such as technical support.

Identify Your Customers

Now you must identify all of the internal and external customers who use your products and services. You need to go beyond “the business” as being a customer and identify the specific parts of the business you serve.

Some services are used by everyone so you need to be smart about what to include. For instance your network infrastructure is the backbone of IT and everyone uses it. However some customers may have requirements such as increased bandwidth so you will need to identify them because they have specific requirements.

Rich Schiesser is an article “Optimizing IT Customer Service” has some good tips on how to identify your customers.

Now match your products and services to the the people or departments who use them.

For example:

• Product: Network Infrastructure
• Customer: ABC Data Storage
• Product: Service Desk SLA Scorecard
• Customer: Director of Customer Service, Service Desk Manager

Determine Your Customers Requirements

A key part of good customer focused service and a quality management system is defining the needs and requirements for all of your customers for each product or service they use. One may use a product or service differently than another.

For example with a data product one may need a complete listing of IP addresses and  locations for every router in your company. Another only needs a count of how many routers are used in the company. Same data source, but each customer has different needs.

The best way to define the needs and requirements for each customer is to talk with them and ask them what services and products they use, how they use them and if they have special requirements. For off site customers and vendors you can create a survey form that can be emailed to them.

Obviously you can not do this with every service and product. You are not going to email everyone in the company and ask them what their requirements are for the network infrastructure. You already know their requirement is a fast connection that is always there. Once again be smart about who you need to ask for requirements.

Meet or Exceed Your Customers Expectations

Now you know who your customers are, what products and services they use and what their needs and requirements are. Providing outstanding customer service means you need to meet or exceed the expectations of each customer for each product or service they use.

An IT department should do no less than meet the expectations of every customer. They should strive to exceed the expectations. Needs and requirements will change so you must stay in touch with your customers and update your products and services as needed. The ultimate goal is to find how to improve IT customer service.

Benefits

• By aligning your IT products and services with your customers you will find not everything your produce is used. You may find A report that takes 15 minutes to produce for a DVP is deleted as soon as it hits their inbox because they no longer need it. You will be able to trim some products and even services and save valuable resources.
• By learning the needs and requirements for each customer you are better able to tailor them so they are more useful. A report may be missing important information the customer can use. You will provide better customer service and your customer will get more from what you do produce.
• Each customer has expectations. By meeting or exceeding their expectations you are providing excellent customer service. Your customers are more satisfied and better able to use your products and services. As an IT department you are more aligned with the needs of your customers so you do not waste time and resources.

Eight Part Quality Principles Series

Read our eight part series on the principles your quality management system can be based on.

Lead Article: Quality Management Principles for IT

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of People
4. Process Approach
5. System Approach to Management
6. Continual Improvement
7. Factual Approach to Management
8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

Related posts:

1. How To Improve IT Customer Service
2. Quality Management System Principles For IT
3. Zephyr v2.5 Software Test Management for the Enterprise

As a manager you probably already know who your rising stars are. Those who have  a passion for their work and show management and leadership capabilities. Your job in developing them is to improve the skills and knowledge they will need to become future managers and leaders.

Teach Them

Education, classes and seminars are great, but nothing beats real world teaching. Teach your rising stars about the business and the industry you work in. Set aside some time during your day to show them how you do something. Then let them do it on their own. Hands on training is the best kind development practice you can use.

Coaching them regularly will aid in the development of both their soft skills and their technical skills. Strong skills will be needed to be a good manager and a good leader. One of the best teachers they can have is a manager willing to spend time with them to show them the ropes.

Be An Example

By being a powerful role model for your rising stars you will show them by your words and actions what they need to become a manager and leader. Most managers can think back to someone who had a great influence on them that has made them a better manager. Be that influence for your rising stars by helping them develop their skills.

Seeing how you work under pressure, how you deal with difficult challenges and how you interact with others will aid in their development. For your influence to have a lasting effect you must have their trust and respect. Earning that is the first step in setting a good example.

Teach The How to Handle a Crisis

As managers we know a crisis is only a breath away. Being able to handle a crisis is one of the most important developmental experiences your rising star needs. Show them first by watching you handle a crisis and then allow them to handle one on their own.

Let them call the shots and let them know you are there if needed. Be ready to step in, but let them feel the heat of a real crisis to temper their composure under pressure. A crisis is a real test of your rising stars. If they thrive under pressure you have a good one. If they buckle coach them and let them do it again. Show them how they can be proactive and avoid a crisis.

Allow Them to Fail

We all know being a manager is sometimes difficult and the job comes with failures and setbacks. This is a valuable lesson for a rising star to learn early where the impact can be controlled. Delegate a task to them. Don’t set them up to fail, but do not rush in and save them all the time.

Let them fail and learn the lessons that come with it. When they do fail teach them how to learn from their mistakes and overcome it. Later in their career when the risks are greater they will be better able to cope with the challenges that come from failures and setbacks.

Teach Them About Failure and Success

When they do fail step in and coach them so they can learn lessons from their mistakes. Don’t let them become discouraged. Teach them that failures bring opportunities for improvement and growth. That if they learn from their mistakes they will be far less likely to make them again. In the future when failures do occur they will be better able to cope, learn and move on.

Rising stars may be used to success but not used to dealing with it. Just as with failures there are lessons to be learned in success. For instance sharing the success with those who helped you reach it will ensure their support for future success. Taking all the glory and basking in your own magnificence will alienate others and they will be less likely to help you in the future.

Related posts:

1. How To Improve Your Employees Using Delegation
2. How To Develop Your IT Career Plan and Why You Should Do It
3. 10 Things Winning Underdogs Can Teach Us About Success

During these situations it is difficult to keep a positive attitude, but we are judged by our communications so staying positive is the professional way to react to an adverse situations.

Your natural inclination is to release your inner Hulk and bash. This type of negative reaction will only make  the circumstances worse with the those who caused it and you will end up filled with disappointment and anger.

You can beat negative situations by maintaining a positive attitude. The attitude you take when faced with a negative situation is a choice. In the business world maintaining a positive attitude in negative circumstances is a valuable skill to learn. It will keep your professional reputation intact and should you can handle any negative situation.

5 Rules to Help You Stay Positive

The way to beat a negative situation is to maintain a positive attitude. It is not easy and requires discipline on your part, but you can do it.. At first you may not succeed every time so consider it a training program. Eventually you will learn to control your reactions out of habit.

Rule # 1 – Control Your Response

The golden rule of staying positive in a negative situation is to control your response. Take a deep breath, count to 10, do whatever it takes to remove yourself from the negativity. Wait until you have calmed down and thought clearly about your response.

If you respond out of emotion you will only make things worse. Remember Thumper’s rule. “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” This is good advice when you find yourself in a negative situation.

Negative situations are compounded when they cause you stress. Learn how to deal with stress to eliminate the extra negativity.

Rule # 2 – Learn From Negative Situations

Look at a negative situation or event as an opportunity to learn and grow personally. Albert Einstein said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Don’t channel your energy into a negative reaction, but into something positive that will make the situation better, not worse.

If you do react in a negatively, note it and the circumstances that caused it. Learn from it by identifying the triggers that caused your reaction so you can watch for them in the future. Train yourself so you control the situation instead of the situation controlling your actions.

Rule # 3 – If You Make a Mistake, Admit it

We are human so we all make mistakes from time to time. When you do you need to step up and admit it. One thing I told my boss a long time ago was that if I ever made a mistake he would hear it from me first. If you make a mistake that leads to a negative situation, admit to it, learn from it and move on.

Rule # 4 – Maintain a Positive View

Don’t allow your opinion of someone to become jaded by a negative situation. Keep a positive view about a person or a situation and don’t jump to conclusions. Be proactive in dealing with adverse circumstances, not reactive. If the negativity is true see rule # 3. If not then affirm what you already know about yourself and your work.

When you are working under pressure it is hard to keep a positive attitude, but often pressure is part of the job as a manager. Learning how to work under pressure will help you overcome a source of negative situations.

Rule # 5 – Accentuate The Positive.

Remember that scene in The Jungle Book where Baloo breaks into a song about staying positive?

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

Words of wisdom from a dancing bear.

• Emphasize you positive attitude by your actions and in your words.
• Eliminate any negative thoughts generated from a negative situation. Nothing good is gained from a negative reaction.
• Affirm the positive truths you know to be true about yourself and your work.
• Don’t flip-flop between positive and negative. When negativity comes to you remove yourself from the situation, flip to the positive side and stay there.

Take Away

In the middle of writing this piece I had to put this into practice when the power went out for 2 1/2 hours during a thunderstorm. Rather than get mad because I had lost my writing time, I grabbed a notebook and started writing my to-do list for work tomorrow. A negative reaction to something beyond my control would have wasted time and energy.

Life will continuously present you with negative situations. You choose how you react to them. Rather than waste energy and your reputation by reacting negatively, learn to turn a negative situation into a positive. Don’t let the actions of others or circumstances turn you to the dark side of the workforce.

Keeping a  positive attitude in a negative situation is hard, but if you work at it you will learn to overcome your emotional reactions. Doing so will enhance your professional appearance and show that even under negative circumstances you can control yourself and deal with an issue in a positive way.

As a manager you need to teach these rules to your reports. If you have negativity coming from team members, learn how to deal with team member personalities. Team members with a positive attitude are far more productive

Related posts:

1. How To Work Under Pressure
2. Don’t Get Caught In The Blame Game
3. How To Deal With Stress At Work

The concept of social loafing in the psychological world is when a couple of team members do all the work while others do little. The concept I want to discuss here is along those lines, but more on an individual basis. The social loafers who disrupt a productive work environment and drag other employees in with them.

Humans are social by nature so social interaction in the workplace is normal  and good for morale. Your goal is to get your employees to change their behavior so they do their social loafing at the proper times, off the clock, on their breaks and their lunch.

Social Loafing In The Workplace

You come into work, fire up your computer and get started. From you office you hear conversations not related to work. You walk out and see a few employees standing around talking about what they did last night or any number of topics. What they are not doing is productive work and this becomes a problem when you see it day after day.

While social interaction is good for building relationships among employees when this type of behavior occurs daily and often you need to address the issue. It eats into the employees productivity and can lead to morale issues from coworkers who are engaged in their work.

It is likely social loafing goes on far more often than you are aware of. It becomes a habit with some employees that when the boss is not around the social loafers flock. To correct this behavior you need to change the culture in the workplace so employees know this type of behavior is not acceptable. It is time to get out of the office and get your Gemba in order.

How To Address Social Loafing

First understand that what the employees are doing is normal human behavior in the workplace. The problem is they have a misconception that when they are doing it is acceptable. You do not want to discourage employee interactions since it helps build employee relationships and build morale. What you want to do is get them to do it during the right time, off the clock, on their breaks or during lunch.

One way to correct social loafing is to use management by walking around. Just getting up out of your office and walking around your department can break up the social loafers. If you make this a practice they will learn that you will be coming around so they will be less likely to engage in social loafing.

Another way to address the issue using the management by walking around method is to engage them about the work they should be doing. This is a key part of management by walking around so it fits right in. Walk around to each employee and ask how they are doing or if they are having any issues with their work.

This lets the employee know two things. One you will be coming around and two you expect them to be engaged in their work. Do this long enough and social loafing will drop off dramatically. It is a win-win for you. You cut down on the social loafing and gain the benefit of having a better idea of the work being done and building your own relationships with your employees.

What If It Doesn’t Work?

If management by walking around does not work address then it is time to discuss the issue face-to-face. Explain to them while they are on the clock they are expected to be engaged in their work and that they need to save their social interactions for breaks and lunches. Dig a little deeper to see if there are other problems such as dissatisfaction with their job or another issue that goes beyond social loafing.

As long as the issue continues record each coaching session you have with them in their performance log. If all attempts fail consider moving into progressive discipline starting with an oral warning. This should be enough to jolt them into the reality that their social loafing habits will not be tolerated.

Related posts:

1. How To Deal With Low Morale in The Workplace
2. Dealing With Harassment and Discrimination in the Workplace
3. The Gemba Walk – A Tool For IT Management and Leadership

One of your goals as a manager is to develop your rising stars. You can delegate tasks to help them that will help them develop new skills and expand their capabilities. Don’t delegate a menial task, make it one that challenges them. Your goal is not to offload work, but to develop your employees.

Improving your employees makes them more production and able to handle larger challenges in the future. The goal for every manager is to have a high performance team. Improving an employee using delegation is one tool you can use in this pursuit.

Know Their Skills and Capabilities

First evaluate the employee you want to develop through delegation. Use  a skills matrix such as the one outlined in “Why You Should Cross Train Employees” to rank their proficiency in a variety of soft skills and technical skills. This will give you a clear idea where the employee needs development.

You want the delegated task to not only improve on or give them a new skill, but to push their capabilities. Sometimes even rising stars grow comfortable in their position and do want to push beyond their current comfort level. Delegating a task to them that will force them to stretch their abilities will give them confidence to move outside of their comfort zone.

Make The Task a Stretch

The goal is to improve your employee so you want to give them a task that will stretch their capabilities. It should be something that will challenge them and force them to learn a new skill or further develop one they need to improve on. You want to give them a task that will help push them to the next level.

Your employees with a high degree of technical skills may lack good soft skills such as communications or interpersonal skills. If so give them the task of preparing and giving a presentation at a meeting. Look at your tasks and see which ones will help develop their skills. If you do not have a task to fit the need create one such as developing a new strategy for dealing with a particular issue.

Communicate Clearly

An important communications skill for any manager is “How to Be Specific” when communicating your expectations to the employee. When you give an employee a challenging task it is important that you clearly communicate to them what the task is and that you are very specific on the expectations.

• What it is they are supposed to do
• How they should do it
• What are the expected results
• When should the task be completed
• Designate specific times when you will meet to follow-up on their progress

Provide Support and Time

Time is a resource and if you want to delegate to improve an employee you must give them time to do the task. Don’t pile on more workload, instead take a task they do now and delegate it down to another employee who will benefit from that task.

The employee needs to know you are there to support them. From the very first meeting make sure they know they have your support. That if they have any questions your door is always open. Follow-up often to be sure they are on track. Along the way give them a shot of support by offering encouragement and showing your confidence in their ability.

Take advantage of status updates and follow-up meetings to fine tune their training. You may spot a need for improvement in another area that you did not find in their skills assessment. Either note it for future development or include it in this development task.

Take Your Rising Stars To The Next Level

Using delegation as a method of training and development is only one way to push your rising stars to the next level. Use the skills assessment to development a training plan for their improvement. Sit down with them explain to them how to develop a career plan and why they need to do it. Then help them to reach their career development goals.

While you want to concentrate your development efforts on your rising stars don’t forget about your diamonds in the rough. Your employees who with the proper coaching, training and skills development could also becoming rising stars.

Related posts:

1. How To Develop Your Rising Stars
2. Coach Your Employees – Their Success is Your Success
3. Why You Should Cross Train Employees

The main causes of stress are work, home, and personal problems. Some stress is actually good for us. Pressure to complete a task can help us focus on it. But if you are under stress each day you need to take steps to cut it or eliminate it.

What is Stress?

There are tons of books, seminars, and self-help gurus that say they will help you find stress relief in your life. Many are good, some are preying on those who need help for their own monetary gain. I’ve never written a book on it and am not a self-help guru, but I am very familiar with stress and have found some ways to deal with it.

For me it helped to learn what stress is from a physical perspective.

• Stress is part of life, it is part of being human. Stress comes from the primal “fight or flee” instinct in each of us. When your body is under stress it produces hormones that are meant to alert you to something that is wrong. This causes the physical symptoms that we feel when we are under stress. Stress is far worse on your body than you may think.
• There is no way you will eliminate all the causes of stress from your life. What you can do is develop ways to manage stress. It is easy to say “it is all in your mind”, but the truth is it really is. How our mind perceives an event determines if we consider it stress or not. Controlling how we perceive such events is how we control stress.

How To Effectively Manage Stress At Work

The most common stress in our lives comes at work. Learning how to recognize what causes you stress and using various methods to reduce it can help you better deal with it. In fact, you may eliminate some of the sources of your stress once you learn the cause and find a solution for it the next time it occurs.

Here are some methods to use to help you identify, eliminate and make good use of stress.

• Identify when you are stressed so you can learn what causes you stress. One method for doing this is by keeping a stress diary. Anytime something comes up that causes you stress write down the date, time and what caused the stress.
• At the end of the day or end of the week review the diary and look at what caused you stress. Do you see common triggers? If so look for ways to eliminate them. If driving to work causes you stress take a different route or leave earlier.
• Look at what caused you stress and ask yourself was it really that big of a problem? Removed from the stressful situation you can think of ways to deal with a problem. The next time a problem comes up you will know how to deal with it and eliminate the stress.
• Learn to turn stress into “good stress”. Deadlines and tasks can cause stress at work. These are situations where you can draw energy from those hormones released when you are under stress to focus and complete a task. Don’t perceive these as bad stress. Channel the stress to make you more productive. Look for ways to motivate your mind.
• Get help. Talk to others when you are stressed about something. Sometimes just getting it off your chest will eliminate it. They may point out something you never saw because they are looking at it from a different perspective. If you are stressed by your workload delegate or find someone who can help you with it.
• Remember that how we perceive an event often determines whether we are stressed by it. Sometimes you just have to learn to accept that there are some things you can do nothing about so why stress out over them? For these times just accept, “it is what it is” and it is not worth the stress.
• Working under pressure can lead to stress. Learn how to work under pressure and you will eliminate this source of stress.

Did you ever watch a war movie where the character runs into battle taking heroic action without concern for himself? He is not superhuman.  He has learned to control his stress and channel the natural energy stress produces to help him get the task done.

He does not fall to the ground or crawl in a hole saying woe is unto me. He sees stress for what it is, the human body’s reaction to an emotional event. Without doubt he is still stressed, but.he does not let it debilitate him. Instead he takes those natural hormones and channels them to give him more energy to complete the task.

Take Care of Yourself

Since stress acts on your body you need to take steps to take care of yourself as part of your overall plan to deal with stress. There are many things you can do to relieve the effects of stress on your body. There are also things you can do to help your body be better able to deal with stress.

• SLEEP. If you are only getting 4-6 hours of sleep on work nights you are stressing your body before you even get to work. You need at least 7, preferably 8 hours of good sleep each night. Sleep deprivation is a known cause for increased stress because your body and mind are not working at 100%.
• Eat healthy, not just for the health of your body, but for the health of your mind. When you skip or skimp on meals you are denying your body the nutrients it needs to fight off and deal with stress. Many studies have shown reduced levels of certain vitamins and minerals can increase stress.
• Exercise has long been shown to be a great relief for stress. When you exercise your body produces natural “feel good” chemicals that counteract stress. You feel better, your body is healthier, better able to deal with stress, and you will sleep better. Exercise that uses you whole body has been shown to work best at relieving stress.
• Learn relaxation techniques. Breathing techniques, muscle relaxation techniques, mental “thought stopping” techniques are all methods you can use when stress strikes. My favorite is if possible removing myself from the situation, also known as taking a break. Just breaking your mind and body out of a stressful situation for 10 minutes can do wonders to lower your stress level. Have a problem you can’t solve? Take a break. Suffering from work overload? Take a break. When you come back you will be better able to deal with it than if you try to stick it out.

Take Away

Stress is a natural part of being human. Stress is caused by a release of hormones due to how we perceive and event. While we can not totally eliminate stress, knowing how we perceive it can determine if an event is stressful or not gives us a method to deal with it.

Learning what causes you stress will help identify triggers to your stress. Once you identify them you can come up with ways to deal with them the next time they arise. Sometimes stress can be useful when you channel that natural energy caused by the release of hormones to focus on completing a task.

Other ways of dealing with stress at work include delegating when you can and asking for help with a task. Sometimes just talking to someone about an issue helps relieve the stress. Taking care of your body and your mind is the most proactive thing you can do to deal with stress. A healthy mind and body can handle stress far better than a tired and undernourished one.

Sometimes the best way to deal with stress is acceptance that there is nothing you can do about the particular event. Doing so allows you to let go of some of the stress related to it. After all there is no sense in stressing out about something you have no control over.

Related posts:

1. How To Work Under Pressure
2. Has Work Taken Over Your Life?
3. 10 Ways To Motivate Your Mind On Monday

This is why building and maintaining credibility is important. If you are credible you are seen as trustworthy, honest, someone who can be counted on. These are all attributes needed to become successful in business and in life.

Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

While this sounds simple enough, this is a mistake often made. You may want to impress your boss by telling them a project will be done two weeks early. You may try to inspire your employees by promising them rewards for hard work. The point is simple. Never make a promise to anyone you can not deliver on.

If you can not deliver on your promises you will lose all credibility. People will not longer believe what you say. If you can not keep a promise give an honest explanation of the reason you can not keep the promise that you made. At least then you are being honest and saving some credibility.

If you must make a promise do it this way. Under promise and over deliver. It is one of the well known formulas for success. You give yourself enough time to complete the task and pad it. Something almost always comes up and when it does the extra padding still allows you to deliver on time. If everything goes well you look great because you got the work completed ahead of schedule.

Do What You Say You Will Do

Again, this may sound simple, but like making promises you do not keep, telling someone you will do something and then not doing it will kill your credibility. If someone comes to you with an issue and you tell them “I will get right back to you” then you better get back to them as soon as possible.

Keep Your Employees Informed

It used to be the only people who knew anything we the people in charge. They coveted their knowledge as power and were unwilling to share it with just anyone. In a modern work place you need to be the one to share news, both good and bad with your employees.

Don’t let bad news come from the grapevine where it can become distorted. Rumors and falsehoods are hard to kill. When you have good news share it right away with your employees. Employees like to know what is going on. They don’t like working in a black hole where they are never told anything.

Employees who are fully aware are going to be more engaged and more productive because they know the big picture and their role in it. They will appreciate the fact that you keep them updated and this will help gain their respect.

Tell It Like It Is

People do not expect you to know everything, they just want you to be straight with them. If an upcoming project is going to require a lot of overtime work, tell them about it ahead of time. People have lives outside of work and don’t like it when surprises that take away that time are sprung on them.

If you have run into problems with a task tell your boss about it before someone else does. Don’t try to cover it up or work around the issue with some half-baked solution. I’ve always told my boss if  something is wrong you will be the first one to know about it, from me.

Take Away

Your word is one of the most important aspects of your character. You should protect it like gold and never tarnish it. To do this never make promises you can not keep. Never tell someone you will do something and then not do it. Both of these can be career ending choices.

Always try and keep your employees informed about anything that deals with their work and when you can about the company in general. When you share news, both good and bad people will respect your candor and honesty. When you withhold information from them for no reason you will lose their respect and trust.

Related posts:

1. Formulas for Success
2. What Makes Employees Happy?
3. Do You Manage Like an Out of Control Bus Driver?

To understand motivation you must understand human nature. And there lies the problem! If you have not read the first part in this series “The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 1 – The Psychology”, do so now. Motivation is an emotion and you have to understand what motivates people.

If you want to know more about motivators and what employees want read “Ten Things Your Employees Want”.

Three Keys to a Successful Motivation Plan

There are three keys to developing a plan to increase motivation among your employees.

• Evaluate the needs of the employee and take steps to meet them.
• Determine what motivators are important to your employee and take steps to meet them.
• Find out what obstacles are in the way of the employee and take steps to remove them.

How to Evaluate Employee Motivation

One method to evaluate an employees motivators and motivation is to create a checklist for them to fill out. The purpose of the checklist is to find what motivations they feel strongly about. Using what you learned in the psychology of motivation you want to cover internal motivators, external motivators and needs. Tailor the categories to meet the needs of your company or work environment.

Below is an example of a checklist. All of the categories are important but  the rank is intended to invoke honestly since an employee may think you want them to put down all 1’s. If this happens have a meeting with the employee and explain the purpose of the checklist is to see what is most important to them so you can help them in those areas.

Example:

Rank the following categories 1-3 according to how important they are to you.

• 1 = very important
• 2 = important
• 3 = somewhat important

___ Salary

___ Career development/Training

___ Job security

___ Safe/Comfortable work environment

___ Friendly and helpful co-workers

___ Belonging to a strong group/company

___ Reputation in the work place

___ Recognition of accomplishments/achievements

___ Improving your skills and knowledge

___ Fulfillment in your job

___ Being the best

Comments: _____________________ (several lines)

One option is to fill out the checklist yourself for each employee before you see their selections. Then compare the two to see if you really know your employees motivators or if you are clueless. If you are clueless this is probably a sign that you need to start spending more time with your employees and finding out about how they work and to get to know them personally. Read “Management By Walking Around MBWA” to find out how.

What a Manager Can do to Improve Motivation

As a manager one of your main tasks is to develop a productive work environment. Knowing what motivators are important to your employees arms you with details you need to focus on to help them improve their motivation.

Show Me The Money

No doubt the majority of employees will rank pay a very important to them. This is a difficult issue to deal with, but there are several approaches you can take.

Pay raises is many companies use a complicated system of rankings, grades and other means of determining how much of a raise an employee with receive. Here the odds are likely stacked against you since as a manager you have very little influence on getting employees larger raises.

One thing you can do is be an advocate to upper management for your employees. Never miss an opportunity to praise an employee or your entire team in front of upper management when they have done something worthy of it. Point out accomplishments to them such as completing a continuing education course, an innovation they came up with or the extra effort they put into something.

On another front you can work with your human resources department. They can help you refresh the rankings of your employees to one that is more in line to their true value to the company. If you truly have an employee who is underpaid or has hit the top of the pay grade HR can help.

Results may vary. See upper management for details.

Motivation Toolkit

A manager has many tools they can use at little to no cost to motivate employees.

• Give praise and recognition for the work they do provided it is deserved.
• Reward your employees when you see good work being done. Do it as soon as possible and in front of other employees to reinforce that this is the type of behavior you want to see.
• Being flexible with their work schedule understanding they do have a life outside of work.
• Offer training and opportunities to learn new tasks to improve their job skills and knowledge.
• If the employee does routine work add some variety by cross training them to break up the boredom. Read “Why You Should Cross Train Employees” because it has other benefits.
• Get feedback and input about how an employee does their work. The employee will appreciate you valuing their opinion and may know a way to do the work better.
• Have staff lunches or other team-building events so co-workers can get to know each other better.
• Celebrate employee achievements whenever possible.
• Develop SMART objectives for employees. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound). Objectives should be clear and specific so the employee knows exactly what is expected of them. When they know the objective they can be motivated to exceed it.
• Help them develop a career path with specific objectives, goals and milestones that can be celebrated.
• Use Management By Walking Around to stay in touch with the work being done and to get to know your employees better. You can give praise and help with problems right there on the spot.

Removing Obstacles

As a manager the third thing you can do to help motivate your employees is to remove any obstacles that stand in the way of their motivation. Most employees want to do well in their job, be successful and be motivated. However obstacles may stand in their way.

The Dark Side – Demotivation

It can be said that lack of motivation is in fact a result of demotivation due to needs not being met or obstacles in the way of the employee. As a manager your role is to help identify these obstacles and remove them so the employee’s motivation can grow.

Sometimes these demotivating factors can be hidden. For instance an employee may have a big problem with one of their co-workers, but does not tell anyone. Each day they come to work they are not happy with their job because of a co-worker.

As with motivation, demotivation is an emotion. Employees may have mistaken negative emotions about their company or even you. For instance they may think the company is just taking advantage of them by not paying them what they think they should be earning. They may not try improve themselves because they feel they will never benefit from it.

A good way to find what demotivates is to talk with the employee often. Gain their trust and their respect and they will open up to you. Don’t let your employees go to the dark side of the workforce. It is hard to get them back!

Demotivation is but one obstacle. Some others may be:

• Not having time after work to take classes. If so bring classes or training to work.
• A poor work environment such as that worn out chair they have to sit in all day, or office equipment that is outdated and difficult to use.
• A co-worker who they feel gets away with everything or does not work to their potential and is never corrected for it.
• Worrying about issues in their personal life. Many companies have programs to help employees.

There may be other things that demotivates your employees. The best way to find them is to build a good relationship with them so they confide in you.

Take Away

The “secrets” to motivating employees is learning what motivates them, what is important to them, using all the tools in your managers motivation toolbox and removing any demotivating obstacles that block the path to an employee’s motivation.

Remember motivation is an emotion, not a job skill. It can not be taught or forced upon an employee. A motivated employee will be more productive, happier and more successful in their career. It benefits you and your company to have engaged and motivated employees.

All of this may seem a little to “touchy-feely” for some of you. Your don’t have to become your employees best friend, but you do need to get to know them personally so you can find out what motivates them. Throughout your career as a manager you will need to motivate your employees so find a way that works for you.

There are many reasons and many methods to motivate employees. Only a few have been mentioned here. You should seek out more information by reading books, searching the Internet or taking classes to help you become a master of motivation.

If you do not think you need to motivate your employees never, ever forget ITPS! Read “The Keys to Successful IT Service Management – ITPS” to find out why.

Related posts:

1. The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 1 – The Psychology
2. What Makes Employees Happy?
3. Ten Things Your Employees Want

This first part deals with the psychology of motivation because to motivate your employees you must understand the basic psychology of motivation. In “The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 2 – The Managers Role” I will show you how to use the psychology of motivation to evaluate and in turn help motivate your employees.

Most people think the primary motivation for employees is money. Give them more money and they will be more motivated. It is not as simple as that. Motivation is an emotion that you can not teach, train, beg for or force into an employee.

I’m slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you can’t motivate people to do things, you can only de-motivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to empower but to remove obstacles. — Scott Adams

The Psychology of Motivation

There are two basic types of motivators and each one plays an important role in employee motivation.

Internal Motivation

Internal motivation deals with personal pride, a passion for the work itself, a strong work ethic, or a particular value system that drives them to always do the best that they can. For these people their motivation comes from within themselves. See “Be The Best at What You Do” for more insight.

External Motivation

External motivation deals with external rewards such as raises in pay, praise, promotions, bonuses, vacation time, or the nice corner office. For these people they need something in return for their motivation.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow wrote an article “”A Theory of Human Motivation” in 1943 that formulated a pyramid he called the Hierarchy of Needs to represent the five needs humans have. Though not intended to be a theory of motivation for managers, when you look at these needs you can easily translate them into the needs of an employee.

The Basic Needs

The basic needs of every human have to do with survival. Food, water, and shelter are examples of the basic needs of life. This is why a person who does not have all of these basic needs met is only motivated with the desire to obtain them.

For an employee this means they make enough money to be able to meet these basic needs. This is why underpaid employees are hardly motivated as they feel trapped in a fight for basic survival.

Safety Needs

This need is about safety and security. One wants to be free from the threat of physical and emotional harm. For an employee this means two things. Job security and feeling safe in the work place or a work environment they feel comfortable in.

Belonging and Love Needs

This is the need for friends, relationships, acceptance as a member of society and interaction with people. Every employee wants a sense of belonging that comes from knowing their job has a greater purpose and that they are part of a company or a department that cares about their needs. They want to be accepted as an employee who does a good job, have co-workers they can get along with, and to have good interactions with others in the work place.

Esteem Needs

This is a need that is both internal and external. Internally this is self-esteem, the sense of accomplishment and respect of ones self. Externally these needs are for a good reputation and for recognition.

An employee measures their worth as a member of the company or department by how well they are thought of. Employees desire recognition for their work to affirm that it has meaning and that their work is appreciated. They want the skills and knowledge so they can do a good job an obtain self-fulfillment in their job.

Need for Self-Actualization

This level is about reaching one’s full potential as a person. In the work place an employee seeking to be the best that they can be is trying to achieve this level. According to Maslow nobody every actually reaches this level. To do so we would have no room to grow emotionally, intellectually or spiritually. Yet we continue to strive for the top of the pyramid because it is our human nature.

Take Away

Motivation is an emotion, not a skill and must be treated as such. Employees need both internal and external motivations. Employees are human beings with needs. Basic needs are the essentials of life. Safety needs are met when an employee feels secure in their job and safe in the work place. Belonging needs are satisfied by a sense of belonging to a group that cares about their needs and acceptance as an employee and by their co-workers.

Esteem needs are both internal and external. Internal esteem needs include self-esteem and self-worth. External esteem needs are about recognition, appreciation and the ability to obtain self-fulfillment in their job.

Self-actualization is the highest need a human has. It is the desire to reach one’s full potential. This need is never fully met in life, but we constantly strive for it.

As a manager your ultimate goal in motivating employees is to meet the first four needs so they can pursue self-actualization. In the second part of this series I will show you how to take what you learned about the psychology of motivation, evaluate your employees to determine their needs and what you as a manager can do to meet these needs.

Read Part 2 – “The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 2 – The Managers Role”

Related posts:

1. The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 2 – The Managers Role
2. Ten Things Your Employees Want
3. What to Do With Under Performing Employees

With proper guidance and coaching these bad apples can be shined up into good team members. There are always a few who do not turn around and for those there is always progressive discipline.

The Overly Talkative Team Member

This is usually a person who is one of four types.

1. An “eager beaver”
2. A show-off
3. Very knowledgeable and is anxious to show it off
4. Someone who does not recognize the responses of others in order to check their own behavior, (they can’t take the cue they are annoying).

How to Deal With Them

At times humor can be used to discourage people from dominating a discussion. be sure when the person stops talking you direct the conversation to another person. If the person’s behavior can’t be changed subtly, one member of the group should speak to the person privately and explain that while his/her enthusiasm is appreciated, it’s only fair to the whole group that every person gets an equal amount of air time.

The Quiet Team Member

This person my just be shy, bored, tired or unsure of themselves. Whatever the reason you may have someone who can contribute, but is not.

How to Deal With Them

Make a special effort to draw this person out: ask for their opinion on something; ask them something about themselves; tell the person you appreciate their participation. Slowing drawing them out into the open like this can unleash their potential contributions.

The Arguing Team Member

This is a person who is critical of ideas, the team and other team members. For whatever reason they disrupt the positive flow by arguing points. They may think they are a know-it-all who only thinks their way is the right way. They may feel under appreciated so they put down everyone else.

How to Deal With Them

If the person is critical of ideas, use that response to test the work the team is doing to see if this person is actually providing good feedback. If they are critical of others, tell them the effect that is having on both the team or individual team members. Be explicit about the fact that their behavior is harmful to the overall goals of the team.

The Complaining Team Member

This type of team member seems to have a pet peeve about everything. They may even complain just for the sake of complaining. Whatever deeply seated the roots of their behavior it is disruptive and leads to an unproductive team.

How to Deal With Them

Listen to the person’s complaint and if it is legitimate, set aside time to solve the problem. Point out that part of their work is to learn how to solve problems and that complaining does not offer constructive comment towards solving the problem. Ask the person to join with you to improve whatever is disturbing them.

Take Away

For a team to properly function as a team morale and professionalism are important. Your team does not have to be a bunch of choir boys, but they need to be productive members of the team. It only takes one bad personality type to disrupt the team chemistry.

Dealing with these four types is often as simple as sitting down and talking with them. They may not be aware that their behavior is an issue. You need to confront these people right away before it create a larger issue. Follow-up with coaching to be sure they stay on track.

Related posts:

1. The Nine Belbin Team Roles
2. One Company, One Team – How To Deal With “It’s Not My Problem”
3. How To Deal With Low Morale in The Workplace