All employees will benefit from development, but you should concentrate on those who show the most potential first.

The 5 Keys to Employee Development

There are five areas you should focus on in employee development. The goal is to develop their skills, increase their knowledge and to uncover their talents.

Coaching

Coaching involves regular discussions between a manager and the employee with the goal of improving their performance. Coaching is often used as tool for dealing with poor performance. With employee development the role changes to raising the employees performance to a higher level.

• Discover and discuss areas the employee needs to improve in
• Get buy-in from the employee that they are committed to improving
• Develop a plan to improve the employees skills and knowledge
• Meet regularly to discuss how the development is progressing

Counseling

Counseling is a discussion for the purpose of helping the employee to sort out any personal difficulties. In employee development there may be added pressures or stress that can arise.

If you see the employee is struggling with a development task sit down and talk with them. They may have fears or other emotions that are interfering with their development. Teach them how to deal with these emotions so they can progress and learn how handle them on their own in the future.

Mentoring

Mentoring differs from coaching in that mentoring is about overall career growth and guidance. You want to motivate the employee and help them to understand their potential and how that potential can be achieved.

Show them why they should develop a career plan and help them see their future role in the organization. Your manager or another manager can act as a mentor, but you have a role to play since you interact with the employee on a daily basis.

Teaching

With employee development teaching revolves around soft skills. These skills lay a foundation on which the employee can build.

Focus on:

• Communications skills
• Inter-Personal skills
• Problem solving skills
• Professionalism

Training

Expanding your employees technical skills are an essential part of employee development. These are on-the-job skills as well as specialized technical skills. The focus should be on gaining expert knowledge in their area.

This is an area where a manager can help by advising and encouraging the employee, but the real work should be done by the employee. It can involve taking classes, obtaining certifications or gaining knowledge from experts in your department.

Where Do I Find Time?

As a busy manager you may wonder where you will find the time to do all of this. Remember your primary role in employee development is to guide the employee. Most of the work should be done by them.

Everything can not be done at once so focus on key areas. Use delegation to give real world experience and in the process help get your own tasks done. Remember that their success is your success, so as a manager you will benefit as well as the employee.

Observe The Performance Issue

Before you counsel an employee about a performance issue you need to observe their on-the-job behavior. This way when you meet with them you can describe the situation in detail and clearly communicate to them why it is a problem.

One technique you can use is management by walking around. When you practice this on a daily basis you can be proactive in dealing with a problem before it even becomes a performance issue. By using this technique you will be able to observe and record the specific performance issue you need to address.

How To Counsel

Once you gather all the facts about the performance issue you need to have a one-on-one meeting with the employee.

Most people do not take criticism well so be tactful in how you communicate with the employee. You want to create a constructive dialogue that will lead to a resolution of the performance issue. Do not berate, raise your voice or intimidate the employee. Instead start with a positive tone by highlighting their good work, then lead into the issue.

1. Clearly communicate what the issue is and explain why it is a problem. Be very specific.
2. Ask questions about the issue to make sure you have all the facts. Use open-ended questions to give the employee an opportunity to explain things in their own words.
3. Ask the employee what they think is a solution to the issue. Having them come up with the solution will help create ownership and get their commitment to solving the performance issue.
4. If their answer is not satisfactory clearly communicate to them what they need to do to correct the issue. Ask them to repeat back the solution so you both clearly understand what is expected of the employee.
5. Get a commitment from the employee to the plan to improve the performance issue.
6. Set a time frame for resolution of the performance issue and schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss their progress.
7. Continue to observe the employee to be sure they are correcting the problem and give immediate feedback if needed.

Document the counseling session in the employees performance log. You can refer back to it in future meetings and should further disciplinary actions be needed you have supporting documentation of your attempts to resolve the performance issue and the outcomes.

photo credit: Marmot

By aligning the goals and objectives of your company with the goals and objectives for your employees and by setting goals that can easily be measured you will establish an alignment of employee performance that with the company. When managers understand that their success is dependent on the success of their reports they will look at performance management in a new light.

The Keys to Building a Strong Culture of Performance

Performance management strives to optimize results by aligning all of the parts of an organization. With a well designed plan and good training you can build a culture of performance that will improve every part of your organization.

Performance management is the process of assessing progress toward achieving predetermined goals. Performance management is building on that process, adding the relevant communication and action on the progress achieved against these predetermined goals.

Develop Clear and Measurable Goals and Objectives

The starting point for performance management is to review the goals your organization from the top to the bottom. Every department should have their own goals that align with the overall goals of the company. The goals should be clear and in terms that can be measured such as time goals, production goals, spending goals and improvement goals.

Align Organizational Goals with Individual Performance

Now align the company and departmental goals with the employee goals. Once the goals are determined you must communicate them to each employee. This is an important step for the employee. You should make sure that your employee knows what is expected of them and how they fit into the department and company.

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”

Goals must be measurable or you and the employee will not know how well they are doing. Doing a good days work is not a goal. “Increase system efficiency by 15%” is a measurable goal. “Decrease departmental spending by 10%” is a measurable goal. Some performance management programs allow the employee to set their own goals. Regardless of how they are set, without goals and objectives you cannot measure if the employee has been successful.

To Measure You Must Record

Since goals are measurable, performance must be tracked. Baselines may need to be established. Using the results from the previous year is a good place to start. Whether the measure of the goal is time, quality, quality or dollars it must be recorded so it can be measured.

Always Look For Coaching Opportunities

“A failure is an opportunity for growth”. Never pass up the opportunity to improve your employees. Note I said IMPROVE, not berate! You will improve the performance of your employee better if you teach them about a mistake rather than scold them for it. Regularly review the record of performance to see if the employee is on track. They may require additional help or training to be able to meet their goals. Creating a culture of learning is an important part of creating a strong culture of performance.

Change the Review Culture

Performance reviews are usually dreaded by manager and employee alike. For performance management to work you must work to change that culture. Performance reviews are when the results are weighed against the goals. The review should include the original goals, the record of performance and the current results.

Review Often

Typically performance reviews are given once per year. To build a strong performance culture in your company you need to perform a review at least twice a year or even once every quarter. Goals may need to be adjusted due to circumstances beyond the control of the employee. By reviewing performance on a regular basis the employee is not surprised at the end of the year by a poor performance review. Nor does the company suffer due an employees poor performance that has not been corrected.

Recognize Achievements and Reward Performance

At the end of the year the expectation is that the employee meets expectations. While it sounds underwhelming it means the employee performed as was expected of them. If the employee meets or exceeds expectations they should be rewarded for their achievement. If you expect employees to strive for better performance they need to know they will be rewarded for their hard work.

Performance management is often met with resistance. People do not like change and many will not like the measures placed on their performance. Over time both employees and management will see the benefits. Performance management focuses on results. It focuses everyone on the goals of their department, their company and themselves. It is a long-term initiative that puts focus on continuous improvement. In the long-term the benefits to the employee and the company will make it well worth the effort.

Photo Credit: JoshuaDavisPhotography

Resources

• The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 1 – The Psychology

• The Secrets to Motivating Employees Part 2 – The Managers Role

• What to do With Under Performing Employees

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.

In situations like this it is difficult to keep a positive attitude. However we’re judged by our communications so staying positive is the professional way to react to adverse situations.

Your natural inclination is to release your inner Hulk and bash. This  negative reaction will make  the circumstances worse and you will end up filled with disappointment and anger.

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

5 Rules to Help You Stay Positive

The best way to overcome a negative situation is by keeping 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 calm down and have thought clearly about your response.

If you respond out of emotion you will only make it 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 compound when they cause you stress. Learn how to deal with stress to remove 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 negatively take note of 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 allowing the situation to control 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 for a manager often pressure is part of the job. 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 your 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 continually 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 maintain control and deal with any 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.

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.

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.

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.

1. 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.

2. How To 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 find, cut 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.

3. 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 find triggers to your stress. Once you find 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.

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.

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.