Throughout history, most of the great achievements and incredible comebacks have been the result of an individual whose motivation to persevere was influenced by a coach or mentor. In science, art, politics, sports and business, there is a common thread of having been coached among those who achieve greatness. A coach doesn’t need to be a professional consultant or counselor. He or she could be someone within your organization or industry, or it could be someone from your personal life whom you respect or admire.
A study was undertaken on the Hawaiian island of Kauai by two researchers named Emily Werner and Ruth Smith. This study, which followed more than 450 people from childhood through their adult lives, was an attempt to learn why some people are motivated to overcome severe disadvantages while others from the same background seem to have been overwhelmed by their problems. This research continued for an incredible length of time: 40 years, to be exact.
According to the research, one of the most interesting qualities of these motivated individuals is their ability to recognize potential sources of support in other people, to look beyond the walls of their homes to find relatives, friends, teachers or other role models who can provide help. This very important finding illustrates the benefits of forming mentor relationships to encourage achievement.
Choosing a coach or mentor is like having an additional correctional device to keep you on target. An analogy of this premise comes from aerospace technology. Years ago, the military used inertial guidance systems on missiles. Unfortunately, once the course of an inertially guided missile is set, it proceeds along that path with no capability for adjustments. It’s like a bullet fired from a rifle. Even when the aim is good at the outset, if the target moves unexpectedly once the projectile is in flight, the shot is going to miss. And if there’s one thing you can count on in life, it’s that the target is going to be moving! In the Gulf War of 1992, the Patriot missile that defended Israel and Saudi Arabia was introduced. Unlike previous defenses, this system had an advanced self-adjusting navigation system that continuously monitored the missile’s trajectory as well as the path of its swiftly moving target. The Patriot was able to make whatever corrections were necessary, regardless of changes in the position or speed of its objective.
A highly motivated person uses a coach or mentor in the same way when he or she has targeted a worthwhile goal. A coach or mentor can assist you in making adjustments and navigating through difficult times.
Finding coaches and mentors is an important mission, and you will no doubt have several over the course of your life. It is critical that you choose them wisely. Your mentor is someone to whom you’ll be committing a great deal of time and attention, and who ideally will take a very focused interest in you as well.
A lot of people think leaders are born and not made. I disagree. I think you can become a better leader. I’m not a cook, but I’ve held many leadership positions. I thought this recipe for a leader sounded pretty good:
Have all ingredients at body temperature. Sift intelligence, ambition, and understanding together. Mix cooperation, initiative, and open-mindedness until dissolved. Add gradually ability, tactfulness and responsibility. Stir in positive attitude and judgment. Beat in patience until smooth. Blend all ingredients well. Sprinkle liberally with cheerfulness and bake in oven of determination. When absorbed thoroughly, cool and spread with kindness and common sense.
If that seems like a long list of ingredients, well, it is. But good leadership won’t happen if any of those items are missing.
I love to study leaders and the different ways they lead. If there ever was a need for great leadership in a company, that time is now. Taking an organization through a good economy is tough enough; when the going gets rough, the real leaders shine. Consider the challenges that faced these leaders.
The military presents many opportunities to observe leaders in action. For example, President and General Dwight Eisenhower used a simple device to illustrate the art of leadership. Laying an ordinary piece of string on a table, he’d illustrate how you could easily pull it in any direction. “However, try and push it,” he cautioned, “and it won’t go anywhere. It’s just that way when it comes to leading people.”
The Duke of Wellington, the British military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was a great commander but a difficult man to serve under. He was a perfectionist and very demanding, who complimented his subordinates only on rare occasions. In retirement, Wellington was asked by a visitor what he would do differently if he had his life to live over again. The old Duke thought for a moment and then said, “I’d give people I worked with more praise.”
The famous general and Macedonian king Alexander the Great led by example. As he led an army across the desert, a soldier came up to him, knelt down, and offered him a helmet filled with precious water. “Is there enough there for 10,000 men?” asked Alexander. When the soldier shook his head, Alexander poured the water out on the desert sands, refusing to take even a sip.
My friend Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman of Carlson, wrote in her book How We Lead Matters, “The fact is that being a leader in any field requires discipline, effort, and yes, sacrifice. It can be all-consuming. And during that time, life may not have much balance. It’s been said, ‘If you can’t ride two horses at the same time, you should get out of the circus.’ A circus is not at all a bad analogy for the swirl of demands placed on leaders at the top.”
Leaders are not always popular. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote in his book, My American Journey, “I learned … you cannot let the mission suffer, or make the majority pay to spare the feelings of an individual. I kept a saying under the glass of my desk at the Pentagon that made the point succinctly if inelegantly: ‘Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.’”
Ken Blanchard once told me, “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
“A business leader has to keep their organization focused on the mission,” says Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay. “That sounds easy, but it can be tremendously challenging in today’s competitive and ever-changing business environment. A leader also has to motivate potential partners to join.”
Leadership guru Warren Bennis spent several years researching leaders for his book “Why Leaders Can’t Lead.” He traveled around the country spending time with 90 of the most effective and successful leaders in the nation—60 from corporations and 30 from the public sector. His goal was to find these leaders’ common traits. At first, he had trouble pinpointing any common traits, for the leaders were more diverse than he had expected.
But he later wrote: “I was finally able to come to conclusions, of which perhaps the most important is the distinction between leaders and managers. Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right. Both roles are crucial, but they differ profoundly. I often observe people in top positions doing the wrong thing well.”
Mackay’s Moral: Good leaders inspire others with confidence in them. Great leaders inspire them with confidence in themsel
Everyone loves to eat but not everyone loves to cook or should. Cooking is a fine art of heart and soul. We can learn quiet a bit about a cook who painstaking prepares the table, the meal, creates a welcoming warm ambience for their quests. What main course is selected, is there a variety of vegetables colorfully displayed on the table, is the dessert fresh fruit or a wonderful airy pastry.
Good cooks evolve from lots of practice but a chef is an expert who uses their passion to create an amazing experience. Chefs use developed skills and instincts to use the right ingredients, knives and pans to help them deliver a masterpiece. The right knives to smooth, serrated and cut, a good chef knows exactly when to use the right tools, whether they are for slicing, cutting or spreading frosting on a cake.
Good managers develop skills much like a great chef. They learn to lead, inspire, motivate employees and create positive results. They know when and why to use each style. Managers gain an understanding about which skills they should use for various types of employees and situations. They learn that it is crucial to keep all their plates spinning in the air representing different responsibilities and challenges.
Great leaders must consistently find a new ways to motivate employees. Finding new and exciting motivation really is a trail and error experiment. What works for some may not work for others and what worked last year may no longer be that interesting. Managers look to the Internet for ideas and success stories to help them put together new incentive contests. Customer Service Week is just around the corner so, managers scramble for contests and prizes that will not break the bank. This year the trend is to provide the participant’s choice of incentive. No hassle of trying to make one incentive fit all. Managers and business owners also look to the Motivation Show in Chicago for the latest trends and ideas for the coming year. One thing to keep in mind is the use of an Incentives Broker who will scan the market for new incentives and do all the comparison shopping for you. Usually their is no upfront costs because their commission is built into their incentives.
Before it used to be that an admired leader was like a great painting: no one could define it, but everyone knew it was special when they saw it. Empathy, self-awareness and the ability to lead by continuing development of their staff is what separated a good leader from the rest.
How do you know when to use one style of management over another? Use what we know from Emotional Intelligence:
Ask your employees using open ended questions for broader responses
Observe your employees reaction to yours and your peer’s management styles
Challenge yourself over and over again looking for the right type of management styles. Keeping a diary of successes and failures
Ask a mentor and pay attention to what works for you and other departments
Experiment and take the plunge with new ideas. Test ideas on small groups before you launch your new project
Management up what are others in upper management doing in your division and others, is their a common theme?
As a manager, your top objective is to instill confidence in your company, your department and in your department’s services.
So you want to be a leader? Or you want to be a better leader? It can be done, you know. No matter where you are in your leadership journey, you CAN move forward. You CAN lead better. You CAN lead more people. You CAN lead your organization to higher ground. Yes, you CAN!
But let me tell you this: You won’t do it via osmosis! It won’t just “happen.” Growing in your leadership is not something that comes from the fairy godmother of leadership. You can’t touch the hem of a great leader’s garment and become “Super-Leader!” Oh, that it were that easy!
So what does it take?
Time.
Experience.
Training.
Hard Knocks.
A Mentor.
Discipline.
And a few others.
But let’s start at the very beginning. You want to be a leader. That’s good. You want to be a better leader. That’s good too. But what comes first? Preparation. Leadership Prep. What is it? What needs to happen in order to get yourself ready to become a leader? As you get ready to take the next step in your leadership journey, take the time to go through a little reflection on Leadership Prep.
Before you become the leader you want to be:
Count the cost. Leadership is hard. There will be times that you say, “Leadership isn’t worth it. These people are crazy and I don’t deserve this.” It is true. You don’t deserve it. But you choose it. You choose it because you want to lead people. You want to improve their lives. You see the higher ground that they cannot see and you desire to take them there. It will take time. It will take money. It will sap your strength and energy. Count the cost, my friend. Leadership is not for the weak and timid. Yes, the rewards are great, but so are the sacrifices. Prep yourself for the cost of leadership.
Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Too many people dive into trying to lead and end up dying out because they were not honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses. They get going and realize that they should have strengthened themselves in certain areas because now it is killing their ability to lead. If you know your strengths, then you can focus yourself on them and allow yourself to be successful through them. If you are aware of your weaknesses, you will be able to stay away from them, or hire to cover them, and thus allow yourself to become even more successful as a leader. So prep yourself by becoming exceedingly clear on your strengths and weaknesses.
Settle in for the marathon, not the sprint. Very few – I mean VERY few – people get big leadership assignments at early ages. And when they do, even fewer of the few see things happen fast in their leadership. No. Usually things happen slowly. Why do we think they will happen fast then? Because those are the only stories we hear on TV and read about in magazines. “Twenty-five-year-old starts business that grows to $20 million a year in sales in JUST TWO YEARS,” Sells a lot better than “Forty-five-year-old works hard for twenty years and builds lasting business that makes a difference in her community.” Right? Right. So, unless you are one of the chosen few, you will need to prep for a marathon, not a sprint. This is both a mental and emotional adjustment that needs to be made. Prep for the long haul!
Develop a learning attitude. You have perhaps heard it said, “Leaders are readers.” It is true. Even more so, leaders are learners. I don’t know any leader who has attained any level of leadership who doesn’t keep himself or herself on the edge of learning. One of my mentors runs a company that you would all know by name—in fact, you probably used one of their products today, no matter where you live in the world—that does billions of dollars a year in revenue (Yes, with a “b”) and he still takes time each year to go to a school of leadership! He is already a tremendously successful leader, yet he is still working on it! THAT is a learning attitude! If you want to lead, prep yourself for it by developing a learning attitude.
Acquire a love for people. In reality, we do not lead organizations or businesses. No. We lead people. We are successful if we know how to lead people. People are the name of the game. And the best way to become a leader of people is to love people. Others can tell instinctively whether or not we love them and have their best interests at heart. If they do not know that we care for them, they will not follow. Leadership is the art of directing people we care for and desire to help. In other words, we love people. If you have an issue with people, chances are you are not ready to lead them. To prep yourself for leadership, acquire a love for people. If the other things are in place, then they will want to follow you.
You CAN become a leader. I truly believe that. If you are already a leader, I know you can become better. Take a long, hard look at yourself and see if perhaps there are some areas you need to prep yourself in regard to leadership so that when you really get going you don’t have to stop and go back!
Recognition–not money–is the real motivator in a down economy.
Business owners need to ensure that their employees are productive and eager to do the best job possible–this is especially true during today’s challenging economic times. Yet every industry and every organization has people who simply do not produce work in the quality that they are capable of providing. That can create costly problems for a manager.
Leaders often miss the mark when trying to ramp up employee productivity. Let’s debunk some motivational myths.
1.Money motivates. Of course, if you pay some enough money, they will do almost any job. And when you give bonuses to reward past behavior, the recipients are usually very happy (unless they were expecting a larger bonus). The staff does a better job following the glow that accompanies added money.
However, studies find this happiness is short-lived. Within six months, individuals have difficulty recalling that bonus and it does not seem to have the same impact it did within the first few weeks or months of receiving it. That’s because money, in and of itself, will not continuously motivate individuals.
It’s the recognition and status that are the true motivators for the increased output. Take for example, the high tech salesperson who sold more product than anyone else in the department. The boss rewards that employee with a bonus. Everyone knows who the bonus recipient is, and she is proud of her accomplishments–the high earner gains recognition from colleagues and clients. Recognition and status are two key sources of motivation. So while money can serve to motivate, its effects are often short term at best.
What should you do? Set up situations that allow the employee to feel a sense of accomplishment. Employees respond most to opportunities for achievement, recognition, growth, job enrichment and job enlargement.
2. Just keep them happy. Employers often go to great lengths to keep their employees happy–some offer game rooms; others have phones with free long-distance access. The theory here is that if we can keep the employees happy during their break time, it will translate into increased motivation and productivity. Unfortunately, this is not very effective.
Employees actually enjoy their break times, look forward to them, and may even linger during them. But the satisfaction found during the break times does not necessarily translate into better or higher quality job performance.
3. Ignore Conflict. Few people, especially in the professional world, enjoy conflict. Most bosses and employees alike would rather “let something go” or “sweep it under the rug” than make an issue out of it. Too many managers are concerned about being liked that they don’t fulfill their responsibilities to catch problems quickly. Not addressing an employee’s problematic behavior doesn’t help any one.
4. Some people just aren’t motivated. This is a very common misconception. Everyone is motivated–but for different reasons. Walking through the offices, the manager may see someone playing computer games or sending personal email, this could be seen as the individual is not motivated because he’s not attending to the job tasks. But that may not be entirely correct. At that moment, the “aimless” employee is motivated, perhaps even highly motivated. But that motivation is not work directed, nor is it productive for the company.
The challenge here is for the leader to discover what actually motivates that employee and match up those elements with the worker’s job description. (This point also assumes that the employee is worth keeping.)
5. Smart employees don’t need to be motivated. Being “smart” carries an important cachet in American society. Everyone wants to have smart people working for them because these people are quick to learn, adapt and produce. Employers may erroneously believe that they don’t need to spend much time or attention on these staffers.
Unfortunately, intelligence and self-motivation do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. There are plenty of smart employees who haven’t been able to find out just what motivates them personally; they tend to get bored or frustrated easily. The result is a lack of interest and a lack of productivity.
So what does an employer do? A smart employer creates the atmosphere that allows and encourages the employee to be motivated. That employer also gets to know what his staff is interested in doing to advance company goals and what parts of the job description are interesting or exciting verses boring.
10 Quick Ways to Motivate
Praise the employee for a job well done–or even partially well done.
If an employee is bored, involve that individual in a discussion about ways to create a more satisfying career path, including promotions based on concrete outcomes.
State your clear expectations for task accomplishment.
Ensure that the job description involves a variety of tasks.
Ensure that the employee sees that what she’s doing impacts the whole process or task that others will also be part of.
Make sure that the employee feels that what he/she is doing is meaningful.
Provide feedback along the way, pointing out both positive and negative aspects.
Allow for an appropriate amount of autonomy for the employee based on previous and anticipated accomplishment.
Increase the depth and breadth of what the employee is currently doing.
Provide the employee with adequate opportunity to succeed.
David G. Javitch, Ph.D., is Entrepreneur.com’s “Employee Management” columnist and an organizational psychologist and president of Javitch Associates, an organizational consulting firm in Newton, Mass. With more than 20 years of experience working with executives in various industries, he’s an internationally recognized author, keynote speaker and consultant on key management and leadership issues.
For the high achiever, it’s natural to seek out challenging goals because he or she has an inner, intrinsic drive to succeed. And success doesn’t mean pet rocks, get-rich-quick schemes, lotto jackpots or chain letters. High achievers are looking not to receive, but to contribute, to give. They’re looking for problems that are personally satisfying to solve. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Warren Buffett, three of the wealthiest individuals in the world, eagerly go to work every day to face the challenge of solving a new and bigger problem. All could be playing Backgammon on a tropical island or two rounds of golf per day.
Since the accomplishment of a difficult task means more to the high achiever than any external motivation, it means that motivation will remain strong throughout his or her career. Think of how much stronger and more permanent such a motivation is compared to one that is extrinsic.
Suppose you choose a particular career because of the money. What happens when there’s more money in doing something else? You’re likely to abandon one path as soon as another possibility opens up, and eventually you’ll find yourself wondering what you’re really doing… maybe even who you really are.
Since there is no inner drive to stay on any particular path, the journey will be arduous, and motivation will tend to weaken whenever the external reward seems remote or out of sight. This is especially true with individuals who want a home business with high rewards and minimal risk. Some people spend their entire lives wandering from one field to another, always looking for an easier way to find that pot of gold, never achieving a significant goal worthy of their inner potential.
I’ve met many people who fit this description. If they’re in sales, they move from company to company, from industry to industry, for one product or service to another. They are very hard to keep on your hand held electronic address book or in your directory of contacts because they are always either coming or going or starting another new business of their own. When that doesn’t work, they get involved in sketchy enterprises, especially start-up-companies offering big, easy rewards, such as a wonder diet company where you can lose all the weight you want by eating anything you want and swallowing one amazing pill a day. They go from one Roman candle to another, from one “exciting opportunity” to another disappointment.
The problem is, money alone does not stimulate intrinsic motivation and therefore is a means, not an end. Money is like fuel for your car. It is not the destination. It is not the journey. It is only part of the transportation system. Make your “why” grab you by your very soul. You’ll never be disappointed for very long. And you’ll stay committed regardless of “stock market gyrations” or setbacks.
This week, find your unique “why” and pursue it with passion!
Engaging in genuine discipline requires that you develop the ability to take action. You don’t need to be hasty if it isn’t required, but you don’t want to lose much time either. Here’s the time to act: when the idea is hot and the emotion is strong.
Let’s say you would like to build your library. If that is a strong desire for you, what you’ve got to do is get the first book. Then get the second book. Take action as soon as possible, before the feeling passes and before the idea dims. If you don’t, here’s what happens . . . .
YOU FALL PREY TO THE LAW OF DIMINISHING INTENT.
We intend to take action when the idea strikes us. We intend to do something when the emotion is high. But if we don’t translate that intention into action fairly soon, the urgency starts to diminish. A month from now the passion is cold. A year from now it can’t be found.
So take action. Set up a discipline when the emotions are high and the idea is strong, clear, and powerful. If somebody talks about good health and you’re motivated by it, you need to get a book on nutrition. Get the book before the idea passes, before the emotion gets cold. Begin the process. Fall on the floor and do some push-ups. You’ve got to take action; otherwise the wisdom is wasted. The emotion soon passes unless you apply it to a disciplined activity. Discipline enables you to capture the emotion and the wisdom and translate them into action. The key is to increase your motivation by quickly setting up the disciplines. By doing so, you’ve started a whole new life process.
Here is the greatest value of discipline: self-worth, also known as self-esteem. Many people who are teaching self-esteem these days don’t connect it to discipline. But once we sense the least lack of discipline within ourselves, it starts to erode our psyche. One of the greatest temptations is to just ease up a little bit. Instead of doing your best, you allow yourself to do just a little less than your best. Sure enough, you’ve started in the slightest way to decrease your sense of self-worth.
There is a problem with even a little bit of neglect. Neglect starts as an infection. If you don’t take care of it, it becomes a disease. And one neglect leads to another. Worst of all, when neglect starts, it diminishes our self-worth.
Once this has happened, how can you regain your self-respect? All you have to do is act now! Start with the smallest discipline that corresponds to your own philosophy. Make the commitment: “I will discipline myself to achieve my goals so that in the years ahead I can celebrate my successes.”
Okay, things are slow but we can mine today for tomorrow’s gold. Socially, psychologically, and economically, we need each other. We need to challenge ourselves by continually pressing on seeking assistance and insight at every opportunity to retain business because retention is the new success. If you are experiencing an increase in sales you are much ahead of this recession game!
If you look at your Gen Y staff you find those successful at academic challenge, they question management direction and want to sincerely not the “why’s? and “why not’s”. They are a generation dedicated to friends, family and their drive. What Generation Y is not is experience with economic challenges, sure they may have heard stories about recessions past but this experience is a bit of a shock.
Let’s face it, this economic storm is not what most students were hoping for in high school and on graduation day from college. How easy it might be to become frustrated with some employees that are not motivated to keep working. We may think these employees are passive and uninvolved. The fact is — many have had to learn the hard way — our departments don’t have to be lack luster, and employees who seem unmotivated don’t have to remain in the unmotivated stage for very long. Making a change requires great deal of soul-searching and rethinking about the entire department and your own motivations. And, in some cases we accept some of the blame of the dull unmotivating atmosphere ourselves. Would we want to work at their desks in our own departments today?
Employees need to feel that they have the real ability to share and ask for solutions. For the most part, they are the products of years of experience in schools where they were essentially told to sit down, shut up, listen, and learn – an experience that taught them that their boss is the source of knowledge and direction.
Students are in college spending their time and money because they want to learn and because they want a better life for themselves. They are a valuable resource of new ideas and concepts. They should be your first source of inspiration. Their passion is still burning underneath just waiting for the opportunity to make things happen in their world.
These employees want to have their individual needs met. They want to feel like they are more than part of a company, that their individual talents and abilities are respected and deemed worthy. They look for incentives and rewards for their hard work.
They want bosses who are real and inspiring people, who recognize them as potential leaders – bosses who geniunely care about them — not just their daily performance.
They want to be challenged, not decimated.
They want caring leaders who check in regularly, who support their individual learning and development, who inform them individually of their progress, and who assign a variety of tasks that give them the opportunity to learn in modes that fit their individual styles and that are designed to meet their level of learning.
They like bosses who walk the talk.
Bosses who can be themselves and can smile and joke around once in a while. ,
They like clear, complete explanations and examples with cross training opportunities.
Remember to talk to your employees about their motivations because what motivates you does not always motivate them.
When we think I think about the type of employee we are looking for, we look for those with a spark in their eyes and a fast step. We hire those people to begin with it is our responsibility as leaders to keep the fire burning. We need to create and recreate environments that will be enjoyable and motivating. We need to keep things fresh by providing opportunity of change, cross training and shadowing for our future leaders.
Gen Y employees are willing to learn; they simply need an ocassional stimulation, an incentive to take it up a gear.
All enduring motivation must ultimately come from within the individual. That is why the words empower and envision are so vital to team performance. It must be your inner power and your own personal vision that propels you, not that of your leader.
The success of your efforts depends not so much on the efforts themselves, but rather on your motive for doing them. The greatest companies and the greatest men and women in all walks of life have achieved their greatness out of a desire to express something within themselves that had to be expressed, a desire to solve a problem using their skills as best they could. This is not to say that many of these individuals did not earn a great deal of money and prestige for what they produced. Many did. But the key to their successes was that they were motivated more by an inner magnificent obsession, a passion, than by any thought of profit or identity.
You may recall from history that the exquisitely beautiful armless statue of Venus de Milo was carved by an unknown sculptor. When a farmer dug up the soon-to-be world-famous work of art while plowing his field, a renowned museum curator sadly reflected what a great pity it was that the sculptor would never be recognized by thousands of admirers, nor would he or she ever know how valuable the statue became hundreds of years later.
The farmer retorted that it must have been a labor of love for someone to be able to have envisioned such perfection and brought it forth with just a chisel and a shapeless piece of stone. “Just creating something of such quality,” said the farmer, “would have been payment in full for me.”
You can’t commission a masterpiece. Human greatness can’t be externally motivated. It must be compelled from within. A magnificent obsession is the way you want to live, not just the things you want to own. A magnificent obsession is the person you want to be, not the title on your office door or business card. A magnificent obsession is the mind-set that you have, not the diplomas or awards you earn. It is the worldview you claim as your own, not the collection of stamps on your passport. It is uniquely yours, like your fingerprint or handwriting.
Ask yourself this question: “If it weren’t for money, time and personal responsibilities, what would I really love to do with my life?” You and I need to answer it from our own individual perspectives, not simply answer “to help my company, family or country.” In addition to these shared visions, autograph your career and life with your own signature.
By personalizing your passion, you will experience the unlimited power from within!
The U.S. Army’s top leadership recently did a very smart thing:
They listened to one of their enlisted men.
After returning from the war in Afghanistan, Master Sergeant Rudy Romero sent a long, insightful email to a former commanding officer about the suitability of the equipment that the Army provides to GIs. The recipient forwarded the message to a few colleagues who forwarded it to a few more until, ultimately, it reached the Army’s most senior enlisted soldier and the Army Chief of Staff. They took Romero’s insights seriously and, as a result, the Army is now making numerous changes to equipment design and procurement.
Every government agency (and every large organization for that matter) has a number of front-line employees, like Romero, who have a gift for identifying better ways of doing things. Just about everyone else has good ideas from time to time as well. The question is, does management encourage everyone to contribute their ideas and then implement the best ones?
Employees in most organizations would like to feel that their ideas can make a difference in their workplace. For many people, in fact, there are few things more motivating than seeing–and assisting with–the successful implementation of an idea they suggested. The scarcity of this motivational force may be one of the biggest reasons why so many government employees feel that they are powerless and unable to change “the system.”
All too often, supervisors overlook the possibility that their employees may be an untapped gold mine of good ideas. Sometimes this may be out of hubris, with the manager feeling that he/she knows best. In other cases, managers may ignore line employees’ ideas out of insecurity, feeling threatened by subordinates who prove to be highly competent and creative.
No one has a monopoly on good ideas, however. Managers who are aggressive about eliciting the ideas of their staff find that getting everyone involved in the effort to improve the operation has an incredible multiplier effect on the rapidity of the change process and the commitment of employees to those changes. To do this, managers need to foster a climate of openness that gets employees engaged in the process of innovation and organizational renewal.
This article outlines five practices which, implemented together, represent an integrated approach to innovation and employee motivation that has proven to be very effective in the government context.
1. Get to Know Every Employee
It is virtually impossible for a mid-level manager to motivate his/her employees without getting to know them. Whenever starting a new job, all managers should make a point of having a one-on-one meeting with each member of their staff. Managers who do not know what makes each employee tick will find it very difficult to motivate them. Similarly, if the manager does not know an employee’s strengths, he will be unlikely to find the right role for them. These one-on-one sessions are a great opportunity to encourage employees to contribute their ideas.
2. Challenge them to Improve the Operation
One way for managers to make it clear that they welcome input and suggestions is to give each employee a clear mandate in their work requirements to take a hard look at the whole operation and make recommendations for improvements. This sets down a marker that all employees are expected to contribute their ideas. It is equally important to comment on each employee’s efforts in this area at evaluation time.
3. “Customer for a Day”
Another mechanism manager can use to elicit suggestions is to have each employee be “Customer for a Day.” In offices that have customers, whether they be internal or external, it can be quite enlightening to look at the operation from the client’s point of view. The most engaged and creative employees (i.e. the “Master Sergeant Romeros” of the operation) will probably identify a long list of things that can be improved to make the customer’s experience more comfortable, transparent and efficient. At a minimum, the experience will sensitize employees to any hardships experienced by the customer. (Note: Employees would not really be “Customer” for the whole day. But they should be given sufficient time to go all the way through the process, and then to write up their impressions and suggestions for the supervisor.)
4. The Great Idea Award It is also important to find a way to reward or recognize employees whose suggestions help improve the operation. One option is to establish a Great Idea Award and give the recipient a customized certificate. Other options could be to give them a logo item, a cash award or even a day off (depending both on what the parent agency permits and what the employee values most). Managers at agencies that offer cash awards to employees who make money-saving suggestions should find out the procedures and use that mechanism whenever appropriate.
5. Don’t Forget the Implementation
A crucial part of this whole equation is the actual implementation of the great ideas generated by employees. Without follow-through, the organization simply ends up with a long list of unused suggestions-and a lot of frustrated employees. To the extent possible, managers should put the person who suggested a great idea in charge of the actual implementation. The initiator of an innovative idea usually has a sense of ownership and is highly motivated to see their suggestion put into effect. Those managers who try to take the lead on all new initiatives will find themselves overworked and unable to accomplish everything they would like. By delegating the implementation, the managers can give their employees a terrific developmental opportunity, with the manager just needing to provide guidance and support.
These are just a few suggested methods for encouraging employees to contribute their ideas for improving their organization. Implemented on their own, each of these practices would have limited impact. The key is to use a multifaceted approach that continually reinforces the fact that employees’ ideas are welcome, valued, and rewarded. It would be awesome to see how much an organization’s effectiveness could be improved if all managers were to systematically seek out and implement these kinds of suggestions from front-line employees.
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