Why are you in business?
There are a myriad of reasons but one of the main ones is to make a profit – to make money. If it’s not then I’d suggest it’s just a hobby – so let’s agree that we’re here to make money. Good!
Now, why do you staff work for you?
To make a profit, oops, sorry, money!
Ah yes, there is a key difference. For an owner, the more you do, generally, the more you make. It isn’t that way for staff. Yet so many managers who I have spoken to look at me weirdly when I tell them that!
Your vision is not (necessarily) their vision!
So why do they turn up every day and put up with you as their boss?
If you can definitively answer that question, give yourself 10 points!
If you can’t, I suggest you take the time to find out.
In the corporate world, these are called Culture Surveys or Staff Satisfaction Surveys. They are delivered by management to assess the staff satisfaction to help them develop strategies to reduce turnover of high performing staff.
In small business it’s simply having a coffee with team members to get to know them. (Far less expensive than a corporate survey.)
However, if you take the time to get to know your team beyond what they turn up to work for, you may find some hidden talents waiting to be discovered.
The 5@5
A very useful exercise I employed a few years ago when running a 24-hour call centre was to have my “5@5”. The 5@5 was a list of 5 questions I wanted to know the answer to from staff every day at 5 o’clock! Yes, every day!
At 5pm each day I stopped what I was doing, took off my tie and listened for 15 minutes to what staff had to say. No editing and little interrupting. (If you want the 5 questions you’ll have to email me!)
The point was I found out an incredible amount of information that would help us build a better call centre and it was all free and most of it was eminently do-able.
The other significant outcome was the energy it created among the staff members. They all wanted to tell their Senior Manager what they thought of working in the call centre.
And, there was one thing I did that affected the whole call centre. I dropped into the late night staff at 2am! The look on their face was priceless as their Senior Manager walked in and I purposely didn’t ‘dress up’. (I wasn’t in my pajamas!)
When the word got back to the rest of the staff it added to the energy we had created and the performance levels increased.
Now, I didn’t do all that with any degree of manipulation or trying to be overly clever. I sincerely wanted to know what staff thought of working in such an environment. I just looked for the easiest way possible - the 5@5 seemed obvious.
How did 5@5 Motivate People?
1. Firstly the staff began to tell me of what they were accomplishing in their jobs. The reinforcement they got from conveying this was very powerful.
2. They then began to tell me how they could improve further. Most of the suggestions didn’t cost anything at all and they often suggested they’d drive the change.
3. Finally they thanked me for the opportunity and hoped it would continue; which it did while I was there. Even staff who hadn’t participated let me know as I moved on how they were pleased with the initiative.
So, find out why people work for you, or at least do the job they do under your business heading. Motivation isn’t always (dare I say: rarely) about paying more or spending money. It is always about recognition for some significant achievements.
If a manager, cannot take the time to recognise their staff often, they really should reconsider their career choice!
Share This
Comments
Leave a Reply
-
Sponsors
