Motivation in the workplace

“I am sure that you just need to be nice to people, you know? Is that asking too much?” Clearly it was too much for my colleague’s manager.

The discussion moved on: “All I had done was make a small error on the spreadsheet, but it had had a large impact. Instead of the department salaries being hidden, they were visible to all of the management team. No one had explicitly told me that individual managers did not know what the other managers paid their staff – surely they discussed this at their management meetings at the time of the annual review?”

Seemingly they did not. “Anyway”, my colleague continued, “not only did I get what I considered a vicious e-mail from her, my so-called boss, but also the ‘silent’ treatment for about three days! I had realised my error after feedback from Jim, who was really pragmatic about his feedback. And I immediately sent a message to the boss and then to her colleagues, withdrawing the attachment. Of course, some of them had seen the original spreadsheet, but surely they are mature adults and can confront such errors with more appropriate behaviour?”

Throughout my career, I have been an advisor to others on such incidents – and have been the originator of such errors too, I can tell you! Needless to say, as with my colleague, I experienced a variety of reactions from others and also the whole spectrum of personal emotions myself, from guilt through to depression and back to guilt again. But maybe that is just me.

And other colleagues, outwardly at least, were able to dismiss such incidents and continue to drive onwards – the attitude of “I messed up, I have learnt, now move on”. It is true, many people are able to deeply reflect and learn from events (good and bad) extremely quickly, whilst others take a bit longer.

All of which is not much help to my colleague when they are ‘in the moment’. So, what could I do to help them? And what about the de-motivating effect of their manager’s attitude?

Let’s deal with the manager first. Motivation of employees should be the main focus of managers and leaders, in order to maximise their effort and commitment to the work they do. We know all the management theory – from Adam Smith and his pin manufacturing through to Daniel Goleman and Emotionally Intelligent managers – and how it affects motivational approaches. And yet, we continue to FAIL to implement management theory, or leadership theory for that matter, successfully, over a wide range of industries, through effective development practices. Look at Dan Ariely speaking on www.TED.comrecently. A series of experiments advanced the thought that motivation of staff should be easy: “Ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of their eyes…” states Dan.

Now, my colleague was not being ignored; nor were they having their work ‘shredded’ – although the e-mail and the ‘silent treatment’ had the same effect. As we are managing knowledge workers more and more – in every industry and every level – keeping staff motivated as a rule should be simple. Acknowledge their contribution meaningfully – you should know their capability after all; address performance fluctuations ‘head on’ with empathy – was this a one-off or a pattern of errors?; and do both consistently across the team.

Yet, a recent CIPD report still suggests that 25% of managers surveyed do not seem to be equipped for / are concerned about “having difficult conversations” (for that, read discussions about a drop in expected performance, absence, other disputes and so on).

My colleague asked for my advice – I think I prefer to give you observations, I said. These were: ‘Nice’ is a variable concept, so how would you wish to be treated? When you have thought about that, what emotions and feelings do YOU need to maximise to help manage your boss? (Note – training on spreadhseets is not mentioned). And finally, what do your colleagues do when faced with similar situations – and see if you would feel able to respond in their way.

Without of course losing your motivation.

John Hepworth

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