Motivating
Your Employees Through Acceptance
By Ed Rigsbee, CSP
(1104
words)
In these times of
conflict and uncertainty, showing acceptance of your employees as fully
functioning, rather than apprentice human beings is a necessary element in
employee motivation. The Western Electric Company, Hawthorne Works, Chicago in
a study (late 1920s and early 1930s) reported by Harvard (Mayo &
Roethlisberger), detailed that American workers did not leave their personal
concerns at home but rather, brought their problems to work. It was also
discovered that employees became much more productive when they had some say
or control over the issues at work that affected them. While these discoveries
were monumental, the information was ignored in American business for decades.
 Show acceptance of your
employees through validation. Since the time you were a child you have been in
search of things that made you feel good about yourself. As far back as you
can remember you have wanted to feel good about yourself, your efforts, and
also several other areas including your work. Are you different? Absolutely
not, we're all in this together.
As a professional
speaker, I receive my validation through my audience every time I present a
keynote or seminar. As a writer I find validation much more elusive. This
phenomenon is experienced by 99% of the people in this country who work for
another. Why is feeling good about oneself so important? I believe it is a
self worth issue. While I'm not completely sure, what I do know is that the
need is real.
Visualize for a
moment the worst boss for whom you've ever worked. Let the negative feelings,
the venom flow throughout your body. Even if this person maybe, possibly
believed he or she was a decent human being, your only reality about this
person is the current conversation and emotion you are having with yourself
about him or her. What is your reality?
The sword has two
sides. What might your employees be saying about you if asked the same
question? What a thought! What is their conversation (off the work site) about
you?
Most of us want to feel
good about the way we treat others. While there are some exceptions, your
efforts can be easily derailed. Are you letting your efforts to partner with
the persons in whom you come in contact, become victim of oversight? Has the
Door Ding Fairy ever visited you? You know what I'm talking about. You get a
new car. The first time you drive it to the store and forget to park in the
north 40, smash, you have a door ding. And nobody knows how it got here. Your
employees can do the same thing to your business, consciously or
subconsciously, if you treat them poorly.
Business success comes with a price, the price
can be that of self-learning and improvement or the price of continual
turnover, a turnstile of employees. So how can you validate and what type of
validation is best? The following section on recognition will give you some
answers. An important consideration to keep in mind is that different
personalities prefer validation in different ways. A relationship personality
person wants validation in making the workplace better for all. For a person
with an expressive personality they want validation of themselves, the person
they choose to be. A directive or controlling personality wants validation on
their effectiveness in the workplace. And last, a perfectionist or analytical
wants validation for their effectiveness in processes. Through your efforts to
help your employees by understanding what makes them tick, also help them to
understand the meaning of doing the best job possible.
In the
August 1999 OfficeSystems
magazine it was reported what GenXers want. Who are GenXers? They are the
children of baby boomers, born between 1967 and 1977 and they have been
entering the workforce in increasing numbers. Some have been working full-time
for a decade so employers should know a bit about them. Unfortunately,
companies have been slow in making organizational changes to better utilize
the skills of this talented generation. Often, managers try unsuccessfully to
bend the GenXers into their own image and ways. It hasn’t worked too well.
While not all are the same, the following list
is a general indication of what creates value in the lives of GenXers:
- Total honesty.
-
Unlimited access to
information.
-
Training for another job.
-
Total responsibility for
projects.
-
Constant informal feedback.
-
Few rules and plenty of
freedom.
-
Telecommuting.
-
The latest tools (hardware and
software).
GenXers, Boomers and
Traditionalists (also called Matures), were raised and synthesized at
different chronological times and as such, see the world from different
windows. In a mid-1990s Yankelovich Report, Rocking
the Ages, they reported typical memories for the different generations.
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