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What You Know About Motivating Employees Is Critical Now

What do you really know about motivating others?  This has fast become a critical skill for managers.  Why?  Because employees have a lot on their minds today. There are a lot of distractions and a lot of worries.  Things are changing at a rapid pace.  Everyone is worried about their safety and struggling to make sense of our new reality.

Many employees are now working from home and for those that are not accustomed to this, it can be difficult to stay motivated and get things done.  At-home employees run the risk of feeling overwhelmed without anyone to go through the changes with.  They can feel confused about how their roles might be different working at home.  They can feel unsure of how to accomplish tasks that they were experts in before these changes.  So it is important for managers to understand motivation in general and what they can do to motivate their teams.

Take this quiz to discover how well you motivate others.  Answer True or False, to see how you’re doing in lighting and kindling the fire of enthusiasm in your employees.      

1. I know things about the personal lives of those who work with me, such as how many children they have or their special hobbies or musical taste.

2. I try to ask questions rather than give direct orders.

3. When making a request, I match the benefits of the task to the goals and values of the person I am asking.

4. I give specific and sincere praise for improvements in performance, so as to let people know that I have noticed. I celebrate successes.

5. When I give criticism, I begin with honest appreciation for what is being done well and right. I follow that with an “and” rather than a “but” before delivering criticism.

6. Put simply, I treat others the way I would like to be treated.

7. I set goals that are reasonable but that require stretching. Whenever possible, I work with individuals to set goals together.

8. I respect the professionalism and expertise of those I supervise. I ask for their input in planning, and I give them autonomy and authority to complete projects.

9. I share my own thinking and values around the goals and projects set.

10. Rather than worry too much about others’ weaknesses, I focus on building their strengths.

11. If those I supervise are not motivated, I look first to myself and what I need to change about myself or my approach.

12. I give constant feedback, both verbal and statistical, so that my direct-reports always know how they’re doing.

13. I am motivated, enthusiastic, transparent and energetic. I have good balance in my work/personal life, and I love what I do. In effect, I am modeling the traits I want to see in others.

14. I am always on the lookout for challenging tasks for those I supervise.

15. Everyone I work with understands what the company’s mission and vision mean to them as individuals.

If you answered false more often than true, you might want to consider giving the topic more attention. Motivating others isn’t always easy. But because it doesn’t really come from you (it comes from within your employees), it may be easier and more fun than you think. It’s not about what you have to control, but about what you can help unleash!   (Quiz content used under license, © 2010 Claire Communications)

To help you help employees unleash their motivation, there are 2 key pieces to understand. One is understanding motivation in general and the other is understanding values and how they play a key role in job satisfaction.

So let’s talk about motivation.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has long been a tool used to talk about motivation.  It is important to understand where each person on your team falls in the pyramid.  Many of your employees were probably in the Esteem and Self-Actualization areas of the pyramid, achieving, accomplishing, learning and mastering.  But during a time of crisis, added stress and worry, many of us have shifted our focus to Physiological needs, like getting enough food when we see bare grocery shelves or Safety needs around our employment and the health of ourselves and our families.  This can cause a shift in our motivation to be productive, creative or accomplished because we are forced to focus elsewhere.  What can you do as a manager or in your company to help people satisfy their Physiological and Safety needs so they will be motivated to move back up the pyramid? 

The next part of the pyramid is the Love and Belonging needs.  They must be satisfied in order to reach the next level.  How we satisfy those needs at work has changed for remote employees.  We can no longer talk around the coffee pot or have hallway conversations.  How can you help employees replace that need to connect personally?  Are they able to connect with their co-workers from home to have a friendly, personal conversation?  The “social” aspect of work is a big bonus employees get for commuting to the office every day.  It is an important part of building good working relationships.  The more you can help them stay connected, the better morale and motivation will be.

Now let’s talk about Core Values.  In career coaching, Core Values are the number one factor in job satisfaction.  If values are not honored or respected, people become dissatisfied enough to want to change their situation and leave. Core Values most definitely contribute to motivation.  How are your employees’ core values being affected?  It would be a helpful exercise to ask your staff about their core values and ask them to list their top three.  Then check in with them individually about how they are feeling around their values and examine what you can do as their manager to help them satisfy those values.  For a list of core values, visit our website at https://nancyokeefeconsulting.com/core-values

Nancy O’Keefe, MBA, MS, is a Workplace Strategist, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, and Author of the Book Unlimited Talent:  What Every CEO Needs to Know to Win the Workforce War.   She works with CEOs and senior executives to create profitable and productive workplaces that attract, motivate and retain great people. She is a thought leader in strategy, management and cultivating talent.  She can be found at http://www.NancyOKeefeConsulting.com

5 Work At Home Vulnerabilities Every CEO Must Consider Now

Top 5 Work At Home Vulnerabilities

Over the coming weeks, as we learn more about the spread of the coronavirus in the US, as CEOs and business leaders, we may be forced to have more work at home employees than ever before.  Working at home can present some challenges.  Some companies who tried it have abandoned the model claiming it didn’t work.  It works but you have to understand some of the vulnerabilities and you have to change the way you manage your employees.

In 2001, I founded and ran a totally virtual organization long before most other companies were doing it.  We had 50 employees in 4 states working from home giving 110% every day.  We built an infrastructure and software to support it because nothing existed at that time.  Today, there are many tools to facilitate working from home and most organizations have some number of employees working remotely.  But there are still many vulnerabilities. I encourage all CEO’s and business leaders to identify and think about your organizations work at home vulnerabilities and plan for them now in case you have the need to move to this work model.  Here is a list of what I believe to be the top 5 to consider.

1.     SECURITY and IT

You may have a few employees working at home on a given day but when you have the majority of your employees working from home for an extended period of time, it is a whole new ballgame.  The infrastructure needed to support this may be more robust than what exists today.  There will also be technical support issues as people have to learn new ways to access information and may not have access to some of the information they need.  It is imperative that your IT department performs an assessment of your vulnerabilities, what additional capabilities and staff may be needed and put plans in place to facilitate a 100% virtual environment?  Something as basic as providing a list of important telephone numbers may be overlooked.  Assumptions are the enemy.  Try to uncover the baseline information everyone needs on a day to day basis and make it available over a shared online resource.  Look at the bandwidth you have for remote work.  Look at the IT staff you have.  Can they support all the connectivity questions and other issues that come with supporting remote employees?

Security concerns are of the utmost importance when you introduce so many remote connections.  Hackers, viruses, and access to sensitive information is always a concern, but that concern becomes compounded with each additional remote connection.  Should there be a standard work at home set up with certain virus software or firewall software?  Will the company provide it to all employees?  What will the cost be?  What is the cost of not providing it?

2.    COMMUNICATION

There is a lot of fear that swirls around change.  Are you equipped to keep your employees informed?  How will you facilitate communication with a staff that is remote?  There are a number of considerations around communication that need to be discussed and laid out in a communication plan.  This is a key step in keeping everyone productive as fear is an enemy of productivity.  Frequent, honest and clear communication is the best way to quell the fear.

Be mindful of how your employees communicate up, down and through the organization today.  How much of it is face to face?  How will you facilitate that?  What processes and communication standards do you need to put in place to be sure nothing falls through the cracks?  At a minimum, every meeting should have a note-taker and a set of minutes should be produced to record all discussions.  This is as or even more true for informal groups of two or three as it is for a formal meeting.

3.    GETTING THE WORK DONE

It will be challenging to get the work done when the people you are accustomed to working with are no longer sitting around you.  Things that are done routinely will become a bigger chore with different and perhaps more steps.  Employees may feel isolated or confused about how their duties need to change.  Some may feel overwhelmed by the change alone.  This is a time for managers to assess the goals and tasks in their department and how they will facilitate getting the work done with the least amount of disruption.  This is the time for managers to take an objective look at each employee’s strengths and weaknesses.  What will an employee need to thrive in a new and unknown environment?  Hold discussions with employees to gauge their comfort working at home.  Do they have a suitable environment? Or will they be sharing their space with a crying baby or a group of roommates?

4.    HOW MANAGEMENT MUST CHANGE

A different level of management will be required to deal with a remote workforce.  The tendency will be to overact and put more controls and safeguards in place.  This will further upset an already uncomfortable workforce.  Professionals don’t need to be controlled.  They need clear expectations, support and they need to be allowed to do their jobs.  How management reacts and treats employees during any disruption will be under the microscope.  Companies have the chance to score a lot of points with their employees by how they handle this.  Handled badly and your best employees will leave as soon as the crisis is over.

Managers must move to a supportive role.  Their new job is to remove roadblocks and obstacles to productivity and to support the physical and emotional needs of their employees. They need to think leadership, not management.   Some employees will handle the changes well.  Others will need more hand-holding and managers need to provide it.  This is not the time to have a sink or swim attitude.  The result of a sink or swim mindset in this situation could sink a project or the department.  If ever there was a time to reinforce the team concept and get everyone on board, this is it.  Leaders should be asking themselves which teams are gelled and which teams are not.  They should be taking a hard look at their staff, talking to them to see how they feel about everything and reinforcing that we as a company are all in this together.

5.    LEVEL OF TRUST IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

Trust is key in any situation where we need to depend on each other for success, even survival.  If your organization has an “every man for him/herself” mindset, it will implode under the tension and strain.  This is a time to extend trust and bring people together with a common goal, a common cause.  Senior-level leadership needs to assess the level of trust that exists all over the organization and immediately do what they can to build that trust.  Trust can be built by saying what you are going to do and then doing what you say you will do.  Honesty, transparency, and caring will go a long way toward building trust.  Communication is key.  What should you be saying to your employees right now?  How can you share your plans with them around this so they know what is coming and that you have a plan to keep everyone safe and employed?  Employees are worried about their safety and their ability to continue to earn a living. This is not the time to have a knee jerk reaction and slash jobs.  It is a time for level heads and a plan that keeps everyone, customers, employees, stakeholders as safe and as whole as possible.   None of us have ever been through this type of crisis in the U.S.  Your employees will be looking for strong and wise leadership. This is a prime opportunity for senior leadership to regain loyalty and rebuild credibility.  If your organization has an employee retention problem or an engagement problem, how you handle this situation, how much you demonstrate you care about your employees and not just the bottom line will have long-lasting effects in your organization.  How do we keep people working and productive?  What else can be cut to save jobs and keep the economy going?  How can we hold the line until this crisis passes? What can you do today to take the lead?

 

We have created a webinar that dives deeper into each of these areas.  We will be presenting it on Friday, March 13th at noon Eastern DST.  This is a free informational webinar.  We are not selling anything.  No pitch of any kind will be made.  We are offering a free summary sheet to anyone that attends.  I’m offering this because I founded and ran a totally virtual organization beginning in 2001 and grew it to a multi 7 figure business with a virtual staff of 50 people in 4 states.  We didn’t have the technology then, we had to build it.  Today the tech is available but there are so many other things we encountered learning to do this and I would like to share what we learned to help companies bridge the disruption that may be caused by the coronavirus.

To Register For the Webinar  Click this link.  If you can’t attend, register to get the handout and replay.

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WNdOlwfEQ4GfOBgvsuUpnQ

 

NancyOKeefeConsulting.comNancy O’Keefe, MBA, MS, is a Workplace Expert, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, Trainer, and Author of the Book Unlimited Talent:  What Every CEO Needs to Know to Win the Workforce War.   She works with CEOs and senior executives to create profitable and productive workplaces that attract, motivate and retain great people. She is a thought leader in strategy, management and cultivating talent.  She can be found at https://nancyokeefeconsulting.com