Who is this for?
Do you want to know how to motivate your team? Are you responsible for your employee motivation and team’s performance? Are you a manager, director, influencer, trainer, or faculty? Have you determined to develop the best human resources?
This is for you if you answer yes to anyone or all of these questions!
Content
-
Part 1
- Introduction
- How do we get seriousness from employees and trainees?
- What’s the program? How does it help to get results
- Shall we start with a reflection of SELF?
- Self – Who are you?
- Passion vs Ration
- What are Gen X, Y, and Z?
- What do Gen X, Y, and Z need?
- How do they act?
- What’s the trend in the size of the workforce in each of these generations?
- Would you discuss the Receptiveness of each?
- How to manage these differences between the generations of the workforce?
- What is the GAP?
- How do we fix the GAP?
- Receiver – Do you speak of WHY for employee motivation when they in fact needed HOW?
- Would you please explain what’s happening with an example?
- How can we apply it in companies?
- Do I need to be a good speaker to motivate others?
- Why do you think the employee motivation is not working?
- When do customers or employees get the motive to do something?
- How do we frame our mindset for effective employee motivation?
- Is it a stalemate then?
- Delivery – What makes you comfortable with your folks?
- Driver – When will I know I have Growth and Development?
- Demand – How best can I handle myself as a true professional?
- Conclusion
Part 2
1. Introduction
Tailored mentoring is crucial for employee motivation and developing high potential employees. You can use this trait whether you are a leader to empower employees, a manager responsible for employee development, or a faculty to groom your trainees or even an influencer to get results from colleagues. Your actions, obviously, go beyond mere technical aspects in the employee development process. “How do you empower employees when the employee motivation is not working” is a 2 part series that dives deep into the realities of employee development.
You need deeper insights into why people do what they do. Their behavior decides your success. You also need a tailored plan to sensitively work with people to get results. Their undeniable results speak volumes!
This is Part 2 of the leading intelligence derived from the experiences of one of the renowned mentors in the industry, Mr. Umashankar, Jayaraman. He is a CEO and a facilitator with the KARNA group of companies. I am honored to have known him for years. The following are valuable snippets drawn from my interview and an interactive group seminar with him.
Let’s get started to discuss how do you empower employees when the employee’s motivation is not working?
6. Do you speak of WHY for employee motivation when they in fact needed HOW?
You need to make decisions and get your ducks in a row when you start developing your team to be highly motivated employees.
Are you motivating your employees? Yes.
If so, does that employee motivation hold up? Not always. It’s short-lived even if it did!
6.1 Would you please explain what’s happening with an example?
OK. Do you have a 2 wheeler or a 4 wheeler? Yes
Do you treat it with service regularly? Yes
Now, imagine you are at the moment of servicing your vehicle. First, what does the mechanic do when you take your vehicle for service?
He CHECKS and gives 3 possible recommendations.
- No service is required. CONTINUE.
- Needs CONDITIONING. It’s a small tuning or adjustment.
- Needs CORRECTION. It needs a repair or part replacement.
6.2 How can we apply it in companies?
Ask yourself, am I giving a chance for my team members to check themselves first?
If they say they are doing 1,2,3,4,5, then tell them to continue doing what they are doing.
If they say they are doing 1,2,4,5, then guide them to insert 3 in their activities. Just tune it.
On the other hand, If they say they are doing 5,4,3,2,1, then correct them.
In a nutshell, this is what happens in any team. Your team needs to be checked, conditioned, and corrected as and when needed by you.
The first phase of our SRDDD framework is Self-reflection. Here we say that we motivate our guys. But the motivation is not working. We aren’t indeed motivating them.
6.3 Do I need to be a good speaker to motivate others?
See, I can give a tremendously modulated speech for 3hrs to pump and charge them up.
After 3hrs, however, discharging will start to occur. Nothing will work.
I can’t speak of what I feel or what I prepare through my slides.
I may choose to speak what Abdul Kalam, Gandhi, Obama, or Mother Teressa said for 3hrs.
And at the end of the program, when they are asked how was the speaker? They say he spoke well. When asked, what have you learned to apply at your work? Then they will respond, I don’t know. So, in my view, the articulation alone would not work for employee motivation.
.
6.4 Why do you think the employee motivation is not working?
Before you learned how to ride a 2 wheeler:
You tell me, what were you thinking/doing when you sat behind somebody on a bike? What were you doing? 3 things would have happened.
- You hold the side handlebar tightly and pray the god that you will be safe,
- You gave up on yourself. You will see everywhere else but the rider because you are ready for whatever happens, or
- Your inner voice tells you to learn how to ride a bike sooner the better.
After you learned how to ride a 2 wheeler:
Now tell me, what were you thinking/doing when you sat behind somebody on a bike? What were you doing? Again, 3 things would have happened.
- You will not hold the side handlebar for safety; instead, you will hold the shoulders of the person who is riding. The entire handlebar control is in the shoulder now; You will press the break on the rider’s shoulder! Hello!
- You caution the rider. You will guide on how to ride and say slow and safe. Then you will say, get down, I will ride because you think your life is more important to you.
- You volunteer yourself before starting the ride by asking “Shall I ride?”
Why do these 3 things occur in our minds?
Because we have got the Motive.
The word Motivation is derived from Motive – needs, desires, or wants.
6.5 When do customers or employees get the motive to do something?
People get charged when they have an answer for “HOW”. People look at it as an opportunity. Otherwise, you aren’t motivating, you are just inspiring people. You can easily inspire people by telling stories and speeches. Unless you tell them “HOW”, we will not get them motivated.
Many people who work for RATION are not motivated. However, the people who work with PASSION will find out their motivation by themselves.
6.6 Well said, then how do we frame our mindset for effective employee motivation?
Now, go back to your team and reflect on whether you are speaking of HOW. This is because today’s generation (Gen Z) expects HOW.
Gen X is happy when they get answers for WHAT. Ex: What’s the proposal?
We, the Gen Y, are all about WHY. Ex: Why is this proposal important?
Say, if your team is responsible for Customer service, you will usually speak as follows:
- Why are customers important?
- Why is quality service expected?
- Why are KPIs important to be achieved and what are they?
- Why is meeting KPIs significant?
But the employees are interested and asking as follows:
- How can I satisfy the customers?
- How to achieve the expected quality?
- How to meet my KPI targets?
The employees change the question. They prefix HOW to most questions. But the typical Gen Y responds with “Why are you asking that “how” question?”. We(Y) speak more from the “Why” point of view. And they speak more from the “How” point of view.
6.7 Is it a stalemate then?
Not necessarily. But we have a clash between Gen Y and Gen Z. Finally, we(Y) choose to go to Gen X to solve our problem with Gen Z. Gen X will ask, What is the problem?
We(Y) tell them(X), WHY these guys(Z) are asking like that?
Gen Z tells them(X), Please ask them(Y) to explain HOW.
The take-home lesson is that we speak in WHY terms and the customer needs in HOW terms. This is called the Needs Mismatch! We must address this mismatch using “Check to Continue, Condition or Correct” for sustainable employee motivation.
7. What makes you comfortable with your employees?
You simply start speaking in their terms, in this case, HOW! Instead of speaking about what is this month’s target and why meeting that target is important, you start speaking about how to meet that target.
7.1 How do you bring your employees or customers to your side?
Once you start speaking in HOW terms, Gen Z will be happy. Now you are aligned with your team and start seeing the motivation and some level of comfort with employees.
Are you a hard worker or a smart worker? Answer it honestly to yourself. (If you are neither of them then you must be hardly working at all. Smile.)
Next, are you comfortable working? If Yes, What’s your measurement? How have you derived to be comfortable? Let’s say that your shirt size is 42 inches. Then the measurement 42 is your comfortable fit. So, you need a measurement to find whether you are comfortable at work to succeed in employee motivation.
Are you comfortable working in this company? An equation is the best word when you use it for material resources. But the equation is the worst word when you use it for human resources.
7.2 How do I measure whether I am comfortable with employees?
Before you declare whether you are comfortable with someone, something, or someplace, you need to check these 4 factors:
- Purpose – you are clear about your purpose,
- Peace – you can focus without negative influence,
- Procedure – you have the know-how,
- Energy – you find yourself both mentally and physically energetic even at the end of the day.
You are uncomfortable with your employees if you are not in sync with them in either one of these 4 factors. Let alone your readiness to empower employees!
Now, Are you comfortable with your team members or employees or trainees or customers?
Find out where you become uncomfortable with your employees. The answer is right in these 4 factors. You have a serious problem that needs immediate attention if there is a
- Purpose mismatch between you and your team or your work and business goals,
- Lapse of peacefulness at work environment,
- Lack of procedural knowledge, say, how to handle your employee,
- Absence of energy to keep you going day after day.
When all these 4 factors are satisfied, then you will say you are comfortable. There will be a certain group with which you will be comfortable. At the same time, you will have few people with whom you won’t be comfortable.
Why is that?
The purpose will not change. Resources will not change. But you use the same Procedure for almost all employees. This is where the problem lies. Once you understand the classification of the receiver, you would be able to handle them easily.
8. When will I know I have Growth and Development?
Are you growing in your career? I am not asking you what you are doing to develop your employees. I am asking about your career. What is your measurement that your career is growing?
Do you need metrics to answer that? Yes, everything needs to be measured. If you are a true professional, your MRP should go up! What is MRP? It’s a Maximum Retail Price. Every professional has an MRP.
What’s your MRP if I need to buy you? You need to decide your MRP. You should set your own MRP if you are working for Passion. If you are working for Ration, others will set your MRP. The true professionals set their own MRP. The MRP is a beautiful mantra for every professional. I regularly use it to help people project their true worth.
8.1 What is MRP and how do I evaluate my worth?
You check these 3 parameters to find whether you are growing in your career.
- M for Money – your earning power should have gone up over the years,
- R for Recognition – you would have had your mark with your contributions,
- P for Power – you used to have your colleagues listen to you; later, your employees and now the management listens to you.
All 3 parameters must grow to consider that you are growing in your career.
- In case your salary has grown with annual increments of say 7%, then it’s absolutely good. But you haven’t earned either the recognition or the power. This means your career is not growing.
- You might say that everyone in the company knows you but your salary stayed where it was a few years ago or hasn’t increased significantly. Then, you are still not growing.
- You might say you have the authority to make important decisions and execute them. But if you have no recognition or no increments then you are not growing.
8.2 How do I improve my MRP?
That’s the other side of the coin. What do you have to do if you want to develop or grow your MRP? MRP can’t be grown. MRP needs to be earned.
In the case of the public sector, the MRP will grow from level 1 to 2 to 3 and so forth to a GM. This is because your number of years of work will promote you regardless of the quality of your performance. There, you need to join at an early age to become a GM. Seniority counts, there might not be another possible way.
In the case of the private sector, the only possibility is to be fair with relevant performance that is proportionate to your growth and development. My humble request to you all is to be comfortable with your profession and also make your employees or customers comfortable.
Ask yourself these questions. How many employees are you responsible for? Are they comfortable with you or not? Have you ever thought about what makes these guys dislike you regardless of your mentoring or leadership style? There could be many reasons. But do the employees like you?
First, I would advocate the Likability factor. Likability helps you align with employees or customers. The First 7 days are crucial for any manager or a mentor to create a likability factor. During these first 7 days, you focus on understanding your employees or trainees.
Second, you dedicate these initial 7 days to build rapport. When it’s done right, you can comfortably lead your folks and employee motivation will become the natural outcome. They will listen to you and do what you ask of them because they want to.
You work on your MRP to develop your career. Your Growth and Development is the result of the combination of the Money you earn, the Recognition you achieve and the Power you are responsible for.
9. How best can I handle myself as a true professional?
A professional understands and handles all the 3 Ps People, Process, and Product well.
I am pretty sure that you are good at your Product, i.e., your core technical skillset. Because you have already been selected for the job, there is no doubt about your ability to deliver your product.
Where is the problem then? Product is obviously not a problem. The problem is with the People and the Process. Right? The true reflection comes from the People with whom you are working.
9.1 Two magic statements
So, I will share these 2 magic statements with any professional to improve his/her MRP.
“If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.”
- Say, your employees are reaching 6.5 KPI.
- Say, you want them to achieve a 7.5 KPI.
- If you keep doing what you are doing, your team will continue to achieve 6.5.
- But if you want them to achieve 7.5 and if you keep doing what you are doing, your employees or customers will not meet 7.5 targets.
“What got you here will not get you there”
- Your Product skills are not sufficient to become a team leader. You can’t become a department manager with team leadership skills. And of course, managerial skills aren’t sufficient to become a VP or a principal. The activities differ from job role to job role.
- Whatever skill you have to cater to Gen X will not get you to cater to Gen Y. Likewise, your skills to cater to Gen Y will not help you to cater to Gen Z.
- Unfortunately, we don’t always reflect on this factor. We mostly consider everybody the same.
When you say few folks in your team might not like you. You have a gap. A gap with the Likability factor. You instruct everyone in the same team similarly. Then you should get the same result from everyone, right? But you don’t. Why? It’s because everyone has different demands and receptive styles. Meeting the demands of People and the Process is as worthy as fulfilling Product demands.
9.2 What are our common mistakes and how do we rectify them?
Good question. We have 2 As that drive our lives. One is Assumption and the other one is Anticipation. Let’s do a small activity to demonstrate my points.
Assumption
“A thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof.” as per Oxford Lexico.
You clap according to these numbers I call out. 1 clap for 1; 2 claps for 2; 3 claps for 3. OK?
1 2 3 3 4
You clapped for 4. Why did you clap for 4 when it wasn’t part of my instruction? You clapped for 4 because of the 1st problem, i.e., assumption. You assumed 4 claps for 4, 5 claps for 5 and luckily I haven’t said 100; or else you would have clapped 100 times. My instructions were very precise and clear. You had an option to ask me for clarification. But you hadn’t. Instead, you chose to do what you assumed. So, the assumption is a mistake we fall prey to every time.
We were thoroughly victimized by this word called Assumption. You see, almost all of us are programmed to say A for Apple. Why not Australia or Astronaut? We are not trained to break such a habit; instead, we are trained to live with it. You learned this way and you train the others exactly that. You did it this way, you too do it this way.
Anticipation
“The action of anticipating something; expectation or prediction.” as per Oxford Lexico.
You clap according to these numbers I call out. 1 clap for 1; 2 claps for 2; 3 claps for 3. And if I say any other number, don’t clap. OK? Clear?
1 2 4 (clapped) 2 4 (clapped) 1 4 (No claps. Good)
The remedy for Assumption is Anticipation. When do we anticipate? We can anticipate when we practice ALD. ALD is Analyze, Logic built, and Data capture. If you do these 3 things regularly and repeatedly as a routine then we can always anticipate.
How much data do we have about an employee or a customer? That’s the big question. Do you still remember our initial 7 days of rapport-building activity? Let’s work it through in a reverse way.
- First, capture necessary data.
- Create a logic part
- Do the analysis
Now you will understand what type of people you have and how to handle them.
Let’s take the movie industry. Protagonist A satisfies everybody. He cries, fights, laughs, romances, dances, does sentiments. Everyone watches his movies. He has everything in his movie because he needs all types of audiences.
On the other hand, Protagonist B might focus on very specific roles. He might only do action-oriented or romance-oriented movies. However, when you see romantic heroes doing action flicks or sentimental movies, then they are horrible.
They don’t anticipate. They assume that they can do anything. Not everyone can do everything.
You must effectively deal with the People, the Process, and the Product. You should also fix your assumptive bias with anticipation using ALD (Analyze, Logic built, and Data capture).
10. Conclusion
Employee motivation is best achieved through your emotional quotient. Start with your mental conditioning reflecting on the employee motivation factors Self, Receiver, Delivery, Driver, and Demand. You use the 3-factor analysis to figure out your passion and fix the GAPs. You avoid Needs Mismatch by answering what your employees are asking, and use Check, Continue, Condition, or Correct approach to motivate them. Get yourself comfortable with your receiving team by balancing the Purpose, Peace, Procedure, and Energy. Focus on your growth and development by improving your MRP. You fine-tune your ability to lead your People and Process with your Product. When you fall in love practicing these timeless principles, employee motivation is naturally ingrained and you would empower your employees.
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