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Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

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Chemistry Matters

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
photo by sflovestory

photo by sflovestory

We’ve written a lot about why we think chemistry matters.  RoundPegg, after all, is all about finding people who will fit on your team without creating a cloud of chaos around them.  The better people fit into the team, the more energy they can spend driving the team forward instead of playing politics.

Kevin Millar, former Boston Red Sox, was recently signed by the Chicago Cubs.  While he plays a position at which the Cubs need a backup, the odds of him making the big league team are incredibly slim.  He’s fourth on the depth chart where only two will play with the big club.  Plus, he’s advancing in his career and hasn’t hit much in the past few years.   He was signed strictly to set the team’s mood in the clubhouse over the six-week stretch of spring training.

Millar’s take: chemistry matters.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Is team chemistry overrated?’ Well, you tell me. You’re with 25 guys more than your family from basically end of February to October. That’s not overrated. You try to bring a team and a group together. When you get everyone pulling on the same rope, it’s exciting.”

Last year, the Cubbies signed notorious clubhouse cancer Milton Bradley and paid the price.  He’s the epitome of how companies often hire.  An ‘A’ player by all statistical measurements, but little mind was paid to whether he’d fit in with the rest of the guys in the clubhouse.  While impossible to attribute Bradley’s antics to the Cubs 14-game decline from 2007 to 2008, it’s obvious the front office has gotten the message and is determined not to repeat that mistake.  Clearly, they lay some of the blame on a chemistry experiment gone bad.

Baseball is a unique sport where every play is a series of one on one battles.  Between the lines, I’d go so far to argue that chemistry matters less in baseball than in other sports.  Or your company.  But as Millar points out, you live with these guys.  If you don’t like being around them it’s going to be harder to bring your best every day.

The Cubs are willing to spend potentially up to a million dollars to set the right mood in the clubhouse.  Meanwhile, your company is probably more dependent upon teamwork than any baseball team.  How much time, effort and money are spent aligning your culture, your team and getting the most out of your employees?

Posted in Culture, Motivation, Sports Metaphors, teamwork, Values | No Comments »

Job Satisfaction: An Alternative Approach

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
photo by orphanjones

photo by orphanjones

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame brings us some insight into how he would improve employee satisfaction.

I’ve been meaning to post this for some time so you may have already encountered it.  Regardless, it’s worthy of a chuckle as you coast into the holidays and think about how you’ll get everyone to walk back through the door come January 4th.

He concludes his post with the following advice:

“…the best way to make your employees feel a false sense of job satisfaction is to somehow convince them that there are much better jobs elsewhere. For example, you could subscribe all employees to entrepreneur magazines that are full of stories about people who left their unsatisfying jobs to become zillionaires. If you instill the false belief that better careers are obtainable, cognitive dissonance will cause the employees that have high self-esteem to believe they must enjoy their current jobs.”

Best of luck in 2010!

Posted in Inspiration, Motivation | No Comments »

The Worst of Times

Sunday, October 25th, 2009
photo by photomish dan

photo by photomish dan

A sobering article from the Economist illustrates how unhappy people currently are with their jobs.   When the economy turns expect to see a massive surge in voluntary turnover.  The article included some alarming numbers from the US-based Center for Work-Life Policy:

Between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%.

Employers have the upper hand these days, but what good is that if nobody is willing to bring their best?  Quality work doesn’t flow from mistrust.

The employment process is a two-way street.  Employers need to get quality ideas and execution.  The employees, however, are trickier.  They all need something different.  Each is motivated differently, has different goals and needs to be communicated with in a certain manner.

There is no magic bullet to engaging people except by taking the time to know what makes them tick.  Clearly, these economic times are tough.  And companies are taking the opportunity to pare back and let loose the dead wood.

This requires doubling down on the efforts to learn about the others in order to make sure they don’t all check out as well.

Better yet, build this into your process.  Don’t wait for dire economic times to trim the workforce.  Frankly, people who aren’t engaged and aren’t fitting in with the culture are a drag on your time and bring others down with them.

Start with who you hire and remember it.

  1. Take the time to ensure those you hire fit your culture and are likely to remain engaged.  RoundPegg can help you do this
  2. Learn about what your new employees need during those first few weeks (they typically aren’t working on meaty projects yet anyhow)
  3. Check back in regularly (aka re-interview)
  4. Communicate your needs and how the employee helps solve them
  5. Be quick to release those who aren’t working out.  Easier said than done, but failing to do so will cost you a helluva lot more than their salary

Times are dire.  Not just for the unemployed, but for the employers as well.

The job market is far more fluid these days and once companies start hiring again we’re guaranteed to see that fluidity in action.  Protect your most valuable assets and get the most out of them as you can.

Posted in communication, Engagement, Fit, Hiring, Motivation, productivity | No Comments »

Re-Interviewing

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
photo by phineas h

photo by phineas h

Interviewing is hard enough.

But, last week I had a great meeting with a forward-thinking, culturally aware Corporate Development officer.  He was touting the benefits of re-interviewing.

Put simply, it’s the company taking an active interest in the employee’s career development.

It’s something he does every 4-6 months.  And its purpose is to probe into whether people are getting what they need out of their job.  Whether they are heading in the right direction.  Whether there is anything that is preventing them from fully engaging in their job.

The cynic will say that it’s the company trying to extract more blood from the turnip.  And there is some of that.  But ultimately, the employment relationship is just that…a relationship.  You have to give in order to get.

By inserting himself into the individual’s career management process, he learns what they want out of the job and can help deliver upon that. How else does the company know what buttons to push in order to properly motivate?  (Hint: money isn’t usually it.)

To illustrate he told me the story of someone in the Corporate Development realm (aka HR) who really wanted to be an accountant.  She had been taking classes at night and had recently completed her certification.  While there wasn’t a position open, he was able to get her involved in projects with the AP/AR groups.

She was still expected to fulfill her duties in the HR space, but she eagerly took on the additional work because it was what she really wanted to do and because the company (and one individual in particular) was willing to take the time to understand what she needed to get.

A role may not open up and she may have to leave in six-months in order to find full-time accounting work.  But the alternative was losing her outright now and getting less out of her while she ‘secretly’ sought a new job.

It was an important arrow in his quiver to be able to better understand his team.  And a practice that motivates and engages his team.  If people are a good fit with your company’s values then moving them to a different seat on the bus is a no-brainer.  It builds goodwill and the sense of reciprocity fiercely kicks in.  These people become far more likely to go the extra mile that will make a difference to your business.

He made a few additional points that are worth sharing:

  1. Don’t expect miracles the first time out.  You need to build trust with the employees that enables them to be candid.  Because without candor it’s a wasted exercise
  2. Set the expectation that both sides come fully prepared.  Give the questions/topics you want to cover and expect them to have thought deeply about them
  3. Honor these as you would executive meetings.  Don’t move them, don’t miss them and don’t show up expecting not to be an active participant
  4. Be honest about what the company’s needs too.  If you foresee needing to do things differently bring them up now.  Better to understand if doing things differently is going to motivate the person who has to do the things differently

Do you do something similar?  What works/doesn’t?

Posted in career development, communication, Engagement, Interviewing, Motivation | 2 Comments »

Sales People Are People Too

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
photo by AMagill

photo by AMagill

Neil Davidson at Red Gate Software had a great post the other day on their new approach to compensating salespeople.  In sum, they’ve stopped assuming salespeople are only motivated by money and have begun compensating them like everyone else.

Not only has this cut down on the time it takes to manage the process, but it has eliminated unintended, but perverse, incentives and helped to align their sales team with the rest of organization.

As Neil’s post mentions, fear is not a good motivator.  And as I noted a few weeks ago, neither are extrinsic rewards.

Sales people aren’t all that different from everyone else in your organization in that they have values which motivate them and they have professional goals they want to achieve.

In many cases, the exorbitant rewards that come with the ‘eat what you kill’ mentality are a stand-in for something else.  Recognition.  Though they work outside of the company’s walls more than others they want to be a part of a team and be recognized for doing a great job.

With apologies to Adam Smith, that is human nature.

We’ve boiled recognition down to money because it’s the easiest thing to do.  Rarely is it not valued.  But it’s typically not what is most valued.

When rewards (for anyone) come in the form of legal tender then you’re bound to lose them to a higher bidder when one inevitably comes along.  You wind up attracting mercenaries when you really want people who are dedicated, engaged and work well with others.

So let’s stop taking shortcuts to motivate our employees.  Money is nice, but most people just want to know that they are being fairly compensated and that when they do a good job that they will be recognized in a way that is meaningful to them.

It’s a lot cheaper and a lot more effective to try to identify people’s goals and then align the rewards to help meet them.

While I don’t know if Red Gate’s approach will work, I’d like to believe it will.   It just feels right.  I would love to read a follow up post on how this works out in another several months once the existing sales pipeline has been turned over.

What are you thoughts?  Will it work?

Posted in compensation, Hiring, Motivation, Promotion, Values | No Comments »

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