Creating a happy, i.e., productive, innovative, engaged, workforce, is 80% MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and 20% money-based employee support initiatives.
Everyone who writes or talks about management, or is interviewed as a role model, says the same thing in a variety of ways.
It boils down to what people want
- respect;
- honesty;
- trust (in both directions);
- shared commitment;
- clear communications as to where the company is going, how it’s going to get there, what’s expected of them and how it all fits together;
- an ethical culture; and
- authenticity throughout.
I’m not going into details or how-to’s of accomplishing those desires, they’re available in dozens of places, including this blog.
But what if after doing your best to implement what you’ve learned (relative to your level and experience) and you’re not getting the expected results. Productivity is still elusive, your people seem apathetic and you have more turnover than is healthy.
What’s wrong? What are you missing?
The answer is most likely deep within your MAP.
As you’ve read over and over, the key to all this is authenticity—translated that means you believe what you’re saying.
Having worked through this problem with hundreds of managers over the years I can tell you that frequently the difficulty was that one or more of the “required” attitudes weren’t synergistic with their MAP.
These managers used the right words, most even thought the right thoughts, but deep down they didn’t really believe—and their people knew it.
Not ‘knew’ as conscious thought, but ‘knew’ as a gut feeling; knew it because every time their manager said certain things they found themselves mentally squirming and didn’t know why.
What they did know was that those statements made them uncomfortable and worried them.
The discomfort sat in the back of their mind nibbling away and their productivity went down, which made them still more uncomfortable and created fertile ground for any opportunity that came along.
The solution to this is simple, but very uncomfortable since it requires you to turn you eye inwards to find the offending MAP and then do what it takes to change it.
Please join me next Wednesday for a discussion of the 20% that requires money and how to accomplish them on a tight-to-non-existent budget.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yugen/4964164189/
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