How would your management style change if all your employees were financially independent and their objective was to master their craft while contributing to society?
Think about it. Employees would be free to choose whether to stay or go. Oppressive management styles would result in empty buildings.
Once upon a time, I had a manager named Ellsworth who, during an annual review, told me he had stack ranked me the lowest in his group. I felt like he was using a stick to motivate me. I would have preferred a carrot. Perhaps he had hoped to stoke my competitive fire. He didn’t know that I had a low opinion of the role played by the other people in the group and an even lower opinion of the idea of treating my colleagues as the competition. Ellsworth’s disclosure motivated me to do something different than he expected—I left the job.
Independent technical people aren’t motivated to sit on the fence. They seek to contribute and grow. How could Ellsworth have motivated me? Ask, “Steve, who are your customers?” Expand the list by asking, “How about Terra? … Justin? … Kathleen?” Ask, “What is their feedback?” Ask, “How do you feel about that?”
Ellsworth’s mistake was assuming he knew how to motivate me. Managers often unconsciously practice the belief that the same thing that motivates them will motivate someone else. Their belief backfires when people are motivated by different things, which is the norm rather than the exception. Independent employees will ignore management and follow their own music. Dependent employees will, however, act motivated because they need their jobs.
If you want to motivate your independent employees, find out about the music inside their head. Dance with your employee. Explore their music and the way they like to dance. Stay with the rhythm of their music, offer a new step and let them join you.
Independent employees appreciate a new dance step when they are dancing to their own music. They think of it as adding to their repertoire. And employees who are adding new dance steps continue to dance rather than exiting to find a new partner.
Perhaps Ellsworth knew just what he was doing.
Perhaps he really considered you the worst employee on his staff and he simply wanted you to leave. Perhaps he know that all he had to do was tell you were at the bottom of the heap and you would go.
Now I happen to be your friend and know that you are a very capable person, but maybe Ellsworth didn’t know that. Often managers don’t know which employees are worth their salt and which ones aren’t. But maybe he knew you better than you think.
Jim, you may be right.
Ellsworth is smart. Perhaps his intention was to motivate me to leave. If it was, his comments did successfully move me in that direction.
It all comes down to intentionality. I thought his intention was to motivate me. But your interpretation, as always, has merit.
Thank you for the feedback.
I hope your teaching is going well.
Good article, Steve.
Lack of demotivation is often enough.
I think that, in fact, it’s not usually necessary to motivate independent employees. They’ve already got motivation; that’s what makes them independent. It’s enough to avoid demotivating them.
Then you can work at aligning their interests and yours. That’s the dance you describe, I think.
– George
I agree, George
I like to think of it as a step negotiation. Partnership requires negotiation and practice. And it’s a continuous process.
The independent employee will be more successful when they listen to their manager’s music and dance with them too. It requires cycles of leading followed by cycles of following. I believe with independent employees both partners music is important rather than just the manager’s.
Thank you for the comment,
-Steve
When I taught at a large University, I was formally told that I would be evaluated only by the number of complaints, with no consideration for strong compliments, made by students. Thus, the highest ranked instructor on campus was one who gave no lectures (?!?) and little feedback (less to complain about). The problem with education is that we are focused on Customer Satisfaction (in a world where parents only complain about poor grades and never never poor skills and students generally ask for less work and higher grades believing it is only the paper they need) rather than on Customer Success. This is but the sad norm in a world that defines health and happiness as less illness and pain instead of more awareness and joy. It is likely your boss wanted you gone (or at least to shut up) because you made him think and do his job rather than simply stroke his ego (volunteerism has more than doubled over the past 50 years as people desperately seek any place where what they do can make some sense). The best sales (or dancing) advice I ever heard was the 50 rules my grandmother gave my mother on how to control husbands (also works with bosses), which I reduced to the following:
1. Make it his idea: mumble some suggestion and then change the subject only to say days later, “that was a good idea of yours the other day.”
2. Use opinions he values more than yours
3. Encourage the replacement, not discourage the problem
4. Repetition (like branding): have one food (or skill) for which you are best known (like your famous apple pie or fried chicken) — do not try to cook everything well
Thank you for sharing your experience, Jim.
Your Grandmother’s rules sounds like a great source for a book on selling.
I’m laughing to myself about how the University you taught at ranked its instructors. If I weren’t laughing, I would be crying about the sheer stupidity of that kind of measurement program.
I think people want less problems that don’t have a solution. These are the problems, such as people not listening to their ideas, that they have to manage or just cope with.
http://www.stevenmsmith.com/my-blogs/management/problems-cope-manage-or-solve.html
contains some of my thoughts about coping, managing, and solving.
Best regards,
Steve
Employee recognition is vital.
Excellent post on employee loyalty and employee recognition. It is always a good idea to motivate from within the company to increase productivity and decrease laziness. Finding little original ways to motivate employees should always be right up there with building customer relationships via sales incentives and customer loyalty programs.
We all know it is cheaper.