Recycled Bullsh-IT

As we all act out Queen’s ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad‘ it feels we’re taking part in a large-scale behavioural experiment. Well, These Are the Days of Our Lives right now, but The Show Must Go On. With staff furloughed or t’working from home how can you continue to motivate them?

 Human behaviour is driven by two things – reward and emotion. Reward can be either positive (carrot) or negative (stick). However, the effects of reward on behaviour are typically overstated. A common view is that if you pay people more, they will perform better. Or if you measure them and penalise poor performance, they will respond by improving. I have tried variations of these methods on several poor unfortunates who have worked for me over the years – most are now out of therapy. 

 The results have been disappointing in that the correlation between reward and performance for normal people is minimal. The few who do respond are either salesmen or city traders; and you would have to question the value that these specimens deliver. Also – and this may seem counter-intuitive – monitoring staff tends to have a negative impact on their individual performance: like the Observer Effect for those Quantum Physicists in the audience. You may pick out the total deadbeats, but everyone else will just play the game and underperform in the areas you aren’t measuring – typically the quality measures. For those managers fretting over their invisible (well, slight fuzzy and jerky in a tiny window on your laptop) remote workers, try to focus on outcomes not output.

 So, this leaves emotion as a better indicator and driver of behaviour. But how do you use this to improve attitudes and performance? Well Step 1 is to accept that emotion does have a significant impact on performance. Very few managers I talk to understand this, let alone act on it. Many of the best managers are doing this intuitively but unconsciously. Unfortunately, most managers are just unconscious twits.

 A lot of what you hear about great leadership is actually the ability to affect the emotional state of your staff through inspiration, praise or clarity of vision.  People work best when they understand exactly what they have to do and why, and are supported and praised for doing their job. This leaves them in a calm and happy state, which will allow them to work to the best of their abilities. Right now is the time to truly lead not bleed your team as we’re not really all in it together, and staff need to know you truly understand this.

 If it sounds easy, don’t be fooled – being nice to your staff only works if you are genuine. Giving them the proper context for what they are doing, protecting them from the high level of noise and static that will distract them, and praising them for doing their jobs is very time-consuming. The best managers know that this is what their job is, not filling in spreadsheets in their offices with the door closed, or video turned off. Therefore, when your staff use the C-word about you, make sure that it stands for Communicator.

  John “Mo(e)tivator” Moe