People Problems? First, Look in the Mirror

I was in a discussion forum yesterday during which a small business owner was complaining that he was constantly battling to get his staff motivated and engaged.

“It’s a never-ending battle just to get them to do their jobs properly,” he said.

Apparently the supervisor of the small factory is the worst culprit. He frequently tells the owner, a bit aggressively sometimes, that he’s not paid to do certain tasks that, the owner says, fall within his role. And a similar attitude is prevalent with the other staff. No-one will lift a finger beyond doing just enough not to get fired.

During yesterday’s discussion, all the usual questions about position descriptions and training were asked and answered satisfactorily. Productivity rewards - the good old carrot and stick approach –has been tried with little success. (No surprise there!)

“I’m at a loss,” he moaned. “I’m sick of fighting them.”

And there’s the problem in two words: “fighting them”. Corporate culture always – and I mean always – stems from the top. If the attitude of the business owner is confrontational and negative towards staff, confrontational negativity will be the predominant culture in the business.

The vast majority of people want to do a good job. But contrary to popular opinion, you can’t “motivate” people. Productivity reward systems seldom work, especially long term, and certainly don’t contribute to good culture.

What you can do as a manager or business owner is create an environment in which people feel motivated to do their best work. And that means thinking about what sort of workplace you want. Here are some pointers:

1.      Think about your attitude to your staff. Do you think you’re doing them a favour by employing them, or do you see it as a mutually beneficial relationship? Be honest with yourself. If it’s the former, believe me, you’re the problem.

2.      Ask yourself what sort of workplace you’d like to work in as, say, a lower level employee. What would make the job genuinely enjoyable? You can’t think like a manager or business owner for this. You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes. And don’t tell yourself that you’d be the model employee and work your butt off regardless of the conditions. That’s BS.

3.      Decide what you can implement from your thoughts above to make your office or factory a pleasant place for staff to be. Don’t just dismiss ideas without considering the real possibilities.

4.      Ask your staff how you could improve working conditions and tell them some of your ideas. But make it clear you’re not promising to implement everything they want. You have to be realistic – be nice without bankrupting the business.

5.      Implement some ideas, yours and, if possible, theirs. This is a crucial step. If you talk but don’t do, you’ll make the situation worse.

This won’t necessarily be an easy process. But if you’re genuine about it, things will improve. Remember, it may take some time for attitudes to shift – trust doesn’t develop overnight and you may have been unwittingly breaking it down for years.

The first step, though, is to have the courage to accept that the workplace environment is a direct reflection of the attitudes of the business owners and managers. So if you’re an owner or manager, and you’re having regular people problems, don’t blame your staff – first, look in the mirror.