Understanding your employee's drives will help you avoid unpleasant surprises

A new day begins for Udoh like any other. He briefly revisits yesterday's conversations in his mind, while in the meantime checking his diary and preparing for the day ahead. It's going to be another great day at work. Why would it not be? Udoh and his team have everything under control. Of course, there are challenges and they have to pull out all the stops,?but hey, that comes with the job.

Time to get to work. Udoh opens his laptop and starts with his mailbox like every other morning. Udoh scans his inbox and sees a message from Maria. Perhaps the most talented member of the team. Maria has made herself practically indispensable in the past four years.

From:?Maria??25 August 2022

Subject:?New challenge

Dear Udoh, I am sending you this message…

Udoh opens the message with confidence. A new challenge, always interesting. What opportunity has Maria spotted this time?

Dear Udoh,

I am sending you this message because I have found a new challenge at another organisation. For the past four years, I have been fully engaged but it is now time to move on. I find myself becoming increasingly detached from the team. This greatly affects my job satisfaction and makes it difficult for me to motivate myself.

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Everything that seemed so great this morning has totally changed in a minute. This message has a huge impact on Udoh and his team. The coming quarter will be the busiest of the year. Everyone is desperately needed, especially Maria. How could this have happened? Did he miss any signs? So many questions run through his head.

Retaining talent is more crucial than ever.

That people change jobs is a fact of life. Research by PWC now shows that 20% of employees worldwide are currently thinking about switching jobs within 12 months. This phenomenon is known in the US as?The Great Resignation. Another fact of life is that there are hundreds of vacancies per job seekers in most European economies and across Africa, this figure is significantly higher. Retaining talent is therefore more crucial than ever.

Managers have a huge influence on their teams

Could Udoh have prevented the sudden departure of his most talented team member, and avoid all the consequences of this on the rest of the team? Did he really fail to see any signs? As a manager you do have an enormous influence on the job satisfaction of every team member and on team engagement.

Really get to know their passions and ambitions

Management Drives highlights the added value of managers who really know their colleagues and their passions and ambitions. If Udoh had engaged in the right conversations with Maria, perhaps he would have spotted where her ambitions lay. Then, probably he could have kept her in his team or the organisation. So, Udoh has indeed missed signals. He could have had a better understanding of Maria's drives. He would have known what makes her tick in her job.

Behaviour and motivation are related

You see and speak to the people you work with almost every day so you experience how someone talks, thinks, and acts, first hand. Day in, day out, we experience the behaviour of colleagues. We often know how to identify sudden changes in behaviour. But if these changes take place gradually, they are logically less noticeable. Everyone is capable of any kind of behaviour, provided they are motivated towards it. It is logical that one task creates more energy than another.

Drives predict performance

But what information was Udoh missing that would have allowed him to keep Maria on board? Understanding a person's drives is the answer. Drives largely determine what makes you tick and what energises you. Consequently, these drives also predict how you behave and how a team and even the organisation functions. Based on research involving hundreds of thousands of employees globally, Management Drives has developed a model that distinguishes six drives. These can differ in order as well as in strength. In addition, we distinguish positive and negative aspects of the drives. With this knowledge, the daily functioning and motivation of employees can be predicted.

An Instrument for adapting leadership styles

The Management Drives model can be of great help to Udoh. It could have given him insight into whether the work, the team dynamics and the position Maria was occupying were the best fit for her as a person. And whether she starts each day energetically or is happy as soon as the working day is over. With Management Drives, Udoh has a tool to help him adjust his leadership style and way of communicating to the drives of his team, where necessary. This creates a solid basis for a good conversation.

Discover your personal profile

Would you like to receive a part of your full profile for free? Fill in the mini-survey and discover what drives you, your potential pitfalls and find out which behaviours annoy you.

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Fill in the free mini-survey?here!

www.managementdrives.com