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Boost morale, and motivate: It's as easy as ABCD

Harvey Schachter, 21/07/08 at 7:59 AM EDT

If you want to unlock the puzzle of employee motivation, you need to focus on four basic emotional needs of human beings

Nitin Nohria and Boris Groysberg of Harvard Business School and Linda-Eling Lee of the Center for Research on Corporate Performance say two studies they recently completed show an organization's ability to meet these four fundamental drives explains, on average, about 60 per cent of employees' variance on motivational indicators, whereas previous models have only explained about 30 per cent. They stress that the four drives must be satisfied in concert; a poor showing on one substantially diminishes the impact of high scores on the other three:

The drive to acquire

We are all driven to acquire scarce goods that boost our sense of well-being, which usually expresses itself in a need for money. This drive to acquire is relative (we always compare what we have with what others possess) and insatiable (we always want more), which explains why people always care not only about their compensation packages, but about others' as well. This drive is handled by the organization's reward system - how effectively it discriminates between good and poor performers, ties rewards to performance, gives the best people opportunities for advancement and compares with competitors.

The drive to bond

We bond not only with parents and family but also with organizations, associations and nations. "The drive to bond accounts for the enormous boost in motivation when employees feel proud of belonging to the organization and for their loss of morale when the institution betrays them. It also explains why employees find it hard to break out of divisional or functional silos," the researchers write in Harvard Business Review. To handle this drive you must engender a strong sense of camaraderie through a culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness and friendship.

The drive to comprehend

We want to make sense of the world around us, producing theories and accounts that make events comprehensible and suggest reasonable actions and responses. Employees are motivated by jobs that challenge them and enable them to learn and grow. If they feel trapped, they often leave for better challenges elsewhere. You satisfy this drive through job design, ensuring jobs are meaningful, interesting and challenging.

The drive to defend

We all naturally defend ourselves, our property and accomplishment, our family and friends, and our ideas and beliefs against external threats. This manifests itself not just as defensive behaviour but also as a quest to create institutions that promote justice, have clear goals and intentions, and allow people to express their ideas and opinions, which create feelings of security and confidence. The drive to defend helps to explain people's resistance to change and their reticence towards mergers. You satisfy this drive through developing fair, trustworthy and transparent processes for performance management and resource allocation.

 

 

Communication: Let employees be free to speak

Harvey Schachter, 21/07/08 at 7:57 AM EDT

Some companies are blocking employee access to social media sites like YouTube and Facebook, fearful that staff will waste time or speak out inappropriately.

But on his Web Ink blog, consultant David Meerman Scott decries "corporate nannies" who want to make certain their "naive charges don't get into trouble in the big, scary world of information."

Instead, he says the focus should be on setting reasonable standards for behaviour, like IBM's social computing guidelines, which include: Identify yourself - name and, when relevant, role at IBM - when you discuss IBM or IBM-related matters. And write in the first person. You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM.

Don't provide IBM's or another's confidential or other proprietary information. Ask permission to publish or report on conversations that are meant to be private or internal to IBM.

Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval. When you do make a reference, where possible, link back to the source.

Respect your audience. Don't use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity or engage in any conduct that would not be acceptable in IBM's workplace.

 

Innovation: Engineers, empathy and emotional intelligence

Harvey Schachter, 21/07/08 at 7:55 AM EDT

Innovation and emotional intelligence are hot buzzwords these days, but they aren't normally connected. However, innovation guru Tim Brown, of IDEO, recently highlighted the importance of skills like empathy, optimism and collaboration for successful innovation - all attributes of emotional intelligence. Empathy, for example, allows us to see things from the perspective of a lot of people, which can be crucial in design.

In the Talent Smart newsletter, researchers Lac D. Su and Nick Tasler note that engineers - the people most often charged with innovation - tend to have the lowest EQ skills in the work force. However, they add that emotional intelligence skills can be developed - as long as you recognize their need and importance.

 

Power points

Harvey Schachter, 21/07/08 at 7:51 AM EDT

E-mail etiquette

Time management consultant Kenneth Zeigler suggests training others to write you better e-mails. Ask them to put the reasons they are writing in the subject line, and what they want and when they specifically need it in the message's first three lines.

Source: Getting Organized At Work

Public washrooms good for business

On a family vacation, Calgary-based customer service consultant Jeff Mowatt was surprised to see an ice cream shop with a highway sign advertising its public washrooms, given most enterprises are protective of washrooms. The store was packed by people buying ice cream, and he concluded that by offering their restrooms to the world, the world was rewarding them.

Source: Influence With Ease

More space, more status

One way that status is demonstrated non-verbally in a meeting is by physically taking up room. Executive coach Carol Kinsey Goman notes that while high-status males take up a lot of room, lower-status, less-confident men and most women tend to pull in and keep all of their materials in one neat pile. Instead, she advises them at their next meeting to spread out their papers and claim their turf.

Source: Moving Ahead newsletter

Don't be too chummy

Businesses risk chasing away prospective customers when they send chummy e-mails that bandy around people's names and personal information to pitch sales, research shows. "People bristle at personalization just for the sake of personalization," says University of Illinois marketing professor Tiffany Barnett White.

Source: University of Illinois News Bureau

Cool nerves with yogurt

 When you're stressed, instead of reaching for a can of cola try one cup of low-fat yogurt or two tbsp. of mixed nuts - the yogurt has lysine and the nuts arginine, both of which have been shown to reduce stress hormones.

Source: Yahoo Health

Regain control of word

If you've been bugged by those pesky lines that appear in Microsoft Word after you type three underlines in a line and press enter, regain control by choosing Autocorrect from the Tools menu, selecting the Autoformat As You Type tab, and then clearing the checkmark in the Borders box.

Source: Allen Wyatt's WordTips

Throw out the four P's, make a connection

Harvey Schachter, 14/07/08 at 6:34 AM EDT

Marketing has long relied on the four P's - product, price, promotion and place - as an organizing principle. But marketing guru Seth Godin on his blog suggests a more fruitful taxonomy would be these five elements:

Data

Sometimes thought boring and thus overlooked, data can be powerful, telling you what is actually happening. Wal-Mart uses data to decide whether the promotion at an end of an aisle is working. Google Adwords advertisers use data to decide whether certain copy delivers clicks and sales. Retail archaeologist Paco Underhill observes people in stores and uses that to invigorate stores.

Stories

These define everything you say and do, because humans crave stories. "The product has a myth, the service has a legend," he writes. Stories and data form the two building blocks of your marketing, while the remaining three elements are built upon them.

Products and Services

These are the physical manifestation of your story. If your story is that you are cutting edge and faster, newer and better than your competition, than your product better exemplify that claim. And your story should tout something exceptional - average products for average people is an all-too-common story, but it doesn't spread. "When in doubt, re-imagine the product. Push it to be the story, to live the story, to create a myth," he urges.

Interactions

These are all the tactics you use to actually touch the prospect or customer. Interactions range from billboards to the approach you take to an overdue bill. There are many interactions and most of them are cheap. But make sure they don't undercut or contradict your story.

Connection

The end goal is to make a connection with your customers. But you also want to inspire a connection between your customers, creating a tribe of people who wish each other well and want to belong to this group of users. Get the first four steps right and you may have a shot at this level of enlightenment.

 

Watch out for bully colleagues

Harvey Schachter, 14/07/08 at 6:33 AM EDT

We are regularly reminded of the hazards of bully bosses. But Queen's University professor of organizational behaviour Jana Raver wants to remind us of the importance of colleagues who are bullies. In fact, bullying often occurs in tandem, with both bosses and colleagues harassing an individual. "People often look to their supervisors to determine how to behave. If the supervisor is engaging in aggressive, hostile behaviour, it is communicating to co-workers that is perfectly acceptable," she notes in the Queen's Leaders Forum. "People see that as an appropriate way to act in that workplace - and replicate it toward each other."

In one study, for example, during which she surveyed 700 people waiting in line at a licence bureau, 51 per cent of participants reported aggression by both a boss and co-worker, compared with 21 per cent who reported only aggression by a co-worker, 8 per cent only by a supervisor, and 19 per cent who reported no aggression. So bullying only by a boss was the least likely situation in that and her other studies. The most common bullying experienced was from bosses and colleagues.


 

How to respond if your firm is acquired

Harvey Schachter, 14/07/08 at 6:32 AM EDT

If your company is acquired, you must immediately forget about "us" and "them," executive coach Marshall Goldsmith advises on Harvard Business Online. "You are now part of 'them' - the old 'us' no longer exists. They can do whatever they want to do. Once you make peace with this fact, your life will be a lot easier," he says.

Accept that you are now working for a different company, and that your previous work history doesn't count. You may well be starting over, and need to learn what the new bosses want - and what new resources and opportunities they offer you. Look for positives in the company that acquired yours, which has to have some smarts or its leaders wouldn't be in control now. At the same time, read the tea leaves: If it looks like there will be some jobs chopped in the wake of the deal, start looking for another job, as people with the firm longer might have an edge.

 

Power Points

Harvey Schachter, 14/07/08 at 6:30 AM EDT

On the table

A round board table hampers decisions, according to management consultant Ruth Haag, as it appears nobody is in charge. Go for a rectangular table, but wide enough to discourage chitchat across the table during meetings and the development of cliques. If it has only one end - the far end pushed against the wall - the leader gains an advantage.

Celebrity sells

Hollywood celebrities, musicians and sports stars showed up in nearly 14 per cent of ads last year, according to Millward Brown, a marketing research agency. That number has more than doubled in the past decade.

Source: The New York Times

A bad idea, a good fix

When somebody presents a weak idea in a meeting, look for a way to improve it, advises consultant Randall Craig. Act as if the "half-finished" idea were your own, embrace it, and then augment it with a second step or implementation details that makes it more workable. If it still isn't grand at the end, the originator might be more willing to support you if you have an even better idea of your own to suggest later.

Source: Make It Happen Tipsheet

We need a new metric

Businesses need to stop using "unique visitors" as a metric for their websites, as many people drawn to sites these days have come by clicking a link on another site or a search engine and quickly leave. Site tourists who leave a site immediately ratchet up the unique visitor count but don't contribute long-term value.

Source: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Buying status

Individuals who were asked to recall times when someone had power over them were more willing to pay higher prices for status symbol items like silk ties and fur coats, according to a Northwestern University study.

Source: ScienceDaily

Alphabetized, organized

You can put any list in alphabetical order at The Alphabetizer (http://alphabetizer.flap.tv).

Source: Neat Net Tricks

 

Growth is the goal. The question is how

Harvey Schachter, 07/07/08 at 7:32 AM EDT

In developing a growth strategy, decision makers focus on the 'what' - the specific ideas they have for expansion. But a study of more than 200 firms to figure out why growth initiatives founder revealed that executives also have to understand the 'how' - the mechanics of the growth strategy and how to put them in practice. The researchers found four growth modes in companies, which are distinguished by the form of control senior executives exert:

Self-Organizing

This approach has low control of the content and process. Employees in this laissez-faire mode are given considerable freedom to devise and then implement new ideas. "This is puzzling to many traditional managers, but it can often be very successful," researchers Alex Koster and Michael Szczepanski of Booz & Company and Christopher Lechner of the University of St. Gallen explain in Strategy + Business magazine. U.S. Biotech firm Promega allows its researchers and managers to launch initiatives they deem appropriate, drawing on a substantial amount of corporate funding without board approval.

Agenda-Setting

This involves high control of content and low control of process. Top management establishes a clear, inspirational vision for the company's new offerings but then stands back from the details of implementation. Samsung senior managers challenged staff to create "next-generation devices" but, beyond that general prescription, limited senior management activity to making sure the key experts within the organization connected with one another and to helping teams overcome organizational obstacles.

Context-setting

This mode features low control of content and high control of process. Top executives create a framework that nurtures the emergence of new ideas. Allianz Global Risk senior executives invited 100 high-level managers to propose growth initiatives fulfilling certain financial targets. The most promising initiatives received funding and were carefully monitored from the top as they were implemented.

Directing

This features high control of both content and process, with top management acting as the primary generator of growth. The corporate strategy team at Liberty Global determines all corporate development initiatives, reviews initiatives proposed by subsidiaries, and closely oversees execution.

Improvement starts with a coach

Harvey Schachter, 07/07/08 at 7:31 AM EDT

The key to achieving your goals is to enlist the help of the best instructors and coaches you can afford, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, advises on his blog. There are three ways to do this, from least to most expensive:

Read the best and most relevant information. Start on Google, with the ton of free information available on the Web. Then buy the best books you can on the subject.

Sign up for specialized classes. Make sure they fit with your schedule and your own learning style.

Hire world-class experts. Over the years he has hired strategic planning consultants, executive coaches, nutritionists, counsellors, music teachers, accountants, lawyers, fishing guides and a variety of other instructors and coaches - some for long periods and others for short stints.

"In the end, you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible. And you can do it faster and with better results if you just enlist the assistance of the right guide and do what they say. I can't think of anything else that will help you accomplish your goals more than this," he concludes.

 

 

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