April 2006 10

Business literature is full of opinions about employees' enthusiasm, but sometimes managers encounter problems instead of inspiration. Here are seven ways to make the troops angry. Harvard management update.

David Shilota, Luis A. Mishkinde, michael owen Melzer.

Most companies make mistakes. They didn't motivate employees. They must stop their low morale.

When employees have considerable enthusiasm, they start new jobs. However, in about 85% companies, our research found that after the first six months, employee morale continued to deteriorate after years of decline. This discovery is based on a survey of about 12000 employees, from 200 152 Fortune 1000 enterprises to 2004, which was conducted by Hilota Research Intelligence Company (Procurement, new york).

The crux lies in managing one's own labor force and establishing personal relationship with managers, and facing up to the employment management of their direct subordinates. At the same time, the company's policies and procedures are weak.

Our research shows how managers' personal behaviors and styles cause this problem (see the attachment "How to manage negative emotions") and what they can do to reverse this situation.

Three key objectives are at work.

In order to keep employees' enthusiasm and bring them their initial jobs, managers must understand these three groups of goals. The vast majority of workers look for jobs and then achieve these goals:

Fairness: a place that is respected and treated fairly, such as salary, welfare and job security.

Achievement: Do one's own job, be proud of achievements and be an employer.

Friendship: It has a good relationship with employees' work efficiency.

In order to maintain an active workforce, managers must achieve these three goals. In fact, the lack of work is only one of the factors of company employees, which is less than three times the enthusiasm of company employees. All the elements exist.

One goal can be another irreplaceable goal. Increasing recognition can't replace a better salary, and money can't replace taking part in an excellent job. Pride and pride themselves will not repay the mortgage.

What can a personal manager do?

Meeting these three goals depends on the policies of both sides of the organization and the daily behavior of a single manager. If the company is managed by talents, a bad manager's solid practice will destroy the company in his unit. On the other hand, a smart and considerate manager can overcome a lot of enthusiasm and commitment caused by poor management in his unit. Although individual managers can't control all leadership decisions, they can still have a far-reaching impact on employee motivation.

The most important thing is to provide employees with a sense of security. They are not worried that their jobs will be threatened. If their performance is not perfect, and one of them is considered to be the extreme last resort to cut 1, not the other option of the * * * degree difficult moment.

But safety is just the beginning. If handled properly, in the following eight practices, every employee plays an important role in supporting' the realization of goals, fairness and friendliness', and will keep their enthusiasm and bring it to the top.

Related achievements

1。 Instill an inspiring purpose. A key condition for employees' enthusiasm is a clear, credible and inspiring organizational purpose: in fact, one is to "turn workers into a fund, which goes far beyond the reason of' rationality'.

Every manager should be able to clearly explain the strong purpose of his unit. The following is a statement of purpose that we particularly appreciate. It is composed of a three-member team of a medium-sized welfare enterprise.

The advantage is to give people. It's not whether you have a form to fill out or whether you have a written check. Is it for the people? When they are sick, they will encounter difficulties when they take care of them and help them.

This statement is particularly impressive because it is composed of a small company and lacks high-powered administrative attention and professional language skills. It is established in departments that usually have fixed and known types of bureaucratic rules and procedures. This is a truly heartfelt statement, and it focuses on the right place: at the end of the whole people, not by filling out a form.

In order to maintain an active workforce, managers must achieve these three goals.

Explain that the task is a powerful tool. But equally important is the manager's ability to explain and convey the reasons behind the task to his subordinates. Can the worker manager in the warehouse be better than her employees telling them that the task is to keep the room in stock? She can convey the importance that the work that everyone depends on is properly maintained in the warehouse, both inside and outside the company. When and where do they need things that may be considered secular, and even the importance of goods? Managers still have a long way to go to provide a sense of mission.

2。 Provide recognition. Managers should ensure that all employees' donations, big or small, are recognized. In many managers, the motto seems to be: "Why should I thank him for his work?" The workers told us again and again that they were happy to praise us with emotion. They also said that they felt very sad when the manager did not take the time to thank them for their excellent work, but quickly criticized them for making mistakes.

Accepting achievement is one of the most basic needs of human beings. Don't make employees complacent. Admitting strengthens their achievements and helps ensure that they will achieve more.

After a beat, say "Let's go", one for two. As for doing a good job, senior managers pay attention to eating, some work flexibly, and even take a paid vacation a day. Even a desk with a thank-you note is a way for managers to show their outstanding work and express their gratitude to hundreds of thousands. Its working principle does not know whether it is sincere and sensitive, and it is made of fair and competitive wages and is not considered as a substitute for it.

3。 Provide convenience for your employees. The style of command and control is that the road of divine fire loses its power. On the contrary, just like your employees, redefine "raw material supply service" as your main role: it is your job to finish their work. In this sense, your report is your "customer" As a counselor, your role includes a series of activities, including providing key services to other business departments and management, representing their interests and ensuring that your employees get the success they need.

How do you know what is obvious and what is the most important job for them to become your employees in the future? Ask them! "Lunch and small talk" meetings with employees are beneficial, especially to do so. If for some reason, you can't solve a specific need or requirement immediately, you should make it public, and then let your employees know what progress you have made in solving their problems. This is a good way to build trust.

4。 Coach improves your employees. One of the main reasons why managers can't improve subordinates' performance, in short, is that they don't know or have no motivation to discourage subordinates from doing so. There are several basic principles that have been greatly improved.

First of all, the overall performance of employees is satisfactory, which should be realized. Employees are more likely to accept and welcome suggestions for improving management, so it is better if they know what they are basically doing and help them do it.

Space constraints hinder meaningful feedback, and the core of meaningful feedback is the comprehensive treatment of cognitive subjects, but these key points should be the basis of any feedback plan:

Performance feedback is not the same as annual evaluation. So as to give timely performance feedback as close as possible to the actual situation. Workers will not be surprised to sum up this year and past mistakes with a formal annual assessment.

Realize that employees want to know when they are not doing well. Don't give in to fear and give appropriate criticism. Your employees need to know when they can't achieve satisfactory results. Meanwhile, don't forget to give positive feedback. After all, your goal is to build a team, which is commendable.

Comments on ideal improvement should be concrete, true and calm, and reflected in performance, not for individual employees. Avoid general comments, such as "this job is shoddy" or comments on employees' personality and motivation (such as "you have been careless"). But to provide specific details, what specific details do you think are needed and how to improve them.

Maintain feedback on employee roles. Don't let your point of view wander without directly depending on the task at hand.

Listen to employees' questions and express their opinions. The experience and opinions of employees usually help to determine how to deal with the best performance problems, including how to provide more help.

Remember the reason you gave. Feedback that you want to improve your performance does not prove your advantage. Therefore, it is impossible to remain true and focus on unrealistic things.

Follow up and strengthen. Praise the improvement or correction in the course and praise the efforts as soon as possible.

Don't give feedback that you know nothing about something. Look for someone who knows the situation.

Stock correlation

5。 Full communication. One of the most counterproductive rules in enterprises is the distribution of "basic information you need to know", which is usually a serious, unnecessary and destructive way to limit the flow of information organizations. One way of command and control is to confirm that the fire path has lost power.

Frustration and lack of adequate communication among employees are the most negative, and we have seen a conclusion published by the survey on employees' attitudes. What employees need to do and what makes them feel respected, including the restrictions of orders, are rarely put in the information flow by managers. Employees who are not interested in hiding are absolutely confidential except for a few projects.

Good communication requires managers to work closely together to understand what employees want and need to know. The best way is to ask them! Most managers must be self-disciplined and communicate regularly. Usually this is not a natural instinct. It is more meaningful to arrange staff meetings regularly than two-way communication. At the end of the management meeting, there should be a specific plan for employees to convey the results of the meeting. Tell it that it likes it. Many employees are very concerned about the motivation of management and express doubts, which can be quickly seen through "hype". And how to get continuous communication feedback with the company. One of the biggest problems in communication is to assume that a message is understood. Information is usually considered unclear or misunderstood.

The company and the manager, in the way we communicate, described the benefits of harvesting employee morale. Full and open communication can not only help employees do their jobs well, but also show strong respect.

6。 Faced with poor performance. Identify and decisively deal with employees who don't want to work for 5%. Most people want to work and are proud of the necessity of what they do. However, some employees are "allergic" to work, and they will do everything possible to avoid work. They have no intention to study, and a subject method, including dismissal, is the only way they can manage it. This will improve morale and the performance of other team members, and see if the obstacles to their performance are eliminated.

Friendship relevance

7。 Develop team spirit. Most of the work needs the efforts of the team to be carried out effectively. Research shows that it has been pointed out many times that the efforts of a regional group, such as solving problems, are usually better than their own personal work. In addition, most employees get promotion from the work motivation in the team.

If possible, managers should organize themselves, self-manage the staff of the team, and have many working methods with authoritative teams, such as quality control and scheduling. This type of team usually needs less management, leading to a healthy management level and lower costs.

Creating a team has a great sense of inaction, core competitiveness and camaraderie. The manager needs to carefully evaluate who has the best job. At the same time, it is also important to create opportunities for mutual learning and diversity of ideas and methods. Clarify the new team's role, working methods and achievements (your expectations).

These three factors are all related.

8。 Listen and participate. Employees have more sources of information about how to do the work and how to do it. This principle has been proved time and time again by various employees, who are doing the daily work of the most senior professionals every hour. Managers involved in the operation have gained great returns in work efficiency and quality.

Participatory management constantly announces their ideological interest in employees. They will not wait for these suggestions to be formally conveyed or put forward. They look for opportunities to discuss directly with individuals and groups how to improve efficiency. They formed an atmosphere of "the past was not good enough" and recognized the innovative spirit of their employees.

Participatory management, once they define the task boundary, allows employees to operate freely and change themselves with their own knowledge and experience. In fact, there may be nothing better than a single incentive mechanism to make executives do their jobs as they see fit.

Reprinted from "Don't demoralize your employees again! Harvard management update, vol. 1 1,No. 1, June 2006 1.

See the latest issue of Harvard Management Update.

David Shilota is the honorary chairman, Louis A. Mishkind is the senior vice president, and michael owen Melzer is the chief operating officer of Shilota's intelligence investigation. They are enthusiastic employees. Author: How companies give workers profits and what they want (Wharton Business School Press, 2005). They can reach MUOpinion@hbsp.harvard.edu.

How to manage negative emotions

David Shilota, Luis A. Mishkinde, michael owen Melzer.

There are signs that the management unconsciously dampened the enthusiasm of employees and weakened their enthusiasm in several ways, if not completely destroyed.

Many companies regard them as one-time employees. When business is difficult, the first sign of employees who are often called "our greatest asset" is being consumed.

Employees are generally not fully recognized and rewarded: about half of employees have little or no credit when accepting our survey report, and almost two-thirds of employees say that management is more likely to criticize them than praise their excellent work performance.

Management inadvertently makes it difficult for employees to do their jobs well. Too much approval, endless paperwork, insufficient training, communication failure, rare authorization of power, and lack of reliable foresight have all led to employees' frustration.

Reprinted from "Don't demoralize your employees again! Harvard management update, vol. 1 1,No. 1, June 2006 1.

Tired. . . . .