Unhappy at Home

Sometimes an employee's personal life follows them to work, creating a negative influence on job performance. While these outside factors have many different forms which lead to a wide variety of on-the-job issues, today's post deals with an employee who is unhappy at home. Essentially, at this point in her life, the employee's home life is just not what she hoped it would be, and her unhappiness causes her to come to work feeling blue and depressed. Because of this she tends to keep to herself, it severely limits her interaction with co-workers and it diminishes her ability to take an active role in the department team. On the other hand, her boss believes that if she could just leave the outside influences at home, she could be a great team player.

I liked her boss's comment. But how to do it? Since the influences come from the home life, the boss probably can't do much about eliminating them. Except of course to offer empathy, compassion and understanding and to "point her in the right direction" of available help and resources should she seek the boss's advice and counsel.

What the boss can do, with a reasonable possibility of success, is to make the employee's work experience so interesting to her that it motivates her to want to "put her all" into her job, which in turn will help her forget her outside troubles, at least while she's at work. In essence the boss should work toward giving her a sense of social interaction (becoming a member of the team), a feeling of accomplishment (by achieving higher levels of performance), an enhanced ego state (through increased self-esteem and the camaraderie and appreciation of other team members) and a sense of self-fulfillment (by developing new skills and exercising new talents).

Is it easy to do? Not necessarily. But it shouldn't be overly hard either. The boss recognizes her potential. He realizes the source of the trouble and the impact on the department. The department is team-based. What the boss needs to do now is to take the time to guide and coach her in a direction that will combine her interests with those of the team and move her toward becoming an integral and interested member of the department team. And the boss also needs to get some of the stronger team members to extend a hand in helping her become a better team player.

About Pelleyblog. This blog covers topics of interest to managers, particularly those at the first-line supervisor level. Occasionally we include topics of general interest, topics about Dan Pelley's background and experiences, and a rare occasional rant. We welcome your comments on this or any other post.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Get to Know the Human Being

In a recent homework assignment. a new supervisor examined the issue of motivating employees to improve accuracy, take on more responsibility and work with less supervision. The supervisor's approach was to "evaluate staff regarding job knowledge," and "research motivators for each staff member." Good things to do of course, but much too formal from my perspective.

I advised the new supervisor to also get to know each individual employee as a human being. Practice MBWA (management by walking around), socializing with them and getting to know them well as a boss and as a friend. When we take the time to know someone as an individual human being; when we get to know their personality traits, attitudes, values, standards, approach to work and so forth; when we get to know someone as a colleague and a friend; the formalities of evaluating their motivation (interests and needs) becomes far easier to do and we tend to be able to perform those evaluations with far more accuracy.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches Managing People, a 16-hour program concerned with the topics of motivating people, developing positive attitudes, being more effective in getting the best out of each unique employee, and handling people problems. The program is offered to companies as an on-site program, and it is also offered on an open enrollment basis in Danielson, CT and Lincoln, RI.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Make Goals Fun

Some work can be routine, repetitious and boring. People who work in these environments often seek ways to help the time go by. There was a time that people would listen to a radio. In some companies a ballgame on the radio combined with a small sum betting pool made life more interesting and the time go by more quickly. Unfortunately, it seems that many companies have banned radios and an even greater number of companies (and some government agencies) frown on any kind of gambling pool.

Some managers have found ways to overcome boredom while increasing performance by making their department goals fun. One way is to set a goal for the entire department with some sort of "prize" or "treat" when the goal is met. Performance against goal is monitored and posted frequently so that checking on the goal becomes similar to checking on the progress of a ballgame. Another way is to create competitions between work groups or teams which can generate a team spirit similar to playing the ballgame at work. And, of course, individual performance can also be measured, tracked and posted to a scoreboard with appropriate rewards for achievements.

The key to all of this of course is to have fun while improving overall performance of the work unit and enjoying a prize or treat along the way.

About Pelleyblog: Pelleyblog focuses on management topics for supervisors and other first-line managers. We are an extension of Dan Pelley Educational Services which conducts management development programs primarily in Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA) and Rhode Island (RI), although we also serve the other New England states. Pelleyblog welcomes and looks forward to new readers from any geographic location.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

A Tale of Two Crews

I was doing a program in leadership for a company in the roofing business. During the program we discussed an issue of crew motivation.

One crew leader told us how he had to watch over his team all the time. For example, each morning he would get to the company early so he could monitor his crew as they loaded supplies for the day's job. He said that if he didn't do that, they would certainly miss something needed on the job with the result that someone had to make a trip back to get what they needed. He also talked about how he had to watch over his crew every hour of the day to make sure they were doing things correctly. If not, they would do the work incorrectly resulting in additional labor and materials to correct the mistakes.

Another crew leader listened intently to the conversation but had nothing to say. But he certainly had a big grin on his face. I finally asked "Why the big grin?" "Well." he said, "he and I take a much different approach to our crews. I never go in to check my crew when they are loading the truck for the day's job. They know I expect them to arrive on the job on time with all the tools and materials they need for the day. They also know that I don't want to stand over them all day making sure they do their job. I expect them to do their job. I pay them to do their job. If they need help or have a question I'm always there for them. But it is their job and I expect them to do it.

"Please don't misunderstand me. I don't tolerate laziness, incompetence, slacking off or poor quality. They know that. They also know that I respect the work ethic and technical skills they bring to my jobs. They are professional roofers and I treat them as such when they work for me.

"I know the other crew chief doesn't see things the way I do. And that's his choice. It's not my place to criticize him. But I've been sitting here listening and smiling because I simply don't have the problems he does."

The interesting thing about this conversation is that the members of each crew are interchangeable depending on the size of each job. So it was very common for a roofer to work for one crew leader this week and for the other next week. Yet each crew chief has different expectations and get different results.

This case is a good example of the Pygmalion effect. As a well-established concept in human behavior, the Pygmalion effect says what we expect from other people is pretty much what we are going to get.

About me: Dan Pelley is an educator specializing in management training and development programs for supervisors and other first-line managers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The discussion recited above came from a company sponsored (in-house) program held in Rhode Island.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Competition is Fun

A manager told me the story of a unionized industrial plant where the productivity had been stagnant for years. Each of the three shifts consistently output 40 tons of product day in and day out. The plant manager tried everything he could to get each shift to increase their productivity by even a little bit but had no luck.

One day the first shift output 41 tons due to an error in tracking. When the plant manager discovered the error the next day he said nothing. Instead he posted a sign at the time clock: first shift -- 41 tons -- great job! The first shift employees saw the sign as they left, and the second shift employees saw the sign as they came in.

The next morning as the plant manager arrived, he found someone had changed the sign and crossed out the first shift results. It now read: second shift -- 42 tons -- great job! But that had been crossed out as well and replaced with: third shift -- 43 tons -- great job!

From that point forward the competition continued with support and encouragement and tokens of appreciation from the plant manager driven by the fundamental motivation of many human beings to be competitive.

About me: Dan Pelley teaches a number of productivity improvement techniques in his Proactive Leadership program. The program is offered on an open enrollment basis in Lincoln, RI and Danielson. CT.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.

Issues: Managing Expectations

The issue: A very bright but distracted employee. Indeed, he is so absent-minded that the manager questions whether the behavior is authentic. The manager also views him as the least productive and most unfocused team member; he doesn't take his job very seriously and socializes excessively. As a result, the manager is considering lowering his expectations of the employee. The manager tells me he thinks he set those expectations too high when he first took over the department because, at that time, this person was his most senior team member. At this point the manager also believes he may have to reestablish some trust on both sides. The manager sought my advice.

Dan's advice: Before lowering expectations, create an environment for him to grow into your expectations. Find out how he views things. What he likes, and doesn't like, about his job. What are his expectations? How well are his expectations being met on the job? In essence, begin by getting a handle on how he views his job and his role in the department. After that you can then try to make him a partner in creating a set of expectations that will benefit the both of you. Expectations that will improve the work environment for him, while also improving his performance and contribution to the department.

If you can both agree on a clear set of performance expectations that are appropriate and realistic, then you can begin to coach and mentor him on what he needs to know and do to meet those expectations.

Also realize that the foundation of trust is mutual respect. The framework for trust is a set of mutual expectations. The process of gaining trust involves maintaining respect while managing expectations and teaching people how to meet those expectations.

About me: Dan Pelley is an educator specializing in management training and development programs for supervisors and other first-line managers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The issue recited above came from a participant in one of his supervisory management development programs.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
All rights reserved.