Retaining and Motivating Your Workforce
“People don’t leave bad companies; they leave bad leaders.”
A lot of employees— 30%, according a recent Gallop poll— are basically complying and disengaged at work. They show up, they use minimal effort and energy with hardly a trace of passion. Nobody truly wants it this way.
What this means is that it’s time for a transformation. And a transformation starts with a new mindset.
Try this one on for size: Leaders have two customers— 1.) those who buy their products and services, and, 2.) those who buy their call to work with commitment, creativity and passion.
Companies go to great lengths to influence the customers that buy their products and services. This happens because companies know they can’t control their customers. At best, they can only influence them. But what about the people who work for the company? Too often companies are using the wrong mechanisms to retain and motivate their work force.
People in leadership or power positions have an unconscious mindset that they control the people who work for them. This is an illusion. It has dire consequences. So here is what we suggest to such leaders: Take off your “boss hat” and put back on your “sales and marketing hat.” Approach the people who work for you as customers to whom you are selling work!
What leaders need to sell: When researchers dig into workforce commitment, they often ask workers questions that are tied to this central issue: “What would it take to get your full commitment to your company? What would it take to retain and motivate you to do whatever it takes to help the company reach its vision and accomplish its goals?”
Here’s what the research shows. People work first for money. It provides them with a sense of security, options and some degree of control. But people will work well beyond money for an organization that provides them with serious growth and development possibilities— not just specific work-related growth, but also life-related growth.
This kind of growth gives them a sense of true empowerment by helping them discover their true potential, find out who they really are, and the possibilities of who they could become. A recruiting and retaining slogan for this employee value proposition might be, “Come and work here where we’ll help you grow and prosper.” And that promise has to be delivered.
There’s one more important revelation from the research: People will work well beyond the above if they are given a meaningful purpose. They desperately want to know that they are making a difference and that their life and legacy are important. It pays to sell all three.
The lesson is clear. If the value proposition offered by organizational leaders includes all three commitment drivers— money, growth and purpose— employees would be getting what they really want. They, in turn, would be willing to stay, and would be more willing to give their leaders what they want, which is the employees’ totally dedicated passion.
Leaders who help employees grow simply do a better job of retaining good people. People will follow leaders who provide them with the opportunity to grow and to become all they can be while learning how to make a difference in the world— not because they have to, but because they want to!
Andrew Levison, is a leadership and change management subject matter expert in Schulich’s Leadership Programs and President and co-founder of Above and Beyond.
He started his career working as a facilitator for a cutting edge experiential learning and change management company called Pecos River Learning Centers, and has been studying and teaching social change management for more than fifteen years. At Schulich Andrew has consulted to some Canada’s leading companies ranging from Loblaw, LCBO and The Beer Company to the Yellow Pages Group, Purolator, MMM, , Comdev and Kinross, He has also worked closely with American Express, Brinks Inc, and Microsoft. Corporation.
Above and Beyond is an international strategy company focused on preparing the world’s most dynamic companies for rapid social change in a time of instant communication and total transparency.
or email your thoughts and questions to editor@community.seec.schulich.yorku.ca to continue the conversation!
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