“I don’t know what the problem is, it’s like their motivation is gone,” the young Director said to the Plant Manager who was 20 years his senior. The Director had just finished ridiculing his team for their lack of productivity and overall indifference toward doing their jobs. “Like I said out there, they shouldn’t care about anything but what their responsibilities are, nothing else matters.”
“I’m not sure what to tell you, Sir,” the Plant Manager replied while attempting to be sympathetic. But truthfully, he knew full well what the problem was, his boss was a jerk. No, jerk is too soft of a word, he was an a**hole!
How many times had the Director said to one of his subordinates, “I own you,” “We’ll do it my way, because I’m in charge,” or “It doesn’t really matter if you’re there or not, you aren’t that important anyway.” How many times did the Director boast about what his authority got him and how many special perks he was privileged? And how many times did the Director do something that was less than virtuous, only to reprimand one of his staff after they did the same thing?
The poor treatment of his employees destroyed the prospect of ever building a cohesive unit that had engagement or was capable of truly succeeding. It was clear what the problem was, but the naïve Director didn’t want to see it nor would he listen to a lowly factory worker tell him his leadership was poor. The Director looked down on the people in the plant and would brush off any comments that were less than indulgent.
Leading with Values
The previous example is a dramatic (and regrettably true) case of a leader lacking awareness that his actions had a direct correlation to his team’s poor performance. Sadly, this type of behavior happens all the time. Though many of the Director’s words and actions were made in jest, the truth is that he believed his authority provided him a source of freedom to act inappropriately. This cost him the respect of his subordinates and their willingness to go the extra mile for him. While other authority figures would be treated with great reverence and be provided superior service due to a mutual respect, the young Director never understood why it was different with him. Though all under him would continue to fulfill their responsibilities, the bare minimum became the norm.
When leaders make ill-advised decisions, fail to maintain integrity, or do not outwardly respect their subordinates, employees stray away from productivity and toward apathy. They no longer care about the organization or their responsibilities, and purposely disengage from their work.
More generally, it is apparent if a leader in a stringent environment such as a manufacturing plant can destroy motivation and weaken the desire for subordinates to put forth effort, the ability for leaders in workplaces that have less of a hierarchy and offer a more free-flowing atmosphere to cause more formidable challenges is increasingly likely.
It is not a secret that leaders possess an unparalleled capacity to captivate or crush employees’ willingness to put forth effort. Poor leadership and failure to effectively manage can destroy motivation, reduce productivity, and alienate everyone on the team. In a recent poll of more than one million employed U.S. workers, a bad boss or supervisor is the number one reason employees quit their job; not poor pay, long work hours, or failure to get a promotion, it is leadership.1
Conversely, the right leadership can empower employees, inspire greatness, and create an environment that has the ability to transform a company and achieve goals no one ever thought possible. This influence can be a catalyst for engaging members and lifting everyone’s productivity to a higher level. Leaders who are steadfast and instill a sense of positive energy create engagement and push people toward success. This makes it imperative for all with a position of authority to lead with values.
Lead with Integrity and Maintain Accountability
To ensure you get the absolute best out of everyone under your authority, it is imperative to lead with integrity. While this can mean many things to many people, leading with integrity in this context focuses on personal conduct. Leaders must exude a high regard for oneself, others, and the resources they are entrusted, be accountable for their actions, and endlessly serve as role models for the organization. This will ensure those under their authority are engaged.
It isn’t a secret that there is an increased sense of responsibility leaders carry. This responsibility neither goes unnoticed nor can it be overlooked if integrity is not in place. Unfortunately, while quality leadership can be discounted or passed over, poor leadership is almost always recognized. This is evident from a self-serving decision executed by a prominent business leader, a single illicit action of a politician, and the substandard choices taken by a small percentage of police officers. While model behavior and integrity could be at the forefront of decision making for years, these indiscretions can taint an otherwise clean record.
This is especially true when leaders do not maintain appropriate perspective on what their role is and how they must maintain vigilance for the actions they take. When this is forgotten or lost, subordinates lose respect for their leader and a rooted interest in fulfilling their roles. This inevitably reduces engagement as employees now believe it is acceptable to act in ways that are less than noble. This was apparent from the example in the beginning of the chapter when the Director was unwilling to comply with rules he expected others to follow. The lack of being accountable to his own standards resulted in his subordinates losing respect for him. His team knew that he looked at himself differently and believed he did not need to abide to the same code of conduct that he set for everyone else.
By embracing integrity, those with authority have the ability to strengthen the dedication employees have to their job and ensure everyone is focused on putting forth their best effort. It is not surprising leaders set the standard for what is acceptable behavior, nor is it a shock that subordinates emulate those in influential positions. Actionable core values are contagious. As such, by displaying integrity, leaders naturally inspire others to act with virtuous behavior as well.
Additionally, just as it is important to maintain integrity with your actions, it is also imperative to hold others accountable. Unfortunately, accountability can be challenging, especially when interoffice politics are involved. We’ve all been in organizations where leaders have favorites, individuals are not required to follow through, and people fail to produce results with no repercussions. These environments destroy morale and leave employees questioning whether investing effort is worth their time and energy.
To stop this from occurring, it is critical to make certain those under your authority are accountable for their actions. By maintaining this standard, employees will have a refreshed commitment knowing their work is valued and they will be held responsible for what they produce.
Lead with Respect
In good organizations, leaders are treated with a sense of appreciation and respect by employees; in great organizations, employees are treated with the same esteem by leaders. While there is always some form of hierarchy and formal authority in organizations, the ability to lead effectively often lies within relationships. So, while a fist-pounding, aggressive leadership style may work in some situations and a riveting speech that captivates everyone in the room may inspire in others, regardless of the type of leadership style that is used, if respect is lacking, engagement and the willingness of employees to put forth effort will suffer.
Quite often, one of the biggest challenges in organizations is how leaders view employees. Instead of seeing the whole person, there are times leaders see workers as entities that fill a specific role; a mere cog in the machine. This presents the notion that members are immaterial resources that lack value outside of the tasks they fulfill, a barrier for anyone to become engaged.
Counter to this are leaders who outwardly display appreciation for their employees by treating them with respect and valuing their work. Regardless of where employees stand in the organization, these leaders infuse their subordinates with encouragement by actively demonstrating appreciation for them as a whole. This creates emotional advocacy, which ultimately increases employees’ desire to fulfill their duties.
The disparity in how employees respond to the respect they are given by leaders was apparent recently in a large research firm when two leaders happened to cross paths with the same female employee while providing separate tours of a facility. The first leader casually introduced the woman as a “fellow employee” in the building. He mindlessly failed to mention the woman’s experience, training, or ways she supports the organization. He also failed to share about the numerous times she supported him to meet a deadline or stay late to help with a project.
Conversely, the second leader engaged the woman by name, shared how she brings value to the organization, and discussed the types of projects she was actively involved in. The second leader also expressed his appreciation for the woman’s sincere dedication to the company and continual willingness to go above and beyond.
Weeks later, both leaders started new projects and requested support from that same employee. Not surprisingly, while the woman couldn’t find time in her schedule to help the first leader, she had ample time to provide support for the second, going above and beyond the request.
By failing to treat employees with respect, the prospect of getting complete buy-in is not present. While employees will typically still perform their duties, they are inclined to deliver results based on compliance rather than motivation. This lack of engagement has them unwilling to put forth their best effort. They choose to do the bare minimum instead. Alternatively, leaders who show respect to employees are liberating. These leaders get the best out of their people.
Lead with Passion
You could have a flawless strategy, best in class products, and a highly trained staff, yet for some reason, nothing works. No one is motivated to execute. While this could be for many reasons, a lack of passion from leadership could be the issue. When employees do not have a passionate boss, interest can hit a plateau, with success being capped below potential.
Conversely, when employees experience a passionate leader, they are drawn in and inspired. Employees acquire energy from those in charge and are motivated to exude a similar temperament. As such, leaders demonstrating passion for their work is critical. This increases the prospect of their team maintaining interest in fulfilling their roles.
While it is not necessarily imperative to outwardly display enthusiasm on a daily basis, an internal fire that breathes fresh energy and the yearning to achieve is imperative. Enthusiasm is contagious and can breathe life into organizations. Leaders possessing a deep passion for their company and the duties they are responsible for fulfilling provide an increased likelihood for those under their authority to be engaged as well. With the right inspiration, employees will no longer feel that it is a chore to fulfill responsibilities, rather an opportunity to be involved in activities that fuel their excitement. This motivation will continue to burn bright so long as the passion from leadership is able to tap into their inspiration.
Lead by Investing
Many years ago it was deemed important for leaders to keep their distance from employees. Maintaining the “us” and “them” mentality was critical to make certain subordinates respected their superiors. It was believed that if managers and employees interacted in a manner that was less than professional, it would suddenly destroy the ability to get work done. In essence, leaders developing relationships with subordinates would cause them to lose respect.
This is not the case anymore.
Today, lack of getting to know subordinates leads to the belief that leaders are out of touch with reality and fail to care about anything beyond the bottom line. This produces results that are less than optimal due to employees’ loss of appreciation for leadership. Rather than looking at those in charge with esteem, employees become resentful and averse to doing their best for believing their actions are not noticed.
To ensure this does not occur, leaders must actively look to engage employees and get to know them. This will create increased opportunity to identify what encourages workers to do their job well. For example:
What motivates employees to come to work everyday?
What inspires subordinates to reach for greatness?
What will enable members to deliver superior results?
While these questions could seem superfluous to some, by getting to know employees, the capacity to harness a determined group of individuals is within a leader’s grasp. For some people, engagement could be wrapped up in earning a promotion or being named employee of the month, while for others, it could include working on an innovative product or having the opportunity to develop a new skill. Still others may possess an entirely different interest. For example, an employee having the opportunity to leave work early to pick up a child from school once a week could fill a deep personal desire to be more connected to family, and could enable them to be more engaged the rest of the time they are in the office. By taking simple actions outside of traditional thinking and investing time and energy into getting to know employees, the opportunity to build a more engaged workforce can emerge.
However, while leaders can motivate subordinates for short stretches, they cannot build engagement alone. Leaders must create environments where employees can flourish and motivate one another. This is counter-intuitive to many, with some managers expressing that they pay employees to work, not to make friends.2
While these concerns are understandable, the quantifiable link between friendship and business results strongly suggests that fostering the development of friendships between colleagues should be a priority. As stated previously, research shows that having a best friend at work improves engagement and increases productivity.3 As such, it is important not only for leaders to invest, but for those in charge to also provide quality opportunities for employees to invest in one another.
Bringing It All Together
The ability to know how to get the best out of employees can be difficult. Due to the wide range of industries, education levels, competing priorities, and social and cultural norms that intertwine in this global economy, and the various leadership styles people commonly use, it is impossible to create a one-size-fits-all leadership style that will keep employees eager to put forth maximum effort.
Because of this, it is imperative to dig deeper and identify what is truly important in the lives of your people as well as discover what will strengthen their engagement. The following are wide-ranging positive strategies all leaders should consistently use.
Lead with integrity and maintain accountability. Leading with integrity requires devout commitment through trials and challenges, a keen ability to make decisions based on values rather than short-term gain, and the willingness to stand up for what is right rather than what is popular. Too often, integrity is lost when leaders take action that is allowed only because of their prominence in the organization. When this occurs, employees take note, lose respect for the leader, and reduce their ethical compass as well. This damages engagement as employees accept less than virtuous behavior from themselves and others, knowing their leader is guilty of similar wrongdoings. Conversely, when leaders demonstrate integrity, even in the face of challenges and adversity, they gain increased credibility and are seen as honorable, forthright, and trustworthy. Employees gravitate toward these traits and exhibit similar actions. Such is the case for accountability as well. When leaders do not hold those under their authority accountable for their actions, reduced engagement of staff materializes. As such, in order to make certain all employees are engaged, accountability is paramount.
Treat employees with respect. Being treated with a lack of respect creates immediate disengagement. When leaders choose not to respect staff, employees feel demoralized and alienated, and lack the desire to complete the tasks they are assigned. Conversely, when leaders treat employees with reverence, members are empowered and have an increased sense of purpose to fulfill their responsibilities. Does your team’s leadership live the brand? Are they fueling engagement by continually pouring in fresh energy? Or do they outwardly disrespect staff and leave them depleted? To have an engaged workforce, it is imperative to treat employees with respect.
Be passionate about what you and your employees do. Enthusiasm is contagious. If you are engaged and show passion for performing your role, your employees will do the same. Conversely, if you lack interest in the work you and your subordinates are responsible for executing, employees will have a similar outlook. To consistently get the best out of your employees, demonstrate passion for the work you and your team perform.
Get to know them so you can take care of them. In order to be able to take care of employees, it is important to get to know them and maintain awareness of what they need to be successful. Investing in employees and building relationships that extend beyond traditional business enable leaders to learn how to best meet the needs of their subordinates while simultaneously gaining access to what will motivate them. Invest in your team to know how to best leverage the talents and abilities each member possesses.