There’s some bad news for UK’s business leaders. Less than half of their people believe their manager knows how to motivate team performance! A new survey by Edenred suggests that only 52% believe their manager knows how to do it!
It gets worse… the report highlights that only…
- 27% of UK employees said they feel regularly fulfilled at work
- 35% said they feel happy at work.
- 52% of employees said they were satisfied with the recognition they had for their work.
Interestingly, the survey did find UK employees rated managers highly for good business knowledge, support in tough situations and the ability to delegate.
75% of workers said they were happy with the relationship with their manager. In other words, this report suggests that they like you, but you’re not very good!
So, what can you do about it? Here are 3 things to consider to get you started…..
1. Find out what motivates and demotivates individuals in your team. Ask them one to one and find out…
- What motivates you here?
- What demotivates you?
- What’s holding you back?
- ‘What makes you tick?’
- What could I do better or differently?
Identify and agree the things that you could do as a result.
2. Spot people doing things well! Get out there, find out what’s going on and proactively find things that individuals are doing well….. and acknowledge them! It’s simple stuff, but most of us don’t do it enough! When you do ‘praise’ them, please do it ‘appropriately’ – remember, some people like public recognition, others prefer a ‘quiet word’ – don’t get this wrong!
3. Discover how you measure up as a leader! A simple, but great way of doing it is to undertake a little exercise we use on our programmes called STOP, START, CONTINUE.
Basically, it’s about finding out what your people think that you personally should STOP, START, CONTINUE doing when it comes to leading and managing them. This could be a simple questionnaire (named or anonymously- whatever’s best for you and your people) or maybe a group discussion (without you being in the room!). Please remember….. the truth sometimes hurts – you have to listen to what’s said (One client of mine was told by a team member ‘STOP breathing’!)
Whatever you do, the critical bit is DOING SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT YOU FIND OUT!
