Beyond employee engagement: Motivating & enabling individual & team performance

Charlene Smith- Corporate strategy and Media Consultant ©

“Nowdays security comes not from stability and commitments, but rather from mobility and options,” Bruce Tulgan, “Winning the Talent Wars.”

To anyone in human resources or management that is a scary statement because it means the best and the brightest are more mobile than ever before. The world has no borders for the talented.

South Africa has a massive skills shortage and an ongoing brain drain. In France, there is such concern about young people leaving the country to live and work elsewhere that government is looking at how to encourage them to stay.

One of the countries many talented people are moving to is Ireland, the second wealthiest nation in the world today. Ireland has had so many new immigrants in the last five years that by 2015 up to a quarter of its population will be foreign born. Why is Ireland so successful?

One of its strategies for economic success has been a partnership between unions, government and the private sector. They sit down every three years and thrash out collective bargaining agreements, instead of having strikes every year like we do, this strategy has seen the economy grow rapidly and unemployment all but disappear.

Although South Africa is in a high economic growth phase at present, it cannot be sustained unless we keep training staff. China and India are growing extremely fast, both have populations greater than one billion each. Their citizens earn far less than South Africans and they work far longer hours. We have two choices, either we need to earn a lot less OR we need to dramatically increase our skills training and productivity to be a globally competitive economy.

Training companies across South Africa report increases of up to 3 times in in-house training courses this year, with the public courses up by about 40%. That shows companies are working hard to try and beat our skills shortage but still bosses complain of poor work standards. What is going wrong?

There are many reasons – one is a sense of entitlement among South Africans, laziness and a poor work ethic, much of that goes back to the values systems or lack of them instilled by parents and an education system that is deteriorating instead of improving.

In the 1960s, Ireland started paying more attention to delivering quality education, including free university tuition for Irish citizens. Ireland now has the finest education in the European Union. In early March the Irish government in a report from its Expert Group on Future Skills Needs said an additional half a million workers (it presently has 1,8m workers) will need to progress by "at least" one level of educational attainment above their current highest level by 2020. It intends boosting its workforce by 50%, including admitting 360 000 foreign workers.

Nowhere in South Africa are people being urged to get double their skills grades – indeed, in many instances we are failing to achieve any grade at all.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor told parliament this year that less than half of those who begin high school complete it. In 2003, just under half of those who began high school in 1999 (675 132) made it to matric (322 492).

For those lucky enough to have tertiary education not all will find jobs, in 2004 StatsSA reported we had 60 000 unemployed graduates, by last year that figure had jumped to 200 000 graduates who could not find work. Those are very disturbing statistics and shows an educational system that is not preparing young people for work or opportunity.

Let’s take it a little further. The World Bank’s Investment Climate Survey, December, 2006, shows that South Africa trains only 44,6% of skilled workers, compared to 77,3% of skilled workers receiving ongoing training in Brazil, 69,1% in China, 55% in India and 78,9% in Poland. It found that in SA only a quarter of small and medium businesses train staff.

Then we have a situation where the engineer-to-project value ratio is at the lowest level in our history and one of the lowest in the world – it means that large infrastructural projects are in danger of not being completed safely or properly.

In 1994 it was predicted that South Africa would need 235 000 managers by 2000 – but that was at a growth rate of one to two percent, with existing economic growth of above four percent the economy has been unable to grow good managers fast enough.

What does all of this mean? It means, that we are in serious trouble in terms of being optimally productive. University professors complain that young people are lazy, do not want to study, and their English is terrible, they increasingly write in sms-language – and these are the most gifted in our society.

All of this poses huge challenges in terms of engaging with employees and motivating and engaging individual and team performance.

The ability to communicate, to motivate and to inspire those around us has never been more critical.

Instead of trying to control staff, we need to ensure they have training and the skills to work smarter and freer.

What are the things we do that disable staff:
· Appointing people to positions they can’t cope with and not giving them adequate training and mentoring. And just a side note here, mentoring is a big buzz word but this is not a natural function for most people, so the mentors require training in how to mentor.

· Don’t rely on recruitment agencies claims of an applicant’s competency – test them yourself.

· Don’t do a quick interview, set aside at least an hour per candidate.

Assess prospective new employees under the following categories:

1. Planning, organising and results orientation

2. Quality orientation

3. Self motivation, problem solving and decision making

4. Client orientation

5. Interpersonal sensitivity

6. Personal integrity and confidentiality

· If a senior manager or executive does not have excellent support staff and teams, he or she cannot succeed. While there is considerable attention to executive training, there has been too little attention paid to improving the skills of support and administrative staff, as well as helping graduates first entering the workplace to learn how to practically apply the theory they learnt at university.

· A manager’s job is to get things done through people, he or she needs to know how to interface and communicate. Many specialists or technical experts are intellectually astute but often have poor people skills. You don’t always need an engineer to head an engineering division, you need someone to motivate people and smooth their way so they can do what they do best.

Designing a new staff management system

Professor Gary Hamel, director of the Management Innovation Lab at the London School of Business says managers need to throw out top-down control and focus entirely on making their staff, and organisation, as innovative as possible.

His research is backed by that of Mary Douglas a US management consultant who says that if staff “put up with never having a chance to criticise or no chance to band together, the management will get a culture of apathy.”

What are some of the things that you do to shut staff up in your presence – but increase gossip and dissent in the backrooms? Criticising or reprimanding someone in front of others is hurtful and shows insensitivity.

Praise opens doors, criticism closes them. If you want someone to listen to you, sit with your arms open, lean forward, praise them in an honest manner and make it clear that you are practicing active listening.

David Barcusee of a major Danish company says: “We see training as insurance on our biggest asset - human resources. Find me a company without that insurance that has stopped training its salespeople and I'll target that market and that company and have its business by year's end."

Ongoing training is essential and so is leading by example.

A can-do attitude inspires confidence. Take reasonable risks, be goal-directed, admit mistakes and move on. Have initiative and a positive outlook, be creative and inspire others.

If you know how to cope with stress, you will work better in a team and be more adept at controlling moods and being adaptable and thoughtful.

Based on a study of businesses over the last century, Hamel says large shifts in competitive advantage are only delivered by major innovations in the practice of management.

He says: "You need a process that generates thousands of new ideas every year."

How do you do it?

He says you need a smart workplace that feels free to innovate. He gives the example of WL Gore, the maker of Gore-Tex waterproof fabric and other industrial products. It has no hierarchy or corporate titles.

Ten per cent of the staff are nominated as leaders by their peers.

No one can order anyone else to do something and every staff member spends 10 percent of their time on a personal project.

Gore has demanding companies like Nike and Procter & Gamble among its customers and has had 50 years of increasing earnings.

Harmel says: "Big companies think if you let people choose what they want to work on you will have chaos. But people are pretty smart. They know that companies are there to make products and to satisfy customers, so generally they choose to work on things that add value."

Emotional intelligence is another management tool that sees improvements in staff performance, some of South Africa’s successful big companies including Discovery trains their executives in emotional intelligence and is seeing better staff relations and more productive outcomes. Most managers are results oriented, but if there is not enough balance to the human element they get below-par results. Emotional intelligence from a manager improves focus and the results of a team and liberates the potential of people to get better results. Instead of making demands have staff discussions, use open body language and watch better results in staff performance.

Emotional intelligence often fails when bosses demand outcomes of those who are wrongly deployed; you set a person up for failure if their aptitude is to navigate instead of pilot.

Emotional intelligence means you find the time to sit among your staff and enjoy their company.

It is in listening that an effective manager best discovers the passions of his or her team members and can better direct and influence them.

As a person who wants to get ahead in the workplace to, beware of conditioned negative filters: your perception that you will be discriminated against because you are black/female/Jewish/Muslim/disabled/a white male, can lead to your own fears realising themselves, not because of the discrimination of others, but because of your own negative self programming.

Recognise your weaknesses and your potential and how best to overcome obstacles.

Although many South African companies have blocked Facebook use for their staff, many international companies are using it to build staff networking. Management consultants the McKinsey Group say firms ignore Web 2.0 at their peril. These mechanisms for communicating with other people have potentially revolutionary effects on how companies are run and how they interact with suppliers, clients and customers. IBM, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, Sun Microsystems, Wells Fargo, HP and General Motors have Web 2.0 in place.

Web 2.0 tools flatten management structures by giving employees and their ideas a higher profile and remove power from management "knowledge brokers". They give customers an up-front role with tools like blogs and discussion boards. Technology giant HP uses blogs and wikis, employees join in discussions by leaving comments on blogs where they may put forward ideas in a process called "open innovation", and especially productive ideas are rewarded through the company's recognition programmes.

Today working smarter, achieving results, rather than being busy is most important. This requires careful planning, good communication and a focus on output rather than input. If staff are incentivised to produce output they will work differently to staff that are motivated to manage input. In other words, focus more on how much your staff produce while they are at work, rather than on what time they arrive and how long they take for lunch.

A manager’s job is not to do it; a manager’s job is to get it done. Delegation allows you to use your time more constructively. It enhances productivity and earns accolades. When delegating an assignment give a thorough briefing, be very clear about the required outcomes and the time-frames, then let the person who is going to do the work decide how to do it. While you can delegate responsibility for carrying out a task, as the boss you remain responsible for the end result.

At Google each staff member has to spend 20 percent of paid work time each week doing a project that has nothing to do with their job – it can be anything from skydiving to art lessons. Within less than a decade of helping found Google and barely past their 30th birthdays the founders of Google were personally worth $10bn each.

Another successful company also refuses rigid employee rules. The June edition of The Economist hailed Steve Job’s Apple for its “inventiveness.” The Economist said, “In polls of the world's most innovative firms it consistently ranks first.” Some of the reasons for its success include: “Apple is an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists…” In other words, we need to stay alert to new ideas, steal them and adapt them to work for us.

“Second, Apple illustrates the importance of designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology.” Sounds obvious doesn’t it? But I wonder how many of us blame inadequate systems for not being able to do the job, instead of strategically manipulating the system to do the job for us.

Innovation is about creation. It’s about deciding that the word “impossible” is a construct of the lazy. If you want something bad enough, you’ll make it happen. The only one stopping you, is you.

“The fourth lesson from Apple is to "fail wisely"” Learn from your mistakes and try again.” Do not discard failure, learn from it. It can be hard to swallow pride and disappointment and go back and look at why and how a “sure-thing” turned into failure, but it is always essential.

Development of the individual is how you keep a brand excellent.

And while helping develop your staff, you too should be in a process of constant inner evolution – take time too, to regularly pat yourself on your back. Kim Kiyosaki in her book, “Rich Woman” recommends “Acknowledge yourself when you have successes. Celebrate.” And that extends to acknowledging excellence among individuals and the team.

How do we create openness in the workplace?
Conflict whether it is staff complaints about a dirty canteen or wages can rapidly escalate if not handled properly. When having discussions or negotiations with staff it is important that both sides have an open mind. Beware of every using absolutist statements like “never”, “we will not” or those famous words we often have to eat: “out of the question.”

In discussions, the key to success is to listen rather than to speak. If you can establish what is important to the other party, you will be able to steer negotiations in that direction with a view to coming to an agreement.

Create opportunities to move the process forward instead of stopping it. And of course people involved in negotiations should be properly trained in negotiating tactics.

Before rejecting something consider it long and hard, give rational reasons for any rejection.

Don’t allow the budget or bottom line to be the deciding factor, examine human considerations.

If you go into negotiations with an attitude that an offer is final, then you are on a hiding to nothing. Do your homework, have options and don’t ignore the demands. If you make a promise to a union, stick to it.

Listen carefully to feedback. Jot it down, refer back to it when designing new strategies.

Give your undivided attention to those you communicate with regardless of whether it is the chief executive officer or the cleaner. Respect is earned.

A good manager will

Set goals, objectives and performance standards with employees

Develop strategies to achieve those

Establish norms of behaviour

Admit mistakes

Give continuous constructive feedback

Allow staff to express their opinions and concerns about issues

Brainstorm solutions as a team, identify root causes and know they might have to be referred for analysis.

Decide first steps for implementing solutions with monitoring structures.

Do not overuse meetings. Regularly scheduled meetings often lose purpose. Ask these questions -

· What would be gained or lost if the meeting was not held?

· Can the same aims be accomplished by memo, fax, mail or email?

· Can a series of one-on-one discussions be held to accomplish the same goal in less time?

· Harness the power of group memory. Data overload, repetition, wheel-spinning and lack of focus are all symptoms of bad meetings and they all feature flipcharts or whiteboards with coloured markers and someone serving as a recorder. Group memory is one of the most simple and powerful tools of collaboration.

But while we are all concerned about our future and skills development, let’s reflect on how far we have come: Research by the University of Cape Town tells us that South Africa’s black elite grew 30% in 2006/07. Their spending power increased from R130 billion at the end of 2005 to R180 billion in 2007 and accounts for 54% of all black buying power. South Africa is also the world’s fourth largest creator of new US dollar millionaires. We are doing well, but we still have 54% of our population living in poverty according to the Human Sciences Research Council. We all need to be working harder, thinking smarter, showing greater values and commitment not just to ourselves but to those we work with.

“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it,” one of the world’s richest men, John D Rockefeller said. He also said: “I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.” Those are interesting words to reflect on.

I thank you.