'How are you doing?’ Connecting with my team during the lockdowns, I got into a healthy habit of asking my team members this question on a regular basis…and intentionally.
Really listening to their answer has been a vital way to gain and regain trust. The answer has not always come back with words, watching the body language via Zoom and trying to hear what’s not said has been interesting.
And then there’s the other more challenging question, ‘how are we doing?’ It takes more guts to ask this one, never mind making time to ask it regularly. But I have also wanted to know what the team thinks of how, collectively, as a business or organisation we are doing.
What are we getting right? What did we get wrong? How are moving forward through this? This has helped to build trust. Being brutally honest can be cathartic to those who have been through furlough, faced a massive increase of workload or experienced a blurring of boundaries.
Many conversations I have had around motivation over the years has been focussed on how to motivate, relying on old ideas of frustrated managers trying to get increased energy and performance out of an ever-increasingly disengaged staff.
I’ve realised it's about noticing when your people are getting disengaged. The out-dated belief that it’s solely the manager’s job to motivate staff, to find ways to encourage them to be productive and effective doesn’t help.
This assumes that left to their own devices most people would not be motivated, would not want to be effective and productive, so the manager must jump start this energy and enthusiasm.
And that’s exhausting when, as a manager, you are likely to be battling with your own energy levels. It might be more useful to turn the question around and ask, ‘What should I do to stop de-motivating people?
Here are six myths I believe need debunking for these times and going forward, in no particular order:
Don’t think that being compassionate and empathetic and holding people accountable are mutually exclusive – clear boundaries are vital and reflect respect and trust.
Don’t believe the myth that regularly saying thank you to employees will immediately make them ask for more money – appreciation and acknowledgment is a massive motivator.
Don’t set meaningless tasks as a way of thinking you have control – making people complete checklists and reports that no-one reads or responds to is a sure-fire way to de-motivate.
Don’t micro manage – it drives both you and everyone else mad! And it really is more about you than them. If you don’t trust staff to perform it’s worth considering that micro managing massively increases the chances they won’t perform.
Don’t overload those you think are competent (often meaning those that do things my way) to avoid dealing with (holding accountable) those you think are not – perceptions of fairness are massively important in motivation.
Don’t believe that money is the be all and end all of motivation – even though this is often the most visible issue in complaints and negotiations, like an iceberg there's a lot more going on beneath the surface.
Next time you ask, ‘how are you doing?’ and, if you dare, ‘how are we doing?’ really listen for the answer.
That will give you some clues for what you could be doing...