Inspiring Loyalty and Contentment in Your Workforce
One of the first things I look at when I take over a new department or division is the attitudes of the managers and /or supervisors. I ask myself the following questions; Do they inspire loyalty in their staff? If not, why not? If they do, how do they do it? The workforce of any company is normally the lifeblood of the business, the oil that lubricates the machinery. Sure, managers are there to (normally) be creative and develop a plan and a vision but the workforce are essential to the future prosperity of the organisation. A happy, contented workforce need to be inspired by their work, their colleagues and more importantly by their managers. If they are not then the chances are that you will have a high turnover of skilled and unskilled individuals who seek inspiration and contentment elsewhere. So, the best way to find out which of your managers is inspiring loyalty in their staff is to look at the departments which have very few people leaving. This isn't 100% foolproof but it is right the majority of the time. Observe what they do and you will see one particular pattern develop.
You will see that the most inspirational managers will lead by example but you would expect that.
You will also see that they will come up with brave new ideas that push boundries but you would expect that too. However, you will also see that they will take the time and effort to thank their staff for their efforts. Simple isn't it? Well no it's not because I mean you should thank your staff after the event. So if a member of your staff has finally completed the report you have been asking for, tell them thanks and leave it at that. The next day before you do anything else, seek that person out and tell them what a great job they did and how you really appreciate all their hard work. The impact that this simple gesture has is immense. YOU have taken the time and trouble to find them and thank them, when you already said thank you the day before when you received the report off them. Better still, if you make sure the thank you has been delivered in front of a few of his co-workers, then this is even better as public recognition (no matter how small) is a huge vote winner and will go some way to ensuring you have the support and loyalty of this particular team member. So, try saying thank you to your staff and watch their loyalty develop. It's really easy and doesn't cost a thing. Mark Anthony Harrison is a salesman. He is Head of Sales for the UK division of a US investment bank. He also lectures on sales development and management theory. To find out more visit him at http://www.managing2success.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Effective Meetings: Why Most Meetings are a Waste of Time
Whether your company holds one meeting a week or dozens of meetings a day it is essential that this time is used efficiently and effectively. Most meetings are less effective than they could be not because they are poorly managed, but because meeting managers spend all of their time focusing on the one or two hours when people will be gathered around the conference table or video screen. Smart meeting managers know that it is the actions you take during the three days immediately before the meeting which are much more important than the meeting itself.
The DNA of Motivation
It really is about motivation. After all, what impels someone to climb a mountain, or go to college, or save for a car, or learn a new language or anything of a thousand things? What is it that moves someone to action from a position of comfortable stasis? The answer is motivation. Motivation is the process of stimulating you to action. It takes a need, desire or some other impulse and incites a response. Motivation is the high-octane fuel of success and, as such, it's vital that individuals and teams capitalize on its power. Often motivation seems to occur spontaneously -- the result of apparently random events. But random motivation isn't the stuff of greatness - to say the least of profitability, innovation and success. It's imperative that team makers and leaders cultivate and nurture motivation throughout the life of a project. Fortunately, motivation is relatively easy to create. In fact, it can be reduced to a formula: M = (D+ A)U. That is, motivation equals dissonance plus accountability, multiplied by urgency. This is the DNA of motivation. It's the essence of what will fire individual imagination and resiliently drive action. Contained within this simple formula are the seeds of phenomenal success.
Collaboration: 3 Keys to Keeping Your Documents from Getting Lost in the Shuffle
How to Deal With Salespeople
If you are an executive, you may sometimes feel like a open jelly sandwich at a picnic. Every crazy critter in the world wants to bite into your budget. Here's how to protect your time and preserve your sanity.
Performance Management - By Assuming Nothing
Unhappy as Jenny undoubtedly was, she held on very tightly to her job. After all, she had worked her way up over the years to the supervisory role she was in - and she wasn't going to let go. Yet it was clear that she was unhappy, under pressure and unsure of what she could do to make things better. For her business and more so, for herself. For me, she was letting me down in a number of ways and my inability to resolve her performance had, for a while, been my Achilles heel in the view of my boss too.
Commercial Collections Billing Practices Advice
Swiftness is the key to collecting past due commercial accounts because commercial accounts depreciate more faster than consumer accounts.
Keeping Meetings On Track
We all have been in meetings with certain people who get our blood pressure to rise or just make us feel what a waste of time. Here are some of those people and hints on how you can maintain keep the meeting on track without coming across as a dictator or inept leader.
The New Economy
This technological revolution has organization, efficiency and productivity requirements well above what was needed in the past. And although all three of these have always been important, they are now considered crucial in the growth and maintenance of businesses worldwide. Technology's power gives us the tools to reduce routine tasking in order to increase productivity, spend more time with customers, and have more time for ourselves and our personal priorities. Processes become quicker, better and more effective (and efficient) as we learn to do more things differently. Here are some ideas for integrating technology in your daily life.
Managers? Biggest Blunders
Nobody's perfect, including the boss. Managers, we polled recently, acknowledged making a number of mistakes, from not recognizing staff accomplishments to inadequate communication to poor hiring decisions. Here is a sampling.
Provisioning/User Management System Upgrades: Part II ? Building Awareness And Building Approval
Somewhere in the world is a person who wants to see their provisioning/user management systems get a sorely needed upgrade. But they seem to be getting nowhere.
6 Ways to Keep Things Simple
Six Ways to Keep Things Simple
Management - Mary Poppins Style!
Mary Poppins describes a style of management which has for too long been hidden in many
businesses and organisations.Think about it.She's "Practically
perfect in every way" - is that not what we want from a boss? Someone who is
almost brilliant at everything - yet with a hint of not being absolutely
perfect? Someone we can trust and depend on - yet who is truly human with is and falls down occasionally too?And then there's
the cut to the chase with, "Bert, what utter nonsense. Why do you always complicate
things that are really quite simple." How often do we, often inadvertently (especially
the more senior an executive we are), make things so, so complex. Recently working
with a client who already had over 125 books on systems, when all they were doing
was selling things to people...And then there's all the fun, like..."Of course,
you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus, but that's
going a bit too far, don't you think?"...a satisfying ability to have fun and, I
think perhaps just a hint of a smile at yourself, Mary, in that..., as Bert says
"Indubitably.!" Not forgetting either, that if we look hard enough, with the right
viewpoint..."In every job that must be done, there is an element
of fun. You find the fun and - SNAP - the job's a game!"
Resistance - How to Handle It
Do you ever meet with resistance from other people - I bet
you do! It might be a customer, a colleague, a member of
your team or even someone in your personal life. Dealing
with resistance or objections is one of the biggest
challenges faced by business people; so let's consider why
we get resistance and how we can handle it. I'm going to
talk about customer contacts but the same rules apply
whether it's a colleague or even someone in your personal
life.
Building the Trust in Your Employees - 12 Easy Tips
In Stephen Covey's great book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", he talks about the 'emotional bank account', where you have to build a credit in your relationship with the individuals who you work with (and everyone else as well!).
The Best Way to Keep Track of Meetings
How should you keep track of meetings?
Proven Secrets to Keeping Your People and Increasing Your Profits
Why are people changing jobs so quickly these days?
Is Your Business Healthy?
Most business owners I work with want to grow their businesses. I guess this probably applies to most businesses in general. But growth for the sake of growth alone is not always healthy for a business or its people.
Why Soft Skills?
The industrial age is over. Organizations still stuck in the industrial age business models are going out of business very fast. Technology is only as good as the people using it. That is the clear message of the new millennium. The knowledge era is supported by tapping into the immense power of the humans to think creatively, find unconventional solutions to add value, improve productivity, and find answers which will make life and work more valuable to the society.
Sarbanes-Oxley and Section 404: Old Dog, New Teeth
The failures we have seen in the quality and integrity of financial reporting in corporate America are clear evidence that something was awry. It is the responsibility of corporate boards, managements, public accounting firms and regulatory agencies to put confidence back into the financial statements issued by our society's most significant entities. Although some would argue that Sarbanes Oxley went too far, it is also now evident that government action and the use of enforcement muscle was required, if for no other reason than to move toward rebuilding public trust. There is no doubt that Sarbanes Oxley, and in particular, Section 404, has increased the expense of doing business for public corporations; however, this is neither a new mandate, nor a superfluous one. All parties engaged in this process have previously ignored the mandate, and must now accept reality, and get past the complaining.
Knowledge Mapping
This module focuses on the basics of Knowledge Mapping, its importance, principles, and methodologies.
|
