Team Building Tips

Herein lies the terrible tale of hapless managers and supervisors who unknowingly (we hope!) fall into near fatal staff relationship traps. These seven things are guaranteed to distress, annoy and discourage employees and turn them into non-productive draglines on the team. These are seven of the top ten de-motivators.  Ask your employees what the other three are.

1.  Take credit for their work. 

Have you noticed that at the Academy Award ceremonies the winners thank so many people that you get bored with their speech. Well, they aren't making boring speeches for no reason. They understand very well that without the writers, directors, co-stars and editors they would not be holding the trophy. AND they want to continue those relationships for future successes. Take a cue from these award winners. Always give your staff credit for the successes you have, the deadlines you make, the promotion you get. The whole team helped, especially the last person who stayed late to type it up. clean it up, straighten it out, etc. There is a very simple principle at work here.  What gets rewarded gets repeated. The best way to loose your employees' respect and diminish their value is to take credit for their work. Catch a clue!

2.  Make Promises You Don't Keep

In one company I consulted a new employee remarked, "Hey, that's good news that they are going to get our computers networked huh?"  An older employee said, "Oh that promise has been going on for three years. It'll never happen. At least not before the execs get their company cars"! If you want productive employees, give them the equipment they need, but don't promise what you can't deliver.  If you can't afford it now, or there are compelling reasons to delay, say so.  Give periodic updates; share the travails you may be having with the vendors or the general management.

3.  Talk But Don't Listen

"Many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request". This quote from Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield sums up the importance of listening.  Some managers are afraid that if they really listen to their employees they will have to grant their request. Not true! We are, all of us, yearning to be heard, understood and accepted.  We don't need people to agree with us. We just want to say our piece, have some input, or make a point. So take a minute to listen up!

4.  Act Like Employees are Brainless Drones

One data input employee asked her boss if she was expected to bring her brains to work or just her fingers!  Now that's a sarcastic, cynical question!  I don't have to tell you what she must be feeling. Somehow in some jobs we revert back to the production line mentality.  But people are not parts, machines or drones. They often have good ideas about how to make the work place more productive and efficient.  They are closest to the work and therefore to the facts.  If drawn out, some will make valuable contributions. There are many kinds of intelligence and just because you are the manager doesn't mean you possess all of them. As Aretha Franklin says in her song,  "R E S P E C T, find out what it means to me".

5.  Act Like They Have No Life Outside of Work

Having a full life keeps us balanced and ready for our work. Asking a parent who has to pick up their child by a certain time to work late on short notice is not respectful. Regularly asking people to come in on Saturday and miss their recreation is reprehensible. Not giving people of different faiths their holy days off is not OK. You are their boss, not their parent. (I know, sometimes it feels like it doesn't it?)

You want to see your employees be really motivated?  Follow them home some day.  You will see fully engaged people loving their children, playing sports, doing their hobbies, giving of their free time to charities and civic organizations, singing songs, dancing and all manner of things. It's their sanity insurance.  Honor it.

6.  Make No Allowances for Diversity

People are different, fundamentally different. They think, act, learn and decide in ways that may not be your ways. Among your staff you may have cultural, racial, gender and age differences. Adjusting your teaching/coaching style to the employee's needs pays off in terms of productivity. Clearly the old paradigms about working hard and being grateful to have a job are dying out among the younger generation. They have seen that company loyalty to employees (read Enron et al) is no longer operative. They see that they must make their own way. Sometimes that's really irritating. But it is a fact of modern management life.

7. Hire An Expensive Consultant To Tell You What The Staff Already Knows. Then Don't Implement Any Of The Ideas

There are many good reasons to hire consultants. Doing staff interviews that are anonymous is very valuable for example.  But I have been hired in far too many organizations where the employees have simply heard it all before.  Nothing has come of it and they are sick of it. The employees often share the sentiment that the bosses should just take the money they pay the consultants and give everyone a raise or pay them bonuses to suggest things that will make the work place more effective and productive. It is true that some of the consultant's recommendations may be difficult to hear, for example that they themselves are the problem,  or what is needed is very expensive, or not feasible politically. But you can do some of them. There is always low hanging fruit that is easy to implement. Then be straight with the staff about the others. That earns respect. Just clamming up and waiting for "it" to all blow over is deadly for morale. Organizations have very long memories.

The fact is that What Gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated. I invite you to get my free "No and Low Cost Rewards For Employees" by clicking here. http://www.KeyManagementSkills.com  You will receive 3 tips each week for seven weeks. Norma Smith Davis has 20 plus years experience as a management consultant. She has the greatest respect for the hardest working people in organizations today...managers and supervisors.