In the internet age, the relationship between people has been restructured, and the relationship between bosses and employees is no longer one of employment but of cooperation. The boss provides the platform, and employees provide their talents and time. Therefore, bosses must also change traditional practices and choose to stand on the same side as employees.
A cleaner at a company, usually the most overlooked role, fought desperately with a thief when the company safe was stolen one night. When asked about his motivation, his answer was unexpected. He said, "The general manager always praised me for sweeping clean when he passed by." Regardless of various opinions, one thing is certain: Sincere praise can stimulate employees' unlimited potential.
Management is passive; motivation is active. Management is what others require; motivation is what you require of yourself. Human nature is not to like doing things for others, but to be willing to do things for oneself.
If a manager still uses past management methods to manage modern employees, they will only drive employees away. Severe employee turnover is not due to major management problems, but rather too much negative motivation and negative energy.
Management is about managing things; the boss is about leading people. With a focus on things, attention to people decreases, but to do things well, you must face people. So, managers only hope to do things well, while the boss's goal is to lead the team through motivation.
A superior who cannot motivate employees is at best just a manager. To be a true boss, you must master various motivation techniques and pay attention to people's needs and feelings.
Why should companies do well in motivation?
People have various needs in different environments, ages, growth stages, and management levels; this is the root of motivation. Without motivation, people's needs cannot be effectively satisfied.
For example, older operational workers need to support their families and improve their lives, so they have a strong need for money and material things; they should be driven more by interests. Young people who have just graduated from college have ideals and ambitions and need respect; they should be motivated with development prospects and personal growth. For management, use goal motivation; for executives with a good career foundation, use career and mission motivation.
Does the monk eat meat?
A visitor asked the master, "Master, you are vegetarian in public. If you are alone in a room, would you eat meat?" The master asked back, "Did you drive here?" The visitor said, "Yes." The master said, "When driving, you must wear a seatbelt. Do you wear it for yourself or for the police? If it's for yourself, you wear it whether there is a police officer or not."
Insight: If a person does things for themselves, faith, goals, and ideals are the greatest motivation.
In designing motivation, managers must have human-centered thinking:
- Cultivating people is not as good as recruiting the right people: only by recruiting the right people first can cultivation have greater value;
- Recruiting people is not as good as retaining people: the cost and risk of cultivating new people are higher than retaining old ones;
- Retaining people is not as good as motivating people: retaining people is to let them perform better, making them capital rather than cost;
- Motivating people is not as good as cultivating people: giving people a truly successful future is better than all motivation.
How to view employees pursuing interests?
Regarding the famous Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it is generally believed that the first level, physiological needs, is to satisfy people's material interests, while the highest level, self-actualization needs, is to satisfy people's spiritual needs. This view is one-sided. The foundation of self-actualization is the realization of personal value. Since it is value, it must have a price attribute; behind value, there must be price support. Therefore, companies should support employees in realizing their self-worth, and motivation should keep up.
A boss complained: "Employees' salaries are almost the highest in the industry, but every time we do an employee satisfaction survey, the most dissatisfied item is still compensation."
I replied to him:
- Employees' dissatisfaction with compensation is like bosses' dissatisfaction with profits;
- No matter how high employees' income is, they will never be satisfied because they always want more.
In a company, employees who care about income but are willing to pay are actually good employees. What is terrible are those who care about income but do not pay or create. Even more terrible are those who do not care about income and are not willing to pay; you have to support them without any temper. For employees who do not care about income but work with heart, you need to explore their other needs and satisfy their higher-level personalized needs.
A boss said to a great monk, "I have an employee who is purely profit-seeking; I want to fire him." The great monk asked back, "Has the river near your house ever flooded?" The boss replied, "Yes." The great monk asked again, "Then have you thought about blocking the river?"
Employee Classification
Insight: Dredging the river and building embankments can make it flow naturally. All mortals have self-interest; connecting the heart and building mechanisms can make people righteous and calm, pursuing their own interests without harming others, and properly distributing benefits to gain positive power.
Type A - Chicken Rib Type: Employees who do not care about interests and are not willing to pay, increasing company costs; Type B - Demanding Type: Employees who care about interests but are not willing to pay, damaging team value; Type C - Exchange Type: Employees who care about interests and are willing to pay, guide and strengthen; Type D - Lei Feng Type: Employees who do not care about interests and are willing to pay.
Do not fear employees who are calculating; fear those who do not pay but are very calculating. And those who do not care and do not pay are also a tragedy.
Are bosses and employees in opposition?
Bosses and employees are natural "enemies": bosses want continuous profit growth, employees want continuous salary increases; bosses want employees to work hard and produce results, employees want to do less and get more, with less responsibility and more benefits and bonuses; bosses hope employees understand the company's operational difficulties, employees hope bosses sympathize with their life hardships; bosses want employees to treat things as a career, employees just want to finish current tasks without overtime.
This feeling first comes from differences in thinking: bosses are doing a career, employees are doing tasks. Then there is a deviation in benefit distribution: bosses get future surplus value, while employees get current value. If bosses and employees are not aligned, the following problems may arise:
If the boss only thinks about making money for the company, employees will have no sense of belonging; If the boss only finds ways to squeeze employees' income, employees will find ways to violate rules to earn income; If the boss only paints pies to lure employees, employees will find ways to seek other jobs; If the boss only emphasizes performance results, employees will sacrifice the company's future interests to achieve immediate performance...
A boss said to an employee, "I know your salary is low. The company needs more funds to develop now. It's not realistic to raise your salary yet. Let's work hard together, and in the future, we will have everything." The employee replied, "If you don't give something real now, then your vision for the company's future development is also unrealistic." Starting from reality, ideals can become reality.
Those bosses who like to paint pies should be careful: you can not let employees eat too much, but never let them go hungry. When painting pies, you must also let employees smell the fragrance of the pie.
Bosses should often ask themselves:
Whose enterprise is this? - If it's your own, you will be tired alone; What is the relationship between performance and employee income? - Let employees feel that the enterprise is everyone's; How to do goal management well? - There must be goal motivation mechanisms to ensure; What is my role positioning? - Am I responsible for myself? Or for all employees?
Bosses want employees to be dedicated, but they must give them a reason:
- Why should employees be dedicated? What benefits can dedication bring?
- Why should employees be dedicated? It's not their own business;
- What is the relationship between dedication and personal long-term and short-term interests? Let everyone clearly see the benefits of dedication to themselves;
- Employee dedication is by no means a matter of course. Requiring employees to sacrifice personal interests for organizational interests is unsustainable.
Can bosses and employees unify their interest relationship?
I believe that bosses must first have the height and attitude of "altruistic win-win" and "sharing the cause." Bosses should stand higher and be willing to give first, so employees can work hard and create. When bosses start to pay attention to employees' needs and emotions, employees will sympathize with the boss's pressure and hard work, thus forming a positive interaction.
Yu Minhong once said: Now young people entering the workplace hope to get a high salary first, then work seriously, thinking that if my salary is not enough, why should I work hard. But in fact, those who truly win in the workplace are those who work hard regardless of personal gains and losses and persist in continuous efforts.
The reason is the difference in thinking between bosses and employees: employees want to be paid before working, while bosses like those who work hard without caring about pay, and then they will reuse such people.
Summary
- Why should companies do well in motivation? People have various needs in different environments, ages, growth stages, and management levels; this is the root of motivation. Without motivation, people's needs cannot be effectively satisfied.
- How to view employees' dissatisfaction with salary: Employees' dissatisfaction with compensation is like bosses' dissatisfaction with profits; no matter how high employees' income is, they will never be satisfied because they always want more.
- If bosses want employees to be dedicated, they must give employees a convincing reason.