People work harder, longer, and more creatively if they are motivated by the intrinsic pleasure of their work. Managers must do everything they can to make the value of jobs obvious and the joy in them accessible. – Robert Watson
Going to work simply to have a means to pay the bills, and doing your tasks like going through the motions is more than drudgery, it’s the numbing path to quiet desperation. And this is the way millions of people feel like each and every day.
Have you noticed how happy a lot of people are when they quit their jobs? They’re not happy more so for the opportunity presented to them by a new work environment, but for the release and escape that it offers from the old work environment.
And that is a blatant symptom of unproductive, non constructive and simply put dangerous mindset. And more often than not it’s not the employees fault.
Our priority as managers and leaders is not to try and offset the drudgery of day to day routine and responsibilities simply by building a game room that no one has time or desire to use, or purchase nerf guns that just catch dust. No need for a pool table, ping pong table or sleep pods. Doing all that is comparable to putting on a band aid on a severed limb. You might think that “it’s the thought that counts”, but really it isn’t.
Our priority as managers and leaders is to align our employees personal and professional goals to the values of the company, and slowly but surely create a sort of symbiosis by which the employee feels and sees that the better the company is doing, the better he or she is doing together with it.
And the way to do this is to take the time and have a sincere face-to-face with each and every individual member of your team, scope out what their personal and professional goals are and spend time and put much thought in how you can align those goals with your corporate goals. Then do another face to face with them, and tell them how both of your interests align and how it can be very beneficial to grow together.
One neat thing you can do – and this is especially true for employees that have no direct contact with the end beneficiary of their work – is to take some time and show your people how helpful others find the work they do. Every human being on earth likes to feel appreciated, and there is not one true professional out there who doesn’t enjoy it when others put stock and value and laud the work they have done.
The best way you can do this is by taking the time and calling up clients and getting real feedback, especially in the form of testimonials from them. You can tell them that you are recording the call for future reference in the beginning, you can ask questions and ask for feedback, then you can transcribe the call in the form of a testimonial and have it sent back to them for signing. I know this because I’ve done this in the past to great effect.
Share the recording or written testimonial with your crew, and add them to your sales copy. You will hit two birds with one stone with this method since you will boost both sales and the morale of your crew.