Leadership - Motivation - people part 2
Motivation - people part 2
Future leaders
There are really only two aspects of staff training or development.
- The training of all staff to maximise their potential.
- Identifying potential future leaders and developing them accordingly.
How much can you do as an individual?
Do you work 8 hours each day, or 12 or 16?
Once you have maximised you own personal efficiency you can only create a greater output by working more hours.
This can lead to increased pressures on your personal and family life or lead to a position where you become a workaholic.
The simple conclusion is that you need help!
The biggest help you will have will be people [see The Complete Motivation package], not equipment or an increased budget.
From this people resource the ones who will have the most influence over your own career and development will be those who are closest to you.
The best teams have the best leaders.
As we have seen before using the Pareto principle [see Prioritise - Basics] if you can identify your top 20% as possible leaders then put 80% of your effort there. Get those top 20% to train some of the other staff.
Key leader traits
A good leader will create the right environment for success for his or her staff.
He or she will know how to motivate the staff at his or her disposal.
The leader will have strong connections with the finance department who will in turn influence budgetary control.
Personnel will be important for getting good quality staff so you will need to cultivate good relations.
A good knowledge of planning techniques will be required in order to implement any vision.
Make your self available. If you do this your staff will communicate problems before they get out of hand.
Note that this does not mean you should solve the problems. Your staff should provide the solution with your guidance
Don’t favour any member of staff, treat everyone the same - this will earn you respect for your decisions but not necessarily popularity.
Seek advice from your staff in order to keep them involved in the decision making process and in similar vein keep them informed of key aspects of their work.
Keep in mind the development of skills for your team this will help instil a sense of responsibility.
Which people?
Training and coaching is one thing but it helps a great deal if you are trying to recruit the ‘best’ people in the first place.
It is simple mathematics that this is even more important the smaller the organisation.
If one person is poor within a team of 4 that is a 25% reduction in efficiency but only 1% in a group of 100.
So, for smaller companies, it is vitally important to make sure that you obtain good staff.
Poor staff not only affect their own work but will have a negative effect on the rest of the personnel.
What do you want to look for in a person?
Academic qualifications are one thing and experience is another.
Both of these aspects have their problems.
You would expect to receive applications from many individuals that have the necessary qualifications.
Many of these will have the required qualifications to the same high standard.
This will indicate a few traits of the individual perhaps intelligence, perhaps a hard working individual.
Technical knowledge alone does not necessarily make you a great asset for a company.
If you have experience in a position you clearly have a small advantage.
However, this may come at the price of a higher than expected salary requirement.
If you feel you can train an individual and you have the time to do so you may want to avoid too much experience.
Good people characteristics
Interviewing people well, to find out their personal characteristics, is a hard job and requires experience from yourself and from the personnel department.
Interviewing techniques.
There are many positive characteristics you can look for.
- Do they have a positive attitude to work and problems in general?
- Are they trustworthy, do they exhibit good integrity?
- Do they know the difference between accountability and responsibility?
- Are they willing to go on with their learning and training?
- Is the person too serious? Do they have a reasonable sense of humour?
- Will failure hold them back or will they learn from it and come back stronger?
- Is flexibility something that comes naturally or is everything carried out in a rigid and overly logical manner?
- Leadership and any other job requires self discipline, do they have it?
- Do they know anything about ‘time management’ skills and do they use it?
- Do they have a likable personality?
- Leadership potential is a good thing. How is their influencing skills?
- Have they demonstrated any people development skills?
- Can they see the bigger helicopter view or are they more narrow in their approach?
- Can they provide any examples of showing intuition?
- How do they view themselves, do they have a good self image?
- Do they show signs of being a team player?
- Do they appear to be highly self motivated with a high energy level?
- Have they got a creative approach to problem solving?
- Are they ambitious with a strong desire to succeed?
- Are there any personal issues you should know about?
- Do they have any relevant experience?
Some areas might be intrinsic to the person and not easy if not impossible to teach.
Right person right job
Particular jobs require certain characteristics.
- Is experienced needed?
- Would you prefer a leader of a follower?
- Are the skills needed general or is the position rather specific?
- Do you need a team player?
- Is a creative or a more logical thinker suited for the position?
- Do you need a proactive or a reactive person in the position?
In general, take your time to prepare a list of requirements that you need from the person before any interviews are carried out.
You might want to take up references and have more than one interview with the individual.
On occasion include people you respect in the interview so that you can gauge their opinion.
In this way you will have a better chance of getting the right person for the job.
If the fit is right that individual should begin the job better motivated.
Other
When you employ a person there is an effect on the rest of that person’s family.
If the individual has a spouse it may be relevant to find out how they feel about the position and the responsibilities involved.
Not every organisation has a big budget for recruitment.
If you are in this bracket you may need to take on young inexperienced people with the intention of training them on the job.
Encourage your staff to do their best and think for themselves.
Simply playing by a set of fixed rules may miss important opportunities.
It all comes back to a lack of fear of failure.
Encourage people to try.
Few people will work to full capacity but many work a lot harder and more efficiently if they are motivated to do so.
It is not good enough to be just a team member, the individual should really feel part of the team.
Try to create a team identity by using a symbol, slogan or name.
Make people proud to be team members.
For new starters it’s a good idea to speak of past team successes and anything else that the team is proud of.
Don’t forget the vision for the team as well as the larger organisation aspirations.
Define clear team roles to reduce confusion and aid annual appraisals.
Set personal objectives and deadlines.
Make sure you have criteria for the measurement of success.
Judge people on results and not effort.
Don’t wait for the year end to check on progress.
Evaluate at regular intervals to clarify activities and help correct deviations from what is required.
Avoid using the word ‘I’ and concentrate on ‘we’.
If you need to remove someone who is not doing a great job make sure you have the necessary evidence.
You should already have told the person that you have been unhappy with their performance.
A below par performance will help to de-motivate others in the team.
Failure to act can undermine your own credibility as a leader.