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Motivating the late, the lazy and the terminally uninspired

Written by: Ann Andrews

Article Overview: How to delegate while also growing your staff

Motivating the late, the lazy and the terminally uninspired

I work with teams and have done for the past 20+ years.

Over those years, I have developed my two most favourite questions:

Of managers – “Would you like to be free of having to deal with fire-fighting/ crisis managing, and employees asking stupid questions for one whole day every week?

And I see the look of absolute desire on their faces.

Of employees – ‘How may of you get up on a cold wet, winter morning; think of work and leap out of bed shouting ‘yes”?

And everyone falls off their chair, gripping their sides laughing themselves silly for the
next 10 minutes.

So how did the workplace get itself into such a mess in the first place?

I believe our work habits are left-overs from the Industrial Age. In those days most employees were illiterate so managers had to tell them what to do and when to do it, and so to ensure speed of production, we created a parent/child way of dealing with each other; manager acting as 'parent' and employees acting and reacting in ‘child’.

We are now in the Information Age; most employees in our workplaces are reasonably
well educated; some are very well educated. Yet we still act out that old Industrial model.

It doesn’t work. (I don’t think it ever really did.)

How to do this ‘work’ thing differently is the challenge, because even though we want
better results in our workplaces, our homes and our society we don’t actually want to do
anything differently in order to get those better results – it’s called human nature.

So let me give you some facts which may encourage you to at least consider doing this
managing thing in a slightly different way:

1.In the 18 months after the World War II, globally, 60 million children were born thus creating a baby boom. The baby boomers are now coming up to retirement, yet because of a healthy diet and good exercise most of them are not yet ready to retire. However, most of them don’t want full time employment. Baby boomers are very loyal workers, they show up when they are supposed to show up. Yes they may work a little slower than they used to, but normally if they take on a task, they will see it through to the end.
2.In 1960 or thereabouts, the birth pill was invented and in the 18 months or so after it’s introduction, only 17 -20 million children were born – what is now known as the baby bust.
3.In the late 1980s we had one of those great ideas to save money (never mind the cost downtrack)….we stopped putting people through apprenticeships.
4.We now have a new breed of worker joining the workplace – Gen Y – or Gen WHY? These kids have been born using technology – they have usually had two parents working – they are known to have a short attention span and want a fast-track career. If they don’t get what they want, they leave. And they leave with little notice or fanfare. They don’t actually care what their CV looks like.

Which all adds up to a shortage of skills and a huge shortage of people to fill in for the baby boomers who are leaving the workplace.

The implications for organisations is that it might be a really good idea to start looking after (and upskilling) the people you already have, because you may not be able to replace them.

The implications for employees is that there is very little career development any more. There is only a very short ladder to climb. So career growth may be more about learning more skills rather than climbing a ladder. And given that there is a real possibility for everyone of their skills becoming obsolete (because of technology) it seems like a really good idea to learn as much as you can, wherever you can, so you have other skills to fall back on and are seen as a person with a can-do attitude.

The future of the workplace may actually be more about ‘project teams’ rather than business teams. A small group of people who come together for a short space of time to work on a task or project, and they go back to their old job.

If it all seems a bit overwhelming, don’t panic, there are ways out of this conundrum.

In your role as manager there are four powerful questions you can ask of your direct
reports to ensure you get your one day per week freed up; and your employees DO get up
every Monday morning shouting YES!

The questions are:

1.Where would you like to be in 5 years?
2.What skills do you need to get there?
3.How can I help/coach/mentor you (and delegate one of my boring jobs to you)?
4.When would you like to start?

And then get started.

Realise that just because you are bored with something, doesn’t mean that the job or task doesn’t offer a growth opportunity for someone else.

Remember though, delegation is not abdication. You will need to coach and mentor until the person is truly able to do that job for you and without you. Which doesn’t usually take too long.

And then you will have freed up that one day a week which can be far better used working on your business rather than in it. Yeah!

Related Articles
  Mirror, Mirror on the Wall – why do my employees come to work at all?
  The Positive Side Of Recession
  Sales – Are You Up for the Challenge?
  Dealing with lazy employees
  I want them to want to be motivated to be on time!

Article Tags: 60 million, absolute desire, baby boom, baby boomers, exercise, faces, favourite questions, full time, healthy diet, human nature, industrial model, information age, retirement, stupid questions, time employment, wet winter, winter morning, work habits, workplaces, world war ii



Related Forum Posts
Re: Not a preferred choice - [quote="tony_blayer":xfxt4hx5]Well work for home is good for a short period of time. Cause there is no creditability in the job. Also no fun... makes one lazy... [/quote:xfxt4hx5] That's one opinion - thankfully my clients don't feel that I lack credibility and the majority of the people I know personally who work from home are certainly not lazy. There are some unmotivated, lazy people in any business and people who lack credibility is any business or location. Credibility should be more about the quality of the work that's done instead of an address. Shri
Re: Balance - Make time for things you love - About making time for things you love i would like to tell you something nice. Last night i got home quite late, at 11 pm. Near the building i live, is a small park and a football field. When i got out from the car i heard laughs and when i looked on the field there was a man playing with his son. And they were laughing and running and was so nice and sad also. I thought that this man most probably was working very late in the afternoon but he still dedicate time (even if it's very late) for his son. I just felt strange.
Tricking time, using time - [quote:zjr4f9u8]If I set my watch 30 minutes earlier I am aware of it and when I am aware I can always tell myself - Its still 30 minutes to go! [/quote:zjr4f9u8] That's me! I've never been one of those people who deliberately set their watch ten minutes fast so they're never late for something - I always know the watch is ten minutes fast so I "know I have time." Don't get me wrong, though. I am a bug about punctuality. I am 5 - 10 minutes early 95% of the time, and on the verrry few occasions that I've been very late it's been because of legitimately unexpected major delays - such as an accident on a road that is usually only used by little old ladies driving to church on Sundays . (In other words, if I know I have to battle traffic I leave for meetings very early and usually arrive half an hour early! Better than being 5 minutes late.) Being late for appointments, etc. is plain rudeness - I don't do it to other people and I don't appreciate it when other people do it to me. And if the same person is late more than once...they usually lose my business. Having said that - I never set any meetings or business until the afternoons. I am simply not a morning person and it takes me an hour or so to get the old brain box working. Which is why it was practically a necessity for me to become my own boss so I could make my own hours. I know when my energy is highest and I pour it on during those times.
Re: Which franchise would you buy? - The franchise to buy, the one that will succeed is the one that is either underrepresented or not represented in the community. Look at your community, identify what service is missing. That is the franchise to pursue. Too many people buy a franchise based on their "heart". A franchise is a "widget". I have found that once people began to investigate a franchise they had never thought of, but find their is a need; the entrepreneurial "gene" kicks in and they get excited. They began seeing the possibilities of success, and as they uncover the nuances of the franchise, they become more interested. It is the uninformed that are uninspired.
Re: Balance - Make time for things you love - [quote="Anelly":2ap60qw9]About making time for things you love i would like to tell you something nice. Last night i got home quite late, at 11 pm. Near the building i live, is a small park and a football field. When i got out from the car i heard laughs and when i looked on the field there was a man playing with his son. And they were laughing and running and was so nice and sad also. I thought that this man most probably was working very late in the afternoon but he still dedicate time (even if it's very late) for his son. I just felt strange.[/quote:2ap60qw9] Anelly, I agree. It's always nice to see these things happening. It seems like it is getting to be a rare occurence any more. I'm glad they warmed your heart and you "stopped to smell the roses". It's the little things in life that make it worth living.


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