Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
Are you committed or just going through the motions?
As a manager, what should be most important to you are your people. Making sure you have a happy, motivated and successful team is your #1 priority. But with 87% of the workforce disengaged and only working to receive a paycheck, it has become obvious that managers either don’t care or don’t understand this #1 responsibility. This episode of the Manager Mojo podcast will detail for you the actual steps you can take to become the awesome boss your team craves, the one they come to work for, and the leader they want to follow. Become a stand-out in today’s workforce! Become the manager everyone wants to work for. You’ll learn how here. Help us spread the word and … 
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE MANAGER MOJO PODCAST ON iTUNES! 
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ON STITCHER RADIO!
READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE: Committed?
Today’s topic is: are you really committed or are you just going through the motions? I think it’s a good topic to consider at the end of one week, because it helps us to think about how we’re going to approach the following week. I’ve found that managers don’t think much about whether they’re really committed or going through the motions and how that actually is communicated to other people. I’d like to start with an old, familiar joke that I know you’ve heard, but I just want to demonstrate the point. A pig and a chicken are walking down the road and the chicken says, “Hey pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant.” The pig replies, “Hmm, maybe. What would we call it?” The chicken responds, “How about Ham & Eggs?” The pig thinks for a moment and says, “No thanks, I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.” Now, I know that’s a cute, silly joke, and it really demonstrates a great point because the pig is committed if he’s part of the meal. The chicken doesn’t have to do anything other than lay an egg and, at least in one way, wouldn’t have a partner down the road. But that’s not the way to run a business. When we look at business and we try to work with our people we have to understand what being committed actually means. Today I want to walk through that with you and help you think through what commitment really is. You see, commitment is not just about what you say. Commitment is much more about how you do it and the body language that you communicate when you’re doing things. For example: if I were to tell my wife, “I love you,” or I tell her, “I love you,” there’s a huge difference. The tone of my voice has changed, I’m much more energized. She can tell that I mean it. There’s a level of commitment in that voice inflection that you don’t get if you just go through the words. I believe many times what we do – even though we are committed to our jobs and even though we are committed to our people –is that we struggle with the idea of understanding how people listen to us and even how we carry our self. We could be ourselves at work looking like we’re a little bit down. We could be looking like we’re tired. Yes, we may be tired, that could be a part of the problem, but we have to be able to communicate in such a way that people truly can see and hear that we are committed. I think that’s a huge problem for most of us, because I just don’t think we do it. Now, let me give you an example about how people start the day. A really committed manager is going to understand their priorities when they get the work. They know that it’s important for them to be able to set the tone for the day so that their people will be motivated and encouraged and know that you are glad that they’re there. For example: when they come in you need to be able to greet them. You need to say, “Hey, welcome to work. I’m glad you’re here,” and be honest about it and actually ask them a little bit about their day. How are they feeling? Are they ready to go today? You know, not everybody’s always up every day and that’s okay, but the point is that you want to be genuine with your people. It amazes me how many people never actually talk to their direct reports. They aren’t ready when they come to work. They aren’t saying, “Hey, I’m glad you’re here. I’m looking forward to having a great day.” I’ll tell you, that makes all the difference in the world because a committed manager is one that’s going to make the effort every single day to greet every person that works with them and they’re going to set the tone that we’re going to have a great day. Those that don’t do it are missing out on such a wonderful opportunity. What they’re doing is just going through the motions of work, and people notice that. They respond to it. I would absolutely want to make a point every single morning, “Hey, thank you for coming to work. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do today and be prepared for that.” There’s really no other priority that should be taking place for you first thing in the morning when your people come to work. You should be prioritizing them, and yet I see manager after manager that doesn’t do that. They’ll schedule phone calls, meetings and everything in the world that will interfere with that initial greeting of people. I don’t think that’s a good practice. It’s a bad way to start the day because it actually encourages disengagement and it encourages people to disassociate from their boss. As a matter of fact, the statistics bear me out on this: the Gallop Organization says that 87% of employees worldwide are disengaged at work. Disengaged means they’re just going through the motions. I believe that people go through the motions because when they get to work they don’t think anybody cares whether they’re there or not. The only person that can really send that message is their direct manager. When we miss the opportunity to connect with somebody first thing in the day, we’ve missed a golden opportunity to create an engagement, a conversation. You should know a little bit about what’s going on with your people. You ought to know the name of their spouse. You ought to know their children’s names. You should know stuff that is going on in their life. It affects people at work. It’s not that you’re prying. You’re showing genuine concern. A committed manager is going to make that kind of effort. A manager just going through the motions and trying to get their own paycheck is never going to do those types of things. They won’t do the little extras. You know, it could be as simple as when you see somebody coming to work and you know they must have had a bad night and you say, “Hey, how about a quick cup of coffee together.” That little gesture that says ‘I care,’ can make all the difference in world for your people. They need to know that you genuinely care about them as human beings. A committed manager absolutely will be committed to knowing about their people and, I’ve got to tell you, it’s not just about how you start the day, it should be all during the day as well. When something good is done by an employee, a committed manager is going to recognize them immediately. They’re not going to wait. Too many managers today are depending on other things to give their people support and encouragement. Too many managers like to spend time in e-mail or on the phone. They like to do everything in the world other than interact with the people that either make or break you as a manager, and that just doesn’t make sense. It’s an illogical way of thinking. The people that are going to make you a success are the people working on your team. You have to prioritize them –know what’s going on, congratulate them on every good point, encourage them when they’re stuck, offer suggestions when there are things that you can offer. If there are roadblocks preventing them from being a success, remove them. Get them out of the way. A committed manager is committed to their employees’ success. Let me repeat that: if you’re committed, you’re committed to your team members’ success. If you make them a success – guess what? You can’t help but be a success as the leader because they’re going to lift you up and carry you on their shoulders to meeting your team goals and your company goals t just makes sense to be that type of committed manager. That’s why I talk about offering common sense solutions. The fact is, it may be common sense, but people don’t do it and they don’t do it because everything else gets in the way –meetings, phone calls, different obligations that people have themselves and they get out of tune with what they should be doing. The other thing that I would say, as another tying thought, we talked about the beginning of the day, we talked about during the day, but, I’ll tell you something, the last great opportunity you have is just before that team member goes home for the day. It makes all the difference in the world to that person if you go up and tell them, “Thank you for a great job today.” If you do that, I want you to watch what happens. Your employee is going to walk out of that room with their head held high and they’re going to be pleased that they came to work and they worked with you. They’ll go home feeling good because they have confirmation that they’re appreciated and that they’re valued at work. Now, these are things that make you think why wouldn’t anybody be doing them, right? But it’s the distractions that are keeping people from thinking about what their priority is. I can’t tell you how many companies are scheduling incessant meetings throughout the day, what’s even worse is they’ll do late afternoon or early morning meetings that are preventing managers from interacting with your team. I would recommend that you talk to your boss and say, “These are the most important two times of the day. Can we schedule meetings at a different time so I don’t lose the opportunity to engage with my team?” They’ll get it. Maybe nobody’s ever shown them that this needs to be done. I’ve never met a leader that didn’t understand and wouldn’t listen whenever somebody is really trying to get the most out of their team. After all, that’s your job. So try that. Sometimes it’s up to us to coach others and, I believe that if you’ll take this opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to your people in the right way by –
- Being engaged in the morning
- Celebrating successes during the day
- Offering help around roadblocks
- Making suggestions and providing training
- Finishing the day with, “Hey, thank you so much for coming today. Great job. I look forward to tomorrow. Enjoy your evening.”
If you do those simple things you’re going to see a change, a shift, in the way your team begins to interact with you. And yet I know that most people won’t do this. I’ve watched it for over 30 years. I can explain this to managers and they won’t do it because, the fact is, they’re really more committed to themselves. They’re more committed to going through the motions. So, I challenge you today, be committed in the right way. Be committed to your people and they will be committed to you. Committed or going through the motions, it’s totally up to you!
