A Simple Thank You
This is more of a story, but has a lot to do with motivating employees and noticing the little things. The story talsk about a bus driver who drives the elderly around town to various places. One day it was pouring and the employee didn't get out of his truck to help the elder man. Instead, five strangers helped the man on to the bus. This first hit me as the driver being an inconsiderate person, but reading more into the article a clear concept emerged. It said "When you interact with someone, you're playing a role in her story. And whatever you do, or whatever she does, or whatever you want her to do, needs to fit into that story in some satisfying way" (1). This became a key concept to me because people want to feel a sense of accomplishment and it is our jobs to make sure we give that person the accomplishment that they want. Simply acknowledging it can go a long way and make the employee that much more motivated. By not noticing people's work can cause a negative behavior and also more stress. A good way of putting this would be the GAS model. First the alarm phase states that something needs to get done. Then the resistance phase where fats and sugars find a way to adjust to the demands of the work. Then the exhaustion phase talks about fats and sugars are depleted causing the individual to weaken. This is the type of resistance that can occur if employees feel they are not getting the recognition they deserve. Without any recognition employees may simply go about their day and not really care about their role in the company. These stressors that can cause a person to not want to work is something that should be addressed in a company quickly because otherwise an employee may bring negative publicity towards a company. Do you think that by simply acknowledging someone will motivate employees?
-Brian Cullum
I do feel that acknowledging someone will motivate them to work harder. For example, I work in the restaurant industry and we have 5 head managers, two that typically work at a time. One manager in particular is always on the floor with the servers, helping them when it gets crazy busy, and acknowledging everyones hard work during the rush hour. Work seems to go a lot more smoothly than when the other managers tend to work. They typically can never be found when you need them and are never there to lend a helping hand or a positive comment. I can definitely see a difference between the two leadership styles and would rather work under the first.
ReplyDeleteDanielle Trasatti
Team 3