As I’ve recently been searching for jobs I’ve been contemplating the question, “What makes people want to work at and stay with a company?” Some companies have great pay structures, others great perk packages. The ones that get the most notoriety are those that have both. But I think there’s something else that plays into the equation.
I thought about my days at CSU playing football, many guys would have left the program had it not been for their individual position coaches. They didn’t stay because of the head coach of the program itself, they stayed because of the coach that believed in him and his teammates. The position coaches had a personal connection with their student-athletes, something that a head coach didn’t necessarily have. Let’s dissect how managers can decrease turnover ratio while increasing productivity.
What NOT to do
Sometimes managers take the stance that employees owe them something other than work. They do owe an employer a good day’s work, but they don’t need constant reminders of how lucky they should be to have a job in the first place. That’s like the unforgiving mother that reminds her kids of the pain she had to endure to bring them into the world, “Remember, I carried you for 9 months went through 14 hours of labor!” at every chance she gets. Some really awful people will use ammunition like this for years, a scarring tactic.
And some managers will use this tactic in an effort to ‘motivate’ their team. If you’ve ever used this tactic and you’re reading this, it’s probably about now that you realize this is pretty shallow and self-serving. Keep in mind that anytime an employer uses this tactic to ‘motivate’ their team, the exact opposite happens. Every time that reminder of ‘generosity’ to give them a job is brought up, those words go in one ear and out the other along with a little bit of their respect. The more it is repeated, the less they respect they give.
Investments
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. I learned this early in my professional career and I preached it when I taught sales courses. Although that was for building rapport with potential customers, it is applicable to management as well.
When I had a team of guys that did sales I would get to know them on a personal level and ask how their personal lives were going when we had down time. I would sit down and review their goals with them. I would invest my time in them and when they did well, I would publicly praise them. I was not concerned about them taking my job or anything along those lines. I knew my position was secure and when they did better the organization as a whole did better.
Plus, the way the company was structured allowed anyone to come from the bottom to learn the business and eventually start their own store. I knew that there was no reason to beat people down or keep them in their place. That doesn’t work and people won’t stick around for it.
Start with buying your personal team lunch. Don’t expect anything in return, just buy them lunch one day and see what kind of reaction you get. It’s little gestures like this that strengthen the fabric of an organization. If you can’t afford that, write them a thank you note that lets them know you appreciate them and the work they do.
The other day I was asking my friend Rachel about her job and she told me how landed the job, what she did, and then she almost shouted, “And I f*cking love my boss!” What if all employees thought about their superiors like that? How different would your organization be?
Speaking of lunch…
If you do something for a co-worker that is out of the goodness of your heart, don’t expect or ask for anything in return. There is a difference in doing favors and blackmailing people into owing you something. But this sort of exchange happens often, someone asks a favor of us then offers to take us to lunch or repay us in some way. The key to it is communication and expecting to be repaid in some way.
We had a store owner that would buy lunch for his team nearly every day. As a new person came on they just thought it was a random act of kindness, a perk of the job. But then one day the owner hung those lunches over the new guy’s head. He had been paying for lunch because he expected some additional work out of them. It was not talked about ahead of time and it was agreed upon, it was just assumed.
My point is this, perks are perks, perks are not payment. A perk of the job means it’s in addition to the pay. If it was payment, well we’d call it payment. It may cost money to provide from the employer or managers’ standpoint, but that isn’t going into the pocket of the employee. Pay is a basic need, perks are icing on the cake.
I don’t want to defend all employees here, some take advantage of the perks of a job. Employees also need to do their part and work hard to be able to say they’ve earned those perks. Employment and management are two way streets, there has to be give and take on both sides or the relationship will never work.
But I’m not a Manager
It doesn’t matter. Leadership is action, not a position or even a title. If you feel strongly about the people you work with, do something for them. Do it out of sincerity, do it because you care, DO NOT do it because you expect something in return. This is a toxic practice. Nothing makes people want to run more than a manager or a boss that does things for others just because they want to be praised for their actions.
In football, if a running back or quarterback has a great season, they shower their offensive linemen with gifts. They show their appreciation for their teammates by giving them rolexes, suits, segways, and even cars (Tom Brady is always showing off). The lineman keep their teammates healthy and allow them to do their jobs, so they get rewarded for their hard work.
This is so often seen in football because there are clear lines about what peoples jobs are. Jeff Saturday and Peyton Manning were never competing for the same job in Indianapolis, so it was easy to praise each other publicly. However in the workplace, many people can be looking to get ahead and they don’t want to tell their peers how great of a job they’re doing. Or more accurately, they don’t want to acknowledge publicly how great of a job they are doing, that might put them in line to get the next raise or promotion.
I am a believer in full transparency and when we can openly and honestly praise each other in the work place, we will have a much happier and healthier environment. Don’t get me wrong, pay and perks are essential to keeping good people. But a great management team can keep an organization sticking together when the going gets tough.
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Has a manager ever made you want to stay at an organization? What did they do for you?
I’d love to chat with you about your great (or not-so-great) experiences with managers. Leave me a comment below or chat with me on Twitter.
Thanks for reading, have a great day!
