I have been working with organizations, and especially managers, for 14 years now, and one thing is clear: managing people is hard. Some people want to be managers and seek it out. Others have been promoted to the position, regardless of whether they want to be there or not. Whether you are finding managing easy or difficult, one thing we all know is that every employee brings a different perspective, a different set of values, a different personal life, and a different set of motivations to work. I call this “mind baggage.” Some people have a whole wardrobe packed in there; others are good with a small carry-on. If employees are carrying around a lot of baggage, less of their mind-power is available to perform work tasks. Alternatively, when employees carry less baggage, they are more “available” to focus on tasks at hand. As a manager, it is your job to act as baggage handler and remove the distractions that may be acting as an obstacle to higher levels of performance.
There are four things managers can do to reduce these distractions and get people fully engaged at work:
- Create a positive work environment.
- Build the self-confidence of your people.
- Understand your employees’ personal values.
- Help employees deal with their outside lives.
1. Positivity in the workplace
Positive emotions have a broadening effect on our minds, improve problem solving and build cognitive, social and psychological resources, according to psychologist and researcher Barbara Fredrickson. The benefit is that these personal resources build resiliency and allow people to bounce back quicker from life’s challenges, which is especially important to reducing psychological distractions in our brains. Managers can improve positivity by engaging in optimism training for their employees. One study performed by Martin Seligman in his groundbreaking book, Learned Optimism, suggests that highly optimistic insurance sales representatives outperformed their pessimistic colleagues because they were able to see setbacks as temporary and non-personal and persist in the face of adversity. In positive work environments characterized by high quality social connections at work, people spend less time worrying about how they are being perceived and more time focused on tasks.
2. Build employee self-confidence
Distractions in our head can also be caused by our own insecurities about our belief in our ability to succeed at work. At the core of positive management practice is the ability to improve employee self-confidence. This is known as self-efficacy. According to Albert Bandura, a psychologist and researcher who has been studying self-efficacy for decades, self-efficacy drives four major performance factors. People who are highly efficacious set higher goals for themselves and expend more effort on achieving goals. Also, people who have higher levels of self-efficacy persist with tasks even in the face of adversity and bounce back quicker after setbacks. Other research also confirms the strong link between self-efficacy and performance at work. Managers who use a more coaching style with their employees know that by allowing people to try things and solve their own problems in a safe environment, they build employee self-efficacy and confidence, which leads to higher levels of performance.
3. Understand personal values
When personal values are not aligned with organizational values, it can lead to internal “debates” that can be a source of distraction for some employees. According to our research at www.whydidyougo.com, what people value most is a job that is aligned with their own strengths and values. When managers know what is really important to employees, it allows them to tap into intrinsic motivations for behaviour. Managers can engage in discussions around values to better align work roles and tasks to what is personally more important to their employees for higher levels of performance.
4. Help employees deal with outside lives
For all those managers who say to me, “Employees should leave their personal issues at home,” I usually respond with, “Yes, and let’s hope the sky turns green soon too.” While we may ask employees to leave their personal lives at the door, this is very challenging for most people, especially when they are going through difficult times such as dealing with health issues, aging parents, and divorce. Let’s face it; if employees have personal issues outside of work that are causing them stress they have less energy to devote to work tasks. One manager I know started to get client complaints from a star performer who had worked for the company for years. Instead of assuming the worst, she drove over to the employee’s location to speak to her about what could possibly be the issue. The worker disclosed that she lost her babysitter and her three-year-old child was at home alone. The manager sent her home right away, with pay, and then found other employees in the area on alternating shifts to help her care for her child while her babysitting issues were resolved. This woman’s performance dramatically improved and surpassed even previous levels because she felt valued. She also remained loyal to the company for years to come. While some managers do not see it as their responsibility to care for employees, others can see the power in compassionate practices.
Managers who create positive work environments, build employee self-confidence, tap into personal values, and show compassion for personal issues will find they will be rewarded with higher performance, loyalty, and better customer service. Pretty simple. Good managers already know this as a fact…now if only we can get the others to listen.
Louisa Jewell is co-founder of www.WhyDidYouGo.com, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in employee engagement and retention. Their vision is to improve happiness at work, one workplace at a time. For more information about positive management and how to apply it in the workplace contact Louisa at louisa@whydidyougo.com.
