6
People Management
time to go over their own work, and see how they can improve quality and have not just impressive but consistent solid performance. Feed their passion by giving them visible roles and using public praise and recognition to encourage them to improve areas of weakness. This needs maturity and tact, so that it serves as a motivator rather than deflate the elation from celebrated achievements. Help them adjust their obsession to project and be comfortable with just being and knowing they have delivered to perfection. If there are any underlying insecurities or unresolved issues, find ways to bring them out empathetically. Proper attention and coaching may help eliminate the obsessive aspects but fuel the passion without being dependent on validation. The Self-motivated “Dream-catchers”
Another group in the team may be there to fulfil a dream. The dream may have been to land them a plum job, and now that they have, they want to prolong the dream with mini projects that challenge them and affirm them with each accomplishment. This group is very keen on variety. It also makes every difference to them who they work for, who their boss is, what their team stands for. Their requirements will often be that: • Their work is varied • Their assignments have a bearing on higher organisational purpose • There’s creativity and self-expression required in the delivery of projects
focus on the specific end product – not just on the creative genius. Left to their devices, dream-catchers won’t only help you catch your dreams and deliver beyond your expectations; they can deliver outside of expectation. It is, therefore, important that team and organisational purpose is well articulated and aligned. With a good understanding of the why, you’ve got a dream-catcher switched on! FUEL THE FIRE WITH DUE RECOGNITION AND REWARDS
Whatever the makeup of your team, find their source of passion and fuel it. Find their motivators and preferred incentives and rewards. Exploit the value they bring to the team with their strengths, and help them deal with their weaknesses. While work is being done to eliminate weaknesses, ensure that team members play to their own strengths in a complementary role to each other. Team Contracts
While performance management is mainly focused on individual employees’ contributions toward the company’s strategic objectives, it is crucial to highlight the importance of the team. Every member needs to understand the value they bring to the team, and know that it is highly appreciated. They also need to know how their weaknesses affect the team, and recognise the importance to minimising them, and not relying entirely on fellow team members to pull them through. Due Personal Attention and an Enabling Environment
Motivating Dream-catchers
To be fair, just meeting their requirements as stated above is motivation enough for dream-catchers. Qualities you will appreciate about dreamcatchers are: • ingenuity • resilience • optimism; infectious enthusiasm that often lifts up the entire team To successfully assign any work to a dream catcher, they would need to get some background, understand the value proposition and be sold on the high-level purpose. And that purpose needs to resonate with their personal dreams and align with their personal mission. Dream-catchers are likely to enjoy brainstorms and once there’s an ‘aha’ moment, you can be sure that the project is in good hands. They will bring to the party all their resources, including sacrificing personal time or working round the clock to get things off the ground. They are the kind of team members who can afford you a long holiday on an island, without worrying about a call to ask you what, and how. As long as they appreciated the why, they are driven by that purpose. How to get Dream-catchers performing with passion
Let them see the reason for any assignment or project. Give them room to be creative and innovative but also, some parameters. Give them the timeline and resources and let them fly. Trust them to chase your dream and deliver. To keep your sanity, ensure that dream-catchers have periodic checkins or regular reporting mechanisms that help make sure things are on track; that the all-night candle hasn’t burnt the office down! Schedule milestone meetings or presentations, where they have something to chase throughout the life of a project or assignment. Remember their work already gives them a sense of accomplishment – through self-expression, so focus them on the project achievements which are to be nailed with just as much enthusiasm. Feed their passion by acknowledging good work, and articulate what value it brings to the team or organisation. Make sure to quickly identify weaknesses or potential downfalls and foster self-awareness to make sure they work through them before mission-critical projects. Compliment positive gains (not effort); celebrate milestones and keep PEOPLE DYNAMICS | February 2019
While Impressors may be the obvious group that seeks to impress, the fact is, every employee wants to know that they are delivering to expectation. Even more critical, they seek acknowledgement when their performance goes beyond target and expectation. The appropriate amount of attention given to each member of the team; giving feedback generously and ensuring that where a corrective measure is required, it doesn’t wait for a quarterly sit-down, but the intervention is instant – as it happens. A good balance between affirmation, coaching and corrective guidance assures the team that you have their personal success at heart and not just waving a red pen to highlight mistakes. As a manager, you are responsible for the environment your team performs in. If you embrace diversity and openly acknowledge the complementary qualities and strengths of your team, everyone will be positively motivated to be- and to bring- their best to the party. Proper Resources for Required Performance
Ensuring that the necessary resources are available and are sufficient for the required level and quality of delivery is of the essence. While there is expectation that employees become resourceful and thrifty in the use of company resources, it is best to incentivise saving and preservation, rather than make people go without basics. As they mature in their roles, they will learn to economise or even find alternative ways to do things – taking advantage of automation and technologies brought about by Industry 4.0. You owe it to your company, to your employees and to humanity to unleash and maximise human resource potential, to enable people to perform with passion. Caveat: While this grouping of employees follows intensive observation through decades of practical people management and an ongoing qualitative study, it does not represent a science. People remain individuals with unique idiosyncrasies despite having certain commonalities. This theory is shared to encourage managers and team members to recognise and respect diversity; to help them gain perspective on different motivation sources and support people’s individual aspirations so far as these help organisations meet their objectives. Readers are warned against stereotyping and are prohibited from using these for what could seem or prove to be unfair or unethical discrimination.