Does Your Manager Motivate You? (Part I)
Overheard in an industry assocation manager’s meeting…
Bob: Honestly guys, I don’t know how to motivate my techs.
Chris: I here you Bob. I lost my voice last week. I can only scream at these guys so much.
Pete: I feel like a cheerleader doing the company rah, rah line all day.
Fred: These guys are morons! I’m sick and tired of being nice to them all the time. They never listen.
Managers are taught to motivate their coworkers. As a technician, you need to know this. I’ve assigned names to a few styles of manager motivation that you might be familiar with.
Prison Guard – This is strong-arm motivation. You are yelled at, demeaned and offered no respect.
Shady Politician – You are bribed to do your job. The manager promises you tools or days off in exchange for doing what he wants you to do.
Cheerleader – This manager has no grip on reality. Everything is sugar-coated, nothing is a big deal and a fake, positive attitude pours forth from him.
Coach – There is a positive aspect to this style of motivation but your manager needs to be a trustful, genuine person who does not frequently use it. This is the half time, win one for the gipper speech. If your manager cannot be trusted and frequently tries to pump you up, chances are his grip on reality is gone.
Nancy the Nanny – This is the “aren’t we having fun today boys and girls approach?” The manager comes up with all kinds of things to try and convince you that work is fun. The positive aspects of this style will occur when the manager isn’t trying to force fun and is naturally fun to be around.
Core Technician Shop Learning Moment
You shouldn’t need to be motivated by someone else. This is important folks. You shouldn’t need to be motivated by someone else. If you cannot go into work with the spirit of being the best professional that you can be, supporting your coworkers, taking care of your customers, doing fine work and gobbling up every thing that you can learn then you are either working for the wrong employer or working in the wrong role.
Managers however, are still taught to motivate. In Part II we’ll help you recognize a style of constructive motivation and explain ways to help your manager with his responsibility to motivate you.
Photo by Aaron Brown on Flickr
Re: Motivation comes from within. 100% in agreement.
Motivation is what causes a person to move to action. External motivation is temporary… like an elbow in the ribs to get you out of bed. The pain of the elbow moves you to action. But the elbow in the ribs and motivation the resulting motivation are very short and temporary.
Let me say this as well – many people are not sure what motivates them personally. Which is why I use assessments to help them and then a series of questions to narrow that focus.
But here’s the deal – what do you do once you know what motivates you? You have to let your manager know and figure out if there is a way to work together on that. Or, you are in the wrong role, or you have the wrong manager. Unlike parents, you can choose your manager, you just have to be willing to change departments or companies.
Bart Gragg | Blue Collar U´s last blog ..Blue Collar Managers – It’s Your Turn To Be Heard!
Thanks for weighing in Bart! I can see we think a lot alike. There’s a bit more in Part II that speaks to your last paragraph.