Hello! Hello! Hello!
I hope your summer has been summering! Hoping that your basil plants have been flourishing, pasta with homemade pesto has been made, eaten and shared (and most importantly you showed off your basil growing skills to everyone that you knew, si si the secret to a healthy, voluminous, and flourishing basil plant is to keep pruning it). This post shall be just in time as companies organise the last of their outdoorsy informal meet-ups, hangouts and get-togethers. Over the summer, I noticed that the most often asked question by the managers was - how can we motivate our employees?
I thought this could be something we could explore in our Gen Z in the workplace series. This series aims to be a mix of safe space and go-to guide for the workplaces and Gen Z alike to clear the air on the ‘what-to, how-to, when-to’ with respect to professional communication and navigating work culture.
So, I was rewatching The Office for the n’th time recently ( Michael Scott > David Brent, sorry Ricky Gervais but it is what it is) and I came across this scene with Ryan. While it is played for laughs and Ryan is seen as a directionless millennial, this also resonates with the Gen Zs in the workforce. This got me thinking that while it might be tempting to label Ryan (and by extension, the Gen Z workforce ) as lazy because he often shirks away from doing actual work, he did not start this way! He was quite keen to learn the ropes as a temp, when he started his entry-level position. He wanted to learn from the sales team, he ran errands for Michael, worked with the party planning committee, basically tried to figure his way around the office. While Michael’s managerial style (or the lack of it) worked perfectly well for others in the office, Ryan was from a different generation, had different expectations, and wanted to be managed differently. This is what I am talking about.
Perhaps, managers visualise Ryan when they see the young crowd in the office and this is your simple 3 step guide on how to motivate the so-called ‘lazy’ employees.
Let us start with the bonus step :
DO NOT call them lazy.
Okay then, back to the essentials :
Identify the block
I am sure by now everyone on this planet is done with this statement : Communication is the Key. This statement,however, is an all purpose WD-40-esque solution to life problems.
So yeah, talk to them one-on-one. Ask them, what is it that is stopping them from working towards the set goal?
Are they unsure where to start? Help them break down the goal into smaller actionable steps!
Are they scared they are not going to have the perfect first draft? Brainstorm together, so that they can get a headstart and have a few solid ideas that they can develop!
Understand that sometimes it is not that people DO NOT want to work. They might be feeling lost, or having unrealistically high standards of perfectionism, and this holds them back.
Identify the motivation
Again, ask - What parts of this work are you actually enjoying?
Maybe they love looking at brand books and pantone instagram accounts for inspiration. Maybe they like going to IKEA to get fresh ideas.
There are aspects of the project that they enjoy, try to understand which (remember how D’Angelo got Kevin to man the phones and what a disaster it was?), and assign them more of those.
Once they are confident enough about what they are bringing to the table, they will be motivated to contribute, and might even proactively propose new projects!
Set specific targets and deadlines
As any PhD student (from humanities) will tearfully tell you, unless a very strict deadline is set, it is very tempting to keep reading till cows come home.
Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals.
Sit with them and set REALISTIC targets with mutual agreement.
Here is how you can do this :
Ask - Can we agree that you will deliver XYZ by the end of this month?
There you go, a very do-able, action-able plan for you to follow to motivate your employees!
Goodluck!
P.S. Don’t forget to check on your friends/acquaintances/colleagues who are pursuing PhD! Don’t, however, ask them if they completed the chapter they said they would complete before the summer semester ends.
P.P.S. Did Owling take off or not? With all the focus on the Parkour cold open, we all seem to have forgotten this!
