Turn work into opportunity

Imagine that you are leading a group of busy employees who have some important reports that must be completed by the weekend. Most of the employees are working very hard and their progress is satisfactory. However, Joan, one of the employees, doesn't seem to be doing well. Every time you ask about the progress of the work, she is always hesitant to admit that something went wrong. But you're getting more and more certain that she's falling behind. You reminded her several times that Friday is the deadline, and now it's Thursday afternoon, only to find out that a critical report she's in charge of has not even been written yet! At this point, what would you say to her? How are you going to solve this problem?

Of course, this information alone is not enough to imagine a satisfactory solution, but it is a common management problem: how to provide employees with challenging opportunities. Countless studies have shown that opportunity creates momentum. Those who have goals in their hearts and hope for success are more motivated and perform better. They are good problem solvers, get things done quickly and well, they learn fast, and are extremely creative when needed. By contrast, tedious and tedious work is exhausting, no matter how simple it is.

An opportunity is an employee's belief that under the circumstances it is possible to achieve a successful outcome through productive hard work. Opportunity and achievement are inseparable. To give an opportunity is actually to give an opportunity to stimulate enthusiasm for work. However, if employees are given only a job, a job that is just for the sake of earning money, their sense of responsibility cannot be fully mobilized. He may have a strong sense of responsibility, but the drive is usually not strong.

Everyone has some degree of desire to stand out, which is probably the fundamental driving force of all human activities. When surveying employees about their "motivation at work", "offering the opportunity to succeed" often tops the list.

The easiest way to find out what opportunities employees are looking for is to ask them directly. Every employee knows exactly where their interests lie. For example, if an employee is asked to choose one of two tasks, he or she will identify which opportunity is more suitable for him based on his interests and career goals. Moreover, he can list the reasons for an opportunity that is not an incentive. Therefore, your questions can be more specific, such as, "Isn't this job a great learning opportunity?" If you can ask questions that gain insight into your employees' goals, interests, and personal abilities, you can improve your awareness of opportunities ability to identify and control.

Redefining work

You're often faced with situations where someone has to do the boring, routine work at hand. At this time, you need to redefine the work task and work method, so that employees see this work as an opportunity, so that they are willing to complete it with a sense of accomplishment. Working with employees to analyze key jobs on a case-by-case basis ensures that employees (and yourself) understand the work, its importance, and the right way to do it satisfactorily. This kind of analysis can turn an ordinary job into a successful opportunity to stimulate the inner motivation of employees. Many employees don't care enough about their jobs, don't know what they're supposed to do, or don't have what it takes to get the job done. Therefore, for managers, careful management of work is an important task, which can greatly improve employees' attention to work.

To enhance the "opportunity" nature of various work tasks, it is a good idea to discuss work planning procedures with employees. A job is any clearly defined task or responsibility. To improve the enthusiasm of employees, it is necessary to refine a general job into specific tasks, so that employees can get an experience of continuously completing tasks while working. When defining tasks, you should plan in detail the actions that employees will take and the possible results. This helps employees clarify tasks and provides a basis for future verification of work results.

For example, for Joan's report, it can be defined as follows:

A. Actions Taken: Summarize the weekly information involved in the contract, write a report, summarize the progress of the work and the problems and deviations.

B. Result: Complete and print legible report in standard format, submit copies to me and headquarters every Friday.

The details listed in Item B of which define the standards for monitoring the quality of her work—reports must be neat, accurate, in the correct format, and submitted to the right people on time. These five criteria encapsulate all the important elements of the task, and if Joan achieves these five goals, she has accomplished her task satisfactorily.

As you analyze specific jobs, you may find that some jobs are not opportunities at all. You have absolutely no way of finding out the importance of these jobs. No matter how hard you and your employees try to discover, these jobs are still insignificant.

This is also normal. In fact, this is a wonderful new discovery! Whenever you discover that certain tasks are not important, you can free up the time and resources you should have spent on those tasks and use them for the things that really matter. If you started the work yourself and later found out that it didn't make any sense, just give up. If you take over the job from someone else, at least be careful not to waste too much time and energy on it.

Aligning individual and overall goals

At work, it is important to accurately align specific tasks and outcomes with overall work goals. It may be difficult at first, because the understanding of the importance of work is often based on subjective assumptions and lacks a global awareness. However, only when employees accurately grasp the meaning and necessity of this work can they arouse a strong personal motivation for work.

Another approach is to ask employees about their personal ambitions and goals and make them relevant to the job. Employees sometimes feel that doing a certain job can accumulate valuable experience for themselves, which will not only help them pay attention to their work, but also help improve the performance of the enterprise, so that employees can obtain material rewards or useful work experience, which will help them in the future. Promotion increases weight. Other times, employees are actively working, perhaps simply to develop a job skill.

There is a natural intersection between what is important to the business and what is important to the employees, most employees want to be involved in the work that is important to the business, and they value the feeling of being able to contribute to the business .

Even the most monotonous of jobs can be aligned with an employee's long-term goals. If nothing else works, you might as well ask your employees key questions like: "What do you want to be?" or, "What do you want to be in five years?" Make this work helpful in achieving their goals. Employees are usually happy to take on some additional job responsibilities as long as it helps to achieve their ambitions.

For example, assuming that Joan's ambition is to one day leave her current department and go into marketing, she might be happy to add a short report on customer service activities or other marketing aspects to her report, so that she can accumulate some Experience, to make a good foreshadowing for future steering.

However, a common problem is that there is sometimes a general lack of purpose at work. For example, the company itself lacks a detailed development plan and clear corporate goals. You and your employees cannot get any encouragement, and it is difficult to maintain a strong purpose at work. You also sometimes find that your business is in a state of stagnation, lacking the drive and vision to develop. In fact, this happens to most businesses. Just relying on your personal position and power, it is impossible to reverse the situation of the entire enterprise. At this time, what should you do?

Therefore, the most practical approach is to design a goal or plan for your team. This goal both lifts your spirits and has a positive impact on your employees. It is important to point out that these goals or plans cannot be inconsistent with the goals and plans of the entire enterprise. Generally speaking, the easiest way to set motivational goals for your team is to do your best to contribute to the success of your business, in combination with the direction your team is working in and your sphere of influence.

A postal system manager did just that. He organized his staff and spent several years figuring out how to make customers more satisfied, attracting a large number of new customers, and revamping the overall operation of his post office. At this time, the general climate of the national postal service system was quite bad.

Obviously, the out-of-the-way manager couldn't handle such enormous difficulties, but he was able to keep the system under his control thriving: business grew, and revenue was broken. Later, he traveled all over the country to teach his successful experience. His experience has proved that through the unremitting efforts of individuals, a department manager can still bring about huge changes to the entire enterprise.

Tasks within your reach

If you can't find other goals to motivate your employees, just focus on improving the quality of your work. That way, no matter what job you and your employees take on, you'll do it better than anyone else. If the work you undertake is very important, and in some way affects the bottom line of the business, or can affect customer satisfaction, then improving the quality of the work must have a positive impact on the business that exceeds expectations.

During this process, you must pay attention to the relationship between difficulty and motivation. Tasks that are too difficult are not motivating at all. If employees don't see any hope of accomplishing a task, they won't be willing to try. If they are forced to do so by their bosses, there will be extreme tension, stress and fear of failure. Therefore, a job that is too difficult can discourage employees from enjoying the joys of opportunity.

So what about the other way around? What about jobs that are unchallenging for employees, jobs that are easy, jobs that are trivial? Will they be happy about it? No, there is no sense of honor, no sense of accomplishment, no joy of success in doing this kind of work. People aren't interested in simple games where you can win big with little effort.

Therefore, it is important to ensure that employees take on tasks that are within their means. Employees are often too shy about speaking up about their fears, nervousness, or admitting their lack of knowledge about the job, so you have to ask them how they feel. It takes an open and honest attitude to finally understand what employees really think. Even if some jobs are too difficult for them, that doesn't mean they can't do it. What you need to do is to assure them that they will have the necessary support, guidance from you or other experienced colleagues in the process of completing the task, and that the task can be simplified by solving it step by step.

As a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your employees are challenged to the maximum extent possible, that each employee's work has a clear purpose, stimulates their interest, and is These goals are within the reach of external resources.

Excerpted with permission from the book Motivational Management: Inspiring Your People for Maximum Performance, by Alexander Hiam, published by AMACOM, a branch of the American Management Association, International Association. The author registered copyright in 2003. Translated by Zhu Xiaofan.

The English version of this book is sold by McGraw-Hill Education (Asia), Singapore.

Alexander Hiam has implemented "Incentive Management Training" in companies such as Ford Motor and AT&T, and has authored more than ten monographs.