Six Ways To Create A Motivating Workplace And Encourage An ‘Extra Step Culture’

What is it that makes one workplace productive, filled with energy, enthusiasm and a shared commitment to a common purpose, while others appear lacking in those qualities and, instead, finds workers instilled with a sense of frustration and boredom? 

The answer lies in ‘motivation’. A motivating environment is one where people are willing to work at their full capacity, give their best, and enjoy what they do, without any external push. It is an environment that ignites the will to do and the passion of shared goals.
Simply enjoying what you do creates momentum and it is the role of the leader to make sure that the work environment is full of positive energy and a can-do culture. 

Here are six different ways to help promote this type of working environment for our teams and ourselves: 

1. Link work objectives with the personal values of your team member: If individual team members feel that what they are doing is of no value, they can become unmotivated. It is the role of the team leader to help workers see the value of what they do and how their role helps the team reach key objectives.  

2. Communicate, listen, engage, offer feedback and define expectations: Reach out to team members for their feedback and how they feel about their role and shared objectives. Actively seek suggestions and opinions. 

3. Give team members space to work: Avoid becoming involved with every detail of the task at hand. Demonstrate that you trust and respect decisions by giving team members autonomy in their roles; coaching and mentoring, when necessary. 

4. Be fair and promote equality: Be equitable in the treatment of team members, especially when it comes to incentives and payment. Praise achievements and promote high performers. Likewise, be consistent when it comes to dealing with those who create a negative atmosphere, or perform poorly. 

5. Avoid routine and bureaucracy: Add fun and excitement to the work environment, wherever possible. People spend more time at work than they spend at home, or with friends. Lightheartedness breaks the routine and promotes enthusiasm and productivity.  

6. Dedicate some time each week on team building: Just a few hours each week spent on team-building exercises can dramatically boost morale and performance. 

Your team members deserve an open, positive, inspiring environment in which to develop their skills and grow in confidence and ability. By following these six steps you can motivate your people and transform the workplace into a positive environment where people can really enjoy their work. 

  

About the Author: 

Samir Bata

Samir Bata's expertise in Management and Leadership has been built in 26 years in key positions in sales, marketing, general operations management, and business development. In addition to his management and leadership expertise, Samir is also a Senior Associate at MCE. 

What employers are doing to fight youth unemployment?

Peter Vogel

Peter Vogel is an entrepreneur, consultant and researcher at the University of St Gallen. 

He is the founder of Jobzippers and Entrepreneurs’ Ship that helps highlight youth employment issues and solutions. He is the author of the just-published book ”Generation Jobless – Turning the Youth Employment Crisis into Opportunity” .

MCE: Generation Jobless is a huge issue that just isn’t going to go away. If you were a business leader what do you think could be your (no matter how small) contribution to helping people into real work?

Peter Vogel (PV): Employers play a key role in tackling youth unemployment and there are many different things that can and have to be done on that front. However, the issue is everything but straightforward and solutions always require an orchestrated effort from various stakeholders, including employers but also public policy, educational institutions and of course young people, too.

In ‘Generation Jobless?’ I discuss dozens of examples of what employers are doing to fight youth unemployment. Overall, one can sum them up into the following action items:

Employers must

1.      Properly think through the actual ‘business case’ for hiring young people and balance the advantages and disadvantages. Overall, when taking a long-term perspective, they will come to the conclusion that it pays off to engage in young recruiting rather sooner than later. 
2.     Assume their responsibilities in preparing youth for the world of work by closely collaborating with the education system, providing internship and mentoring opportunities, giving lectures and talks in school, attending career fairs and other career-related events and open up their doors for young people. 
3.     Build a global skills supply chain in order to recruit for tomorrow’s needs instead of yesterday’s needs. 
4.     Ensure that they build adequate vocational training opportunities to counteract the increasing academization and help build relevant skills and capabilities on the job.
5.      Build a workforce management system that allows them to effectively work with four or five generations of employees.
6.     Ensure that there are sufficient youth-compatible jobs available in their companies, taking into account the Digital Natives’ characteristics and expectations from work. 
7.     Ensure that tomorrow’s leaders (i.e., the talents from today’s youth) find a stimulating and satisfying work environment in order to ensure continuity when the older managing employees are retiring. This needs to be done by building a 21^st century workplace.

MCE: You talk a lot about entrepreneurs and the vast reservoir of creative energy. How do we promote that in the school system to encourage people to try out new ideas and take risks?

PV: Entrepreneurship is considered one of the most promising avenues to solving the current youth labor market crisis. Why? Because it is one of the main drivers of innovation, economic and societal development and job creation.

As I argue in ‘Generation Jobless?’, the promotion of youth entrepreneurship is essential to tackling youth unemployment, because it…

•  …creates employment opportunities for those that start the businesses as well as those that they employ, particularly because young entrepreneurs are more prone to hiring other young people
•  …brings back alienated and marginalized youth into the labor market
•  …helps address socio-psychological issues arising from unemployment
•  …helps youth develop new skills and professional experience that, in turn, can enhance their general employability
•  …revitalizes local communities through new products and services
• …capitalizes on the youth’s particular responsiveness to new trends and opportunities
• …keeps young and otherwise idle young people occupied, which is always better than not having anything to do leaving them feeling useless and without hope.

Promoting an entrepreneurial mindset early on in life – at school or at home – is the key to success when it comes to boosting youth entrepreneurship. It therefore also cannot be considered a short-term solution to the crisis but rather a long-term strategic shift of the labor market.

To foster an entrepreneurial mindset, we need to…

• …make room for creativity and inspiration – at home, in school, and elsewhere.
• …give our kids the opportunity to develop financial literacy in a fun and playful way.
• …help them jump over their shadow and pro-actively engage in conversations.
• …foster their problem-solving skills by brainstorming solutions to their problems.
• …turn learning into a fun and playful setup to acquire important skills.
• …let them take responsibility and make decisions.
• …help them experience risk and their boundaries.
•  …allow our children to be critical about the status quo and come up with better ideas.

MCE:   For every well-educated kid out there, you’ll find another nine who are in the wrong place with the wrong qualifications at the wrong time. How do we get better at predicting where the new jobs will come from?

PV: Overall, we can say that the level of education is less an issue than the “match” between what is being taught and what is being looked for on the labor market. According to UNESCO, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for Tertiary Education in Europe went up from around 50% in 1999 to above 70% in 2013. Of course this picture looks different in developing countries, but even on a global level it went up from 20% to over 30%.

Hence, in order to become better at predicting where new jobs will come from, employers need to spend significant time on predicting their future skills requirements – that is build a global skills supply chain. At the same time, the interaction between the employers and the education system must become more frequent and relevant. Unfortunately, we can observe a drift into theory at academic institutions, which further reduces the chances of teaching practical and relevant things. It is therefore even more important that employers get active and try to connect into the education system to shape what is being taught.

MCE:    And a simple question. If you are 16 years old what do you do to give yourself a better chance of climbing on the career ladder and being a success? What experience and what qualifications will win through?

PV: There are of course many evident steps that can be taken to enhance one’s employability, including internships, language courses, exchange programs, etc. However, this is a rather blunt advice that doesn’t seem to have done too much in helping the Gen Y and Gen Z in getting ready for the world of work. First of all, because there are not enough youth-specific job opportunities and second, because today’s youth has fundamentally different expectations from work than those 40 or 50 years ago. Hence, the best thing that young people can do is to try and develop a clear understanding of what they specifically want to do with their life and which career path is a realistic and interesting option for them – corporate, entrepreneurial, academic, political, etc. The better one gets at understanding one’s goals in life, the easier it gets to align the specific next steps to reach that goal. The current youth seems to have a particularly hard time to express their goals and ambitions. 

The best way to ensure career success

Amrit Thind

A series of interviews with experienced players and experts in human resources and organizational development. Here we ask the questions to Amrit Thind, who is taking an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at ESADE Business and Law School in Barcelona. He explains what he sees as the best way to ensure career success.

MCE : In your recent experiences as a student, what are business schools NOT putting into their curriculum that you think should be on the ”MUST teach them” list?

Amrit Thind (AT): Business Schools are increasingly moving away from standardized teachings; too often students tend to only enter the professional world with a strong understanding of management principles, financial fundamentals, and the basics of large industry to assist them in their job hunt. However, what students lack nowadays is a basic ability to solve problems.

For the past decades European educational systems have spoon-fed students problems and accordingly the right solutions. Students don’t tend to make many mistakes. This needs to change. For example, the MSc Innovation & Entrepreneurship program at ESADE Business & Law School has a different approach to educating their students: The course is very much built on practical principles, providing students with an array of different problems to solve: starting an innovative new venture from scratch, for instance. This gives students the freedom to identify problems and figure out how to solve them however they best see fit. More importantly, making mistakes is a crucial part of the process.

  

MCE: What life/work experiences do you think that you NEED to have to become an effective people manager and respected leader?

AT: Working in teams and taking on various roles with different people is absolutely key to becoming an effective people manager and respected leader. No matter where you work, people will always challenge you. The sooner you learn to manage individuals with different personalities, backgrounds, mindsets, and working styles, the better.

Moreover, if you want to become an effective people manager and respected leader, it is also crucial for you to allow yourself to be managed by someone else in order to identify how it would be working for yourself. Reflecting on who you are and what you do is often more revealing than anything else in developing strong managerial and leadership skills. 

  

MCE: If you could choose to spend 24 hours with any business/management guru/thinker what would be your choice and why? (Basically – who IS your hero?)

AT: I would love to spend 24 hours with the authors of Freakonomics, University of Chicago economist, Steven Levitt, and New York Times journalist, Stephen J. Dubner.

Whilst their infamous book is already a decade old, I try to listen to their podcasts on Freakonomics Radio as often as possible. They talk about incredibly interesting topics, often discussing every-day issues and unveiling unexpected results. For example, do you know what “temptation bundling” is? Or did you know that the ability to think like a child could be incredibly fruitful in idea generation and developing creativity? I would highly recommend Freakonomics Radio for anyone who is looking for some intellectual stimulation during the commute. If you don’t know where to get started pick up any of the podcast episodes. It will definitely hook you.

MCE: Despite the fact that it appears to be a young people’s world, it looks like we are going to have to work until our 70s. What’s your thinking about keeping yourself up-to-speed current and relevant in your personal career cycle?

 AT: I believe there are two elements that are crucial in keeping yourself up-to-speed and relevant in your personal career: Innovation and the ability to sell - yourself and your product or service.

Innovation is key because it is what companies rely on to continually grow and stay differentiated. In fact, without innovation, corporations become arrogant and die. Therefore, staying innovative doesn’t only mean that you need to keep in touch with the modern world and technology – which is often overwhelming in and of itself. More importantly, never become arrogant and always listen to your customers. This is not just a lesson for your professional career; it is a lesson for life.

Sales are key because, ultimately, everything boils down to sales: You may have an impressive personality and skill set; you may have amazing work experience and a wonderful CV; you might have the most incredible product or service in the world. But if you don’t know how to quantify your value proposition, identify your customer, and understand their needs as well as match your solution to their needs, you will be forever stuck in the same place.

Whilst innovation and sales are important, I believe that, if we are going to have to work until our 70s, it is equally important to take a step back and breathe every once in a while. The world moves so fast nowadays. We are constantly bombarded with information and things we should do: Emails, LinkedIn, WhatsApp Messages, and Facebook notifications – it is easy to become overwhelmed. Step back and breathe – if you are going to work into your 70s, you better find a way to enjoy it. 

Leading Maverick Managers

VIEWPOINT: Innovative thinkers are often mavericks. Rudi Plettinx, Managing Director of Management Centre Europe, says we need them, in this fifth in a series of articles for IEDP: Maverick managers, off-the-wall employees, tortured geniuses – individuals that we have been taught, counselled and warned to leave well alone. Staff recruiters weed them out early in any selection process and any inherited non-conformists get sent packing to the outer limits of the corporate empire. “A new world of work where similarity breeds contempt” Until now, standard procedure seems to have been building organizational cultures filled with like-minded people, none of whom will ever rock the boat, much less capsize it. But, as I keep trying to impress upon my peers, we are leading and managing in a new era of work. A new world of work where similarity breeds contempt and the status quo needs a good shaking up. Why ? Simple. Talent is in ever shorter supply, meaning hiring our preferred people is harder than ever. At the same time, we need to innovate and invent to survive. This means that there is an urgent imperative to think new, radical thoughts about our businesses. And if you want radical thinking where else to go but to the source of all things different – the maverick executive. We’ve all met them, many of us have worked with them. They are the loose cannons of corporate life. Their travelling companions are chaos and confusion, but they may just offer new insights into how to boost a business, promote a product, or smarten up a service line. My argument is that in today’s business world we need these people who think and act differently to ourselves and our plain vanilla compatriots. Only problem with mavericks, you have to know how to lead them! As a leader, the first thing to recognise is that maverick employees need one thing above all else – freedom. Try and tie them down to the rules that the rest of us follow and they will quickly get frustrated and quit. Conversely, if you give them a totally free rein chaos can ensue and others will leave instead! Second thing to take on board is that these wonderful, wacky people need lots and lots of encouragement – amazingly they often have quite a low opinion of themselves and the more you praise their efforts the better they will be. Thirdly, you need to create a climate that can support them without turning off your run-of-the-mill corporate clones – the Bills, Bobs and Bettys, that your recruitment agency would much rather you were hiring. These employees need assurance too (most importantly that you haven’t gone crazy), but they also need to be told that these mavericks are not different; they are part of the team. So, if you want to put some maverick’s into your business, how should you deal with them ? Here’s a few thoughts to get you started. Make them part of the group you lead (be sure they feel valued) and make real efforts to integrate them. However, also spend a lot of face-time with the others in the group so they know what the score really is. Tell your maverick(s) that you welcome their ideas (however weird and wonderful they may be!) and you look forward to them. Above all you want them to make a contribution and feel that they can be as open and as innovative as possible. Set goals and challenges for them. This keeps them focused on what you want, not what they would like to do. Most mavericks have short attention spans and if not watched can wander off and get into trouble. Follow up quickly with their ideas and their actions. It’s all about encouragement. If an idea isn’t worth pursuing say so and move on. But rather than saying “no,” suggest they think about their idea in another way. What you want is positive reinforcement, not a series of turn-offs. However, never say, “It’s a great idea,” where it clearly isn’t. By trying to build up their credibility you will quickly lose your own. Don’t say, “I’ll get back to you,” and leave them waiting days for a response. Say you will consider their idea and get back to them in 24 hours and make sure you do it. And what about conflict ? Well it does happen. Most often because other members of the team can feel sidelined or ignored and take it out on your mavericks. If that happens, confront it. Make it clear what each member of your team is supposed to do – so everyone understands the responsibilities and the roles they play. Don’t play favourites. Properly led, mavericks can play a major role in organizational success. Is it worth the trouble ? If you know why they are there and you can keep them focused, yes it is. Otherwise stick with those cosy clones although that way corporate life will never be as much fun! This column on leadership and organizational development is written exclusively for IEDP by Rudi Plettinx, Managing Director of Management Centre Europe, the Brussels-based learning and development organization. Have a comment or a question? Connect with him via Linkedin.

Communication – a soft skill?

Bettina Hausmann

Bettina Hausmann helps professionals optimize their business communication and leadership skills for improved results. Bettina has longstanding experience consulting blue chip companies, international organizations, EU officials and associations in their positioning, campaigning, media relations, stakeholder outreach and issues communications. She has also trained hundreds of senior managers including C-level in message development, media and stakeholder relations, and presenting and handling issues. In addition to her communication and leadership expertise, Bettina is also an accredited executive coach and Senior Associate at MCE. Here, she talks about communication skills. 

Often times when I mention I give communication training, I hear: ‘Aha, so you are doing soft skills?’ Indeed, some organisations and trainers put communication training into the category of ‘soft skills’.

We are in communications indeed, and it bothers me when communication is linked to a term that is synonymous of fluffy, blurry and mushy. When you google images for ‘soft’, you’ll get flowers, feathers and marshmallows. For some, ‘soft skills’ seem to stand for easy, secondary and difficult-to-grasp abilities. Hard skills, on the contrary, evoke knowledge, occupational skills and must-haves for your job.

The term ‘soft skills’ and its underlying perceptions undervalue the role and importance of communication. The Holmes report has quantified the cost of miscommunication in companies to dozens of billions of dollars every year. And one does not need to think as far back as the BP oil spill to realize that poor crisis communication can cause huge reputational and financial damage.

Mastering their communications will help professionals achieve tangible business impact and shape their careers. 

Take, for instance, the five areas below:

1. Presentation: You can learn how to package and deliver your message in a way that your audiences will act on it. Wanting, and even liking to be on stage is possible, and it does marvels.
2. Media: When running a media interview, you’d better know how to develop, tailor and deliver your messages. And how to move from a victim to an effective spokesperson.
3. Crisis: We are all prone to crisis, and business leaders better prepare for different crisis scenarios, developing skills and materials to tap into, in case their reputation is at stake one day … and everything goes really, really fast.
4. Negotiation: Knowing the rules of the game helps mastering it. It enables you to make informed choices, depending on your goals, the situation and the negotiators at the table.
5. Conflict: When conflict emerges, you will appreciate mastering difficult conversations.

There is so much to learn and enhance. Some of my most interesting clients are already great communicators. They understand the value and power of communication and carve time out of their busy agendas - sometimes in the late evening - to lift their stakeholder outreach skills to another level.

Soft is the contrary of hard, maybe even the contrary of real. Rather than shifting communication to another secondary category of skills, I’d advice putting it centre stage. Communication is business-critical.

What makes now a great and successful leaders is not anymore the most important question.

Johan Beeckmans

Johan Beeckmans’s extensive international expertise in leadership, strategy and management development has been built over a 25 year career in key Human Resources roles and senior positions with international companies in the US and Europe. He is also Senior Associate at MCE and he talks about Leadership development. 

How to change the mindset?

What makes now a great and successful leaders is not anymore the most important question. It is about how to change the mindset? This can be done following the four step approach.

• Self-awareness

It is the basis of our knowledge about ourselves. With self-awareness we have a reasonable chance not only to develop good and solid social skills, but to start to change our mindset. Without it, there is unfortunately little chance to change the mindset. It is a journey that requires continuously building and refining a set of skills that allows people to guide, inspire, and work with others as well as making their plan for the “stages” they need to go through. It considers both horizontal and vertical development. 

Great managers have a wide range of competencies to draw on. They understand their strengths and weaknesses, their preferences, what makes them tick, what they avoid and how they learn. They know themselves well. Successful leaders learn from listening to others and from feedback. They are open to listen to feedback and make the necessary changes in their behaviors in order to plan their own stages of development.  And becoming a more complex thinker, they focus on vertical development i.e, the steps to become a more complex thinker.

•  Inspiring the Team 

Great managers and leaders know exactly what their role is in the team. They read the situation and understand what is needed from them. Great managers create a great atmosphere to work in. The manager – and their behaviors – has the biggest impact on team climate.  Team climate affects performance. It affects the amount of effort people in the team will contribute. The more they contribute, the more successful the team will be.  Positive climates encourage extra effort – negative climates inhibit it. High performance climates are characterized by individuals, who routinely do whatever it takes – who exceed expectations. Extended periods of poor climate may cause people to lose faith in the idea that things can improve, leading people to disengage from their jobs and the organization.  

•  Leading in a complex world

One of the things that matter, of course, is our capacity to hold and understand complexity. Leaders need to have the ability for each of us to hold the shades of grey complexity brings with it. Leadership is filled with so many shades of grey, so it matters that we can see those different shades. The complexity does not only comes fro the outside environment, but more so from the internal environment. Successful leader lead with mindfulness in their teams, organizations. This is the only way we can change happen in the organization. The reason that managers at higher levels of development are able to perform more effectively is that they can think in more complex ways.

•   Create your Personal Leadership Brand

Effective managers ask themselves: “What are the demands of my managerial situation?” Then they select the right leadership styles in response to the demands of the situation, considering:

ƒ. the experience and capability of team members

ƒ. the complexity of the task

ƒ. time pressures and resource availability

ƒ. the risks that result from under-performance

ƒ. the organization’s culture or norms.

Finally, they keep an open mind and observe their impact, watch out for changes in the situation that demand a different approach, and assess changes in the climate they are creating for their team.
Managing your personal brand requires leaders to be a great role model, mentor, and / or a voice that others can depend upon.

A major part of leadership development is helping people develop how they think.

How they get to an answer matters more than ever. The focus is on the individual’s responsibility for own development. And it starts with the self-awareness and the ability to change the mindset.  When people are confronted with increased complexity and challenge that can’t be reconciled with what they know and can do at their current level, people have to take the next step. Development accelerates when people are able to identify the assumptions that are holding them at their current level of development and find a way to do something about it.

Where to start? A starting point can come from redefining what is meant by the term leadership. It is not anymore the heroic leader with the 5, 7, 10 traits that makes them successful. Leadership is a process of mobilizing people to face difficult challenges, process of inspiring teams to high performance; process of leading in a complex world and above all to create a leadership brand. Who is the leader becomes less important than what is needed in the system and how we can produce it.

Have a comment or a question? Please comment below. 

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The best route to being a successful leader

A series of interviews with experienced players and experts in human resources and organizational development. Here we ask the questions to professional executive recruiter Anthony McAlister of Thorburn McAlister, a London-based consulting firm, with a worldwide client portfolio in the energy, financial and transportation  sectors.

MCE :You’ve frequently commented that leaders who fail rarely get their top job back. How do you get back on top after a fall?

Anthony McAlister (AMc) : All our research shows that employers value a leader’s sector experience  a great deal more than success.  The rule is, if you fail publicly you must clearly explain what went wrong and what you have learned as a result.  You must also balance the story with ALL the good things you achieved.  However, you must be realistic about your age and length of tenure as it will effect your ability to climb back on the success ladder. You should always have a plan B and – critically -  time limit your job search.

MCE : What’s the best route to being a successful leader, what should you study, what experience should you have?

AMc :Three words – operations, operations, operations.  It’s best  if you come from a general management route, running parts of the business with international experience and a track record of turnaround/profitability.  CFO’s often step up but usually because it’s a safe/cheap/fast option and cost cutting is required.  Unfortunately, as track records show,  they are more likely to reduce shareholder value.

MCE : And the much discussed MBA ( from a good business school ), do you really need it, or should you spend your time and energy on something else??

AMc : An MBA is a useful learning experience, but will never be valued more highly than experience and success.

MCE : And the tendency for corporate leaders to suffer from the need to leave a legacy... what’s your advice on that – does it ever serve a useful purpose.?

AMc : Apart from the a handful of  tech wizzkids I don’t really recognise this. CEOs of public companies are fixated on share price: nothing else matters to the board, the analysts, or the shareholders and, in fact,  themselves. Controversially, emerging research is showing how little real affect CEOs have on their businesses. So, leaving on a high is  perhaps, sadly, just a matter of both luck and judgement.  The legacy that’s unfortunately left is  a declining share price, profit warnings and restructuring.

MCE : Finally, you are noted for your encouragement of women in the C- suite. What’s the biggest obstacle to getting (and staying) on top?

AMc : Traditionally women have been attracted to project-based professions that allow for raising families like accountancy and law.  This is why we see so many female NEDs (non-executive directors) coming from these backgrounds. However, this trend is changing and marketing and business development are now common NED profiles.  But what do we mean by C- suite ?, look at most large public businesses and you will see female HR and Communication specialists prominent in the mix.  But to get to CEO it always comes back to operational experience.  Staying there is easy, (consistently good performance) – most effective  women  leaders don’t seem to  have a problem with this.