It seems intuitively obvious that marshalling a workforce to perform at consistent high levels would be a top priority for all businesses, small and large. Yet the task of understanding the nuances of positively impacting employees for the purposes of motivation, productivity and performance is somewhat elusive. The Harvard Business Review recently published an article titled, the Inner Work Life, which details their research on understanding the subtext behind business or at-work performance.
What their research suggests is that if an organization doesn't see peak performance in the workforce despite regular pep talks & updates, pizza Fridays and public recognitions in team settings then perhaps the organization hasn't taken care of employees' "inner work lives." The HBR study defines inner work lives as the interrelationship between employees' closely held private perceptions of their work environment, the emotions they experience as a result of this awareness, and their resulting level of motivation to perform and "do good work."
What's critical for small businesses and their leadership then is to demystify the inner work life system - that interplay beween employees' perceptions, emotions and movitation. Steps in this system include:
1. An event happens or annoucement made - like an email sent that doesn't get a response or a lay-off that is announced by senior management in a general email
2. Each individual tries to make sense of the occurrence - creating an internal explanation and determine potential implications
3. If resulting perceptions from the "making sense" phase are positive this fuels the employee's motivation which then drives performance along four dimensions - creativity (can produce new solutions), productivity (speed of output), commitment (buy-in to the work itself) and collegiality (ability to connect as a team member and as an active part of the organization).
If the resulting feelings are negative, then output suffers across all these areas.
What's interesting is that while giving positive feedback and other typical employee-building techniques are helpful in building a positive cycle inside employee's inner work lives, the single most important tool is helping people believe that they can make positive, forward progress in their work. To build that trust, and encourage a true belief in one's personal progress, managers and top executives need to:
1. Provide direct help
2. Provide appropriate resources & time to accomplish task
3. React to outcomes with a learning orientation, rather than simply an evaluative orientation
4. Set clear, understandable and believable goals and explain why their output matters to their team, organization and customers.
Shivonne Byrne, Innuity CMO
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