Recently, I have had the opportunity to speak in front of a group of executives. They were all coming to hear how to boost productivity further and change the mentality in their teams. With no direct answer, I initially generated some unsatisfied expressions. And then, in the run of our meeting, one of the executives said, “I think that I am worthless when it comes to engaging people. No matter what I do, they don’t see it as something meaningful. People around me always complain.”
And this opened all the other executives. They all shared similar stories – trying their best to “engage” people. While our meeting was divided into four parts, I waited for the third part to start asking. I asked about responsibility, why the executives thought it was their responsibility to engage people, etc. The most common answer for who is responsible for people engagement was that its direct manager should care about it. And this was so wrong. No one can make a person engaged and motivated; no one except them alone. Engagement and motivation do not come from the outside; they are internally built within the individual. The factors that may affect motivation and engagement are often made within the outside world, but still, the individual is the main contributor toward how engagement and motivation look.
The most common way a leader can help the person with their motivation and engagement is not by “trying to build it” but by allowing them to realize how they add value to the organization. There are many ways to do that, but the simplest is coaching. Basically, what coaching does is to help the individual come out with self-built answers to their questions and concerns.
The role of the leader here is not to solve the issues but to help the individual find the best way to come out with the positives from each situation. Often, coaching is used for solving technical issues, problems, and operational situations, but leaders struggle when trying to implement it to help individuals develop. What is even worse is that leaders, not realizing what they do, often replace coaching with mentoring and giving ready-to-implement solutions that look OK from their side only.
I use four questions to help people define their internal value to the organization and see their unique place in the big picture.
What challenges are you encountering with your peers/executives and the company?
Starting from the outside circle is always a good idea. Helping the individual define where they stay in the organization is a starting point no leader should miss. To understand their value, people must know how their unique position places them in the organizational structure and priorities. This is easily seen and understood through the point of personal value. Making the person think about how they contribute moves the pressure from explanation to self-awareness. What comes from self-awareness is much stronger than the weak or generic person description created in someone else’s mind, even if that someone else is their boss.
Is the job you are hired to do the job you are doing
People join organizations intending to do a specific job, but things change. Someone adds one thing to their job description and then another thing and another. You understand what I mean. One day, an individual wakes up to realize that what they were hired for is in the past, and now their job description and responsibilities look different. That often frustrates people and makes them think how miserable their profession has become, how insignificant their internal unique proposition is for others and the company, etc. With this in mind, the job value declines faster than anyone can handle the problem. However, asking the question of the work is the starting point where an individual may find solutions on how to build their path forward.
How many hours a week are you working?
Many of us tell a lie to ourselves that we balance between work and personal life. This issue has risen too much with the rise of the culture of distance working and no need to be in the office. People started losing sight of what they do and how they do it. Including personal engagements and social events in the working day makes people look like they do much more work. However, a recent study by Harvard Business Review shows that people are primarily delusional when they evaluate or count their work hours. This same study indicates that no matter the duration of the work day, people working distantly are eighteen percent less productive and effective than those in the office. The same study also indicates that people in the office work on an average base of 5,1 hours daily. And even those looking overwhelmed. Now, as an individual, the critical thinking exercise everyone must conduct is not how many hours but how many productive hours you work during the week.
Are you being compensated fairly for the work you are doing?
By definition, people believe they’re not fairly paid, regardless of whether they receive above or below the market salary. But fair compensation is more than what a person thinks is best for them. To determine if the settlement is fair to the market, the person needs to research and analyze information about the market condition. This evaluation of the market salary should bring realistic data compared with the industry in which the person works. For example, if you look at an accountant in the FMCG and Fintech industries, salaries may fluctuate on a large scale. But then you must also evaluate complexity, security, and additional skills that may be needed for the job. With all this information, a comparison of both, at first sight, similar roles may come out with a different output. The next step is to be honest and admit to yourself how equal or better, how other both parts are. And if there is no match for eighty or more percentage between both, you may need to slightly change your understanding of what fair pay looks like. If the case is that more than eighty percent of the roles are similar and you are with the lower payment, then you may go and ask for more with confidence.
Having all the information and no discussion with satisfying answers or perspectives for you. Then, if the payment is a crucial milestone, you may need to look for another opportunity.
IN CONCLUSION:
The value and the perception of value that each person has for themselves may differ in the organization. While we are sometimes tempted to boost our confidence with unrealistic expectations, the wise approach is always to analyze situations and make logical decisions based on facts and strong logic. Having come to this type of decision changes our mindset as employees and drives our findings to the best choice we can make. Asking ourselves provocative questions like those four and searching for a logical instead of a convenient answer is a challenging exercise. But making this exercise right may bring the person to new heights or save them and the organization from unpleasant and unwanted situations.
The Human place 