Worker motivation has been a challenge and opportunity, and it has been written and discussed ever since there have been organizations and workers. This can be seen in the hundreds if not thousands of articles, books, videos, and talks found on the internet. Today it continues to present a challenge for organizations and leaders. Today’s workforce has different expectations from their organizations and leaders, particularly since the Pandemic and with an increased hybrid and/or remote workforce.
Dan Pink in his Ted Talk – The Puzzle of Motivation notes that workers are motivated by Autonomy, Purpose, and Mastery. In other words, they do not want to be micro-managed, they want to do something bigger than them and want to continue to learn irrespective of age and stage of their career.
Another study by the Boston Consulting Group as highlighted in their Ted Talk – The 2030 Workforce Crisis and How to begin solving it, found that when 200,000 global workers were asked what they were looking for in their future employer, their number one response was appreciation, a simple thank you and their 8th response was salary.
Today’s workforce is also looking for happiness, a positive workplace experience, an empathetic and compassionate leader, an inclusive workplace, and being listened to by their leaders. This last part is particularly interesting since in the book, The Mind of a Leader, the authors highlighted a study where only 8% of leaders were found to be effective listeners and communicators.
We’ve also learned from neuroscience research that our brain’s primary role is to survive. And what our brain needs are leaders who create environments that feel safe and certain. Leaders who communicate well, make understanding easy so we do not waste time and energy trying to understand what to do next.
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A Human Intelligent Workplace can lead to becoming a Great Place to Work due to having a happy workforce and as it experiences a positive work environment. Today and tomorrow’s workplace and workforce will be different.
Is your organization ready for these changes?
Take our “Human Intelligent Workplace Questionnaire“Â to find out.
It has been highlighted that managers can impact an employee’s health more than their doctor and that they have a 70% variance in team engagement. This is probably why it’s been found that 35% of employees would give up a pay raise to see their boss fired. Because today’s workforce wants managers that care about them and unfortunately too many managers do not seem to know how.
So, what can managers do in these changing times? For starters, they need to listen and truly try to understand their workforce’s perspective and issues. They need to create psychological safety, so employees are truly engaged and feel valued not only as employees but also as humans.
We know from research that when an employee is happy and motivated they are nine times more loyal, 31% more productive, and 55% more creative. Based on these expectations and in turn results of an engaged workforce, it only makes sense for leaders to be more engaged in creating better human experiences in the workplace, because those organizations that create these positive workplace experiences tend to have higher revenue and outperform S&P 500.
Leaders need to realize, that once they step into a leadership role they become a celebrity because the spotlight is always on them. People watch what they say and do. They also serve in a quasi-psychologist role. Because they have to watch their own mindsets and behaviors when working with their teams, but also realize that they have to be aware of their worker’s psychological state of mind and what they may also be dealing with in their personal lives. In addition, they serve in a quasi-sociologist role because they have to pay attention and ensure that they enable and create positive team dynamics. Last, they need to realize that culture is a reflection of leadership and because of this they play a quasi-anthropologist by ensuring they are creating a healthy organizational culture and environment.
Leaders also need to be cognizant that organizations of today and tomorrow will need to have effective leadership behaviors that create an organizational culture where the workforce experience enables them to be engaged while working with their diverse team members. To ensure they are creating psychologically safe environments, where the workforce feels listened to, understood, and fulfilled. In essence, it creates a Human Intelligent Workplace which in turn can create a motivated workforce.
Leaders need to be also aware of the Galatea and Pygmalion effect. The Galatea effect is based on an individual’s expectation of themselves. Leaders may actually feel that they are more effective at motivating their workforce than they really are. The Pygmalion effect is about people’s expectations of others. So, what do you expect from your team? Do you have your favorites-really? Both of these are filled with our own biases that we need to be aware of and monitor so as to not create an exclusive environment.
In summary, a Human Intelligent Workplace can lead to becoming a Great Place to Work due to having a happy workforce and as it experiences a positive work environment. Today and tomorrow’s workplace and workforce will be different. Is your organization ready for these changes?
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