minutia that an imagination-first employee would find tedious. That employee might share that they don’t want to chat for an hour or more, seemingly aimlessly, to come up with brilliant new ideas, taking breaks to play ping pong. What they most enjoy is nose-to-the-grindstone, high-concentration tasks that allow them to feel like they have put puzzle pieces together to find a new way of doing something that may involve even more work, but they don’t care because what they most enjoy is…work!
Different Motivation Doesn’t Equal a Bad Employee
If an employee tells their boss honestly that they want to work hard to collaborate with colleagues to grow the business, but they want to do it in their own way, how much leeway should they be given?
The simplest-minded default is to immediately get angry with the employee because they have a different approach to getting work done and to find bad qualities to impute to them: “They’re lazy, they’re entitled, they have attitudinal issues, etc., etc., ad infinitum.”
The savvier approach is to see if the employee’s work preferences can be leveraged. A well-trained manager might say, “Well, Carla, that’s not the way I like to work, I have to say. Let’s see if we can come up with a routine that works for both of us. It would be a huge help if you could take some upcoming events and travel off my plate. If I’m being honest, I’m more of a head-down, work-first kind of gal. If you enjoy batting ideas back and forth over a lengthy cocktail hour, more power to you. We could use some of that interpersonal networking power and creative thinking!”
What is the best way to train managers to have conversations that reveal employees’ true motivations and then use that understanding to retain high-performing employees and grow the business?