In a panel discussion on ‘Motivation’, three experts from different fields were invited. These panelists were senior persons in their own organizations. The participants were middle level persons in organizations like government departments, colleges and NGOs. The experts were duly introduced by the course coordinator. Now the ball was in experts’ court. Expert A stated ‘Ladies and gentlemen’ and so on. Expert B started ‘Participants in this programme’ and so on. Expert C got up from the dais, walked into the ‘well’ of the house and went straight to the last row. From there, he said ‘Very Good Morning, Friends’ and so on. Expert C became one with (the participants and, therefore, won their admiration which, eventually, led to his success as the outstanding panelist and motivator.

From the above, it follows that if you want to motivate your people, you have to be with them and not away from them. This is for the simple reason that everyone wants his identity as an individual, and not as a cog in the wheel to be recognized. Only then, he or she will be with you and not away from you. This is the first step towards motivating people.

Then comes, your own commitment and sincerity towards the people and, in the larger sense, towards the Organization. An Organization is a conglomeration of people. If the people are motivated on a regular and sustained basis, there is no reason why the Organization should not keep growing. When outside the boss’s chamber and in their own work place, people tend to talk frankly about the boss - his commitment and sincerity. That is the real opinion of the people and not what they express before the boss or in his chamber.

Have real Friends

It is very important for any boss to have good and real friends from within and outside the Organization who should tell him more about his minus points and not just flatter him by saying ‘everyone is all praise for you’. Equally important for the boss is to receive critical feedback with an open mind and sportingly and not start thinking ways and means of victimizing those who are very candid in their observations whether or not those observations are palatable to the boss or not. Let me give a live example.

In a manufacturing plant, an artisan was close to the Executive Director despite the very wide gap between the two in terms of status. The artisan was the eyes and ears of the ED. One day, while on duty in the night shift, at 11 p.m., he mustered lot of courage, picked up the receiver and rang up the ED at the latter’s residence. The ED was fast asleep. He, however, responded and asked the artisan ‘what is that which you want to tell me at this hour. To this, the artisan replied ‘Sir, that particular component of an equipment, about which you have been told that it would be ready within a week, shall not be ready in less than three months because even the raw materials have not been ordered’. Hearing this. ED got angry and said ‘don’t talk to me hereafter like this or else I will ‘see’ you. He banged the telephone. The net result was that the artisan, who was all along the confidant of ED, withdrew himself totally and thus the ED lost his ‘eyes and ears’ once and for all. The ED, therefore, failed in motivating his own man.

The moral of the above incident is that senior persons need to have lot of patience and tolerance. Also, ability to withstand odd situations in the larger interest of developing and retaining a motivated work force.

Performance is crucial

Just as five fingers are not equal, similarly, no two persons can be equal in intelligence, perception and performance. Performance is crucial to the success of any Organization. It is quite possible that a person may not do it as well as you will do it. But, you must control your temptation of taking over the task from him. Instead, make a cool and objective assessment, within yourself, as to why the person did not perform well. It could be on account of any one or more of these reasons; incompetence, lack of understanding, lack of commitment, an attitude of ‘what am I going to get’, etc.

These are the real challenges for the senior person. He needs to spend time in thinking over the causes of failure on the part of the concerned employee and then spend sometime with that employee. He should listen to him with patience, tolerance and understanding and make him feel at home. He should appreciate his problems and act as a facilitator and not as a faultfinder. He should make it clear to him “in the event of success, entire credit will be your’s (employee’s). For failure, responsibility shall be mine.” It is for him to devise ways and means of making his people as performers. It is his agenda and his job. Informatively, the ACRs for senior executive contain a column as to how does he get along with people and also how far is he able to build a team through motivation.

The well-known management ‘guru’, Bim Black said ‘People don’t dislike work’. Help them to understand mutual objectives and they’ll drive themselves to unbelievable excellence. This calls for close and continuous involvement of people in formulating plans and then in implementing them. This has to be done in an atmosphere of openness and fairplay. Involvement brings in its wake their participation and commitment to the set goals.

Appreciate good performance

Rules and regulations in any Organization impose lot many restrictions on the senior executives. They just can’t give promotions or increments except within the permissible rules; howsoever the persons may be ‘achievers’, leaving aside very exceptional cases. But, what they can surely do is to appreciate and pat good performance on a case-to-case basis and sparingly. Such appreciation should be done publicly. But reprimand should be done only on one-to-one basis or else the person pulled up will be demoralized with all its fall-out. I have come across many an enlightened top executive who introduce their people to other top people within and outside the Organization by lauding their contribution in the growth of the Organization. For example, CEO of an Organization said ‘Meet, Mr.Sharma, Chief of our Marketing Division. He and his team have successfully bagged a number of prestigious orders in the face of severe competition’. Just imagine the impact it would have left on Mr. Sharma who, surely, would have shared CEO’s appreciation with his team members.

All this is very fine. But a word of caution is necessary before I conclude. It is very important for a senior executive to observe the following:

Don’t be
• so soft that people will swallow you
• so simple that people can fool you
• so complicated that people can’t mingle with you
• so superficial that people don’t trust you
• so cheap that people can dance you around.

In the ultimate analysis, self-motivation and motivation of people is the key to the continued success of any Organization.

By arrangement with Kaleidoscope