A misconception, that you are paid to get work done: You can’t get work done until the employee feels he should do it. The role of the manager is to spark the fire of willingness to work. A stick in hand won’t get you a higher performance but the employee attrition would surely rise. The job of the manager is to make the team member so interested to work, that no supervision or reminder is ever needed to get the work done.
Similar rewards for all: The story of a crane and a fox helps us understand this better. The story revolved around a fox trying to feed a crane in a plate leaving the crane hungry and the other day the crane serves the fox in a vase giving him the taste of his own medicine. Not going by the moral, its apparent, not every team member can be rewarded in a similar way as the rewards might just leave him starved. If an employee requires autonomy to be creative, rewarding him with incentives, instead of autonomy, would not satiate him. If someone requires recognition, autonomy or monetary rewards won’t stand good for him. There should be tailor-made rewards for all and no common reward can be presumed to suit everyone. Reach the employee and talk to him.
Mood swings: A manager might be happy and involved one day and detached and bossy the other. Touching base with the employee or getting to know the team member everyday is what makes a perfect manager. What is the employee going through, and what can motivate him to work even better, comes with being stable with him everyday. You can’t talk to your employees only when you are on cloud nine and sit in your cabin the rest of your time. Ruchi Sabarwal, a manager at a renowned overseas student consultancy in India, would sit at the reception around her team, talking, working and fetching wonderful results. She had an admirable habit to remain calm and balanced and no bad day would take her back to her cabin to stay away from her team. Undoubtedly she was loved and supported in all situations and remains to be called an effective manager till date. Therefore, having a serious face won’t deliver you any respect but being with your employees everyday, understanding them and motivating them, would definitely fetch a higher performance from your employees.
A feeling of superiority : “I am the boss, so I have the right to scold him or hit him below the belt” or “He is my junior, he knows less than I do,” are some of the age old notions some managers still carry. Today it’s about equality. The team members agree to sell their time and services and the manager is a representative of the employer to guide them to achieve the goals and mission of the company. It’s a give and take and thus demands an equality in status of the manager and his team members. Employee turnover is noticed lower in those organizations where managers feel they are neither superior nor above any of their team members.