By George Wentworth
What do you do when you have a well qualified employee whose work quality doesn’t measure up? Their below grade output is not the symptom, but rather the result of an uninspired and often unfulfilled employee.
Dissatisfied employees are generally under-performers that often fail at their jobs. Here are the mitigating steps you can take to motivate and inspire your teammates.
The need to increase skillfulness.
When someone fails at a given job, it’s not always due to a lack of interest in the task; it might be an inability to allocate a higher percentage of their mental capacity towards that specific task or set of tasks. The ability to channel a percentage of one’s mental capacity and direct it towards performing a specific task is what we call a skill. Some of this ability can be innate, but most can be trained to increase one’s skillfulness.
Employees who are averse to increasing their skillfulness might display a curmudgeonly unwillingness to perform a task, or they might simply be apathetic to it.
As their manager, you can intervene by first analyzing their motivations (or lack thereof) and then taking the appropriate action to disrupt this cycle of complacency. The first step in this evaluation is understanding the driving forces behind their lack of success: fear and work dissatisfaction.
Fear drives failure.
Oftentimes an under-performer’s inability is rooted in fear of failing, and in a deep-rooted need for constant reward and appraisal. This is exacerbated by any reprehension or negative feedback they might receive from their manager. But, as the manager, you must not lose focus, because an employee might fail due to work dissatisfaction much more than because of a bad manager or work-related criticism. So, the key here is to shift their focus and perception.
Work is not supposed to always be easy and comfortable; work should be hard and it should push the boundaries of someone’s comfort zone. By stepping out of the familiar and executing the unprecedented, real growth may be achieved. You can help them understand that and realize that sometimes negative feedback can be a driver to positive change.
Take the appropriate action, or you lose.
The road to help employees overcome a fear of failure and succeed despite, and because of, their failures begins with clear communication and trust. This foundation is paramount if you are to inspire them to change and improve.
Help them understand your company’s mission, your team’s vision, and their own unique contribution to it. People are more inspired when they feel a personal connection to someone or something, so you must encourage them to view their skills and input as a vital part of the machinery that makes your team successful, and that they will impact its growth.
Help them find their own motivation.
Because under-performance is strongly tied to work dissatisfaction, and discouraged employees are a weak addition to the team, you must engage and guide every team member to find their own motivation, rooting it in personal growth through trial and error, as well as in their unique contribution to the company.
Ultimately, it is not the pay, the benefits, or any other external benefit that will keep employees satisfied. They need to find internal motivation to achieve satisfaction at work. Their motivation should be intrinsic rather than extrinsic, and as their team leader, you can help them begin to understand that.