Management Gets the Workforce it Deserves

By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU

Two unrelated events that took place in the same week were the flint and steel that sparked the idea for this reflection on “attitude” as a product of behavior. The ‘flint’ was an article in a HR newsletter sent to me. On the whole it was a rather bland article entitled “What Makes a Bad Work Day” that reported on a workplace survey that found employees said “#1- customers, #2- the boss, #3- coworkers, #4- subordinates, #5- equipment at work.” Not very enlightening, is it? But a sidebar with the heading “Can you catch a bad mood?” hinted at a much more profound and useful concept. The ‘steel’ was a conversation I had with a manager at a utility in this program, a conversation that took a turn toward the philosophic, starting with a discussion about workers’ support for management’s safety programs, and ending up talking about management styles and employee attitudes. As you might imagine, this was not the first time this topic has come up in a conversation with managers in this program.

The shaping of individuals’ attitudes toward their jobs and performance in those jobs takes place almost daily through interaction with people at work, especially through interactions with their direct supervisors and managers. Yes, managers and supervisors have extraordinary influence in shaping the workplace attitudes of the people they supervise. The question is, will they use this influence in positive, effective ways or unwittingly allow poor attitudes to develop.

The newsletter article highlighted the fact that attitudes can be contagious. People tend to behave similarly to those around them, even synchronizing their physical stances, gestures, expressions, and volume levels to match their surroundings. We all do this automatically and even subconsciously; just think about the differences in the behaviors of an audience for a stage play vs. one for a ball game. The discussion with the manager resonated with a familiar idea you may have heard from me before, that is, managers get the workforce they deserve, since it is a reflection of their own behaviors!

“Management gets the workforce it deserves,” means that every day in all our interactions with our workers we give subtle but very clear messages about what we value, what we measure, and what we want people in our employment to do. Let’s explore this idea a bit further through a “thought experiment.”

To set the scene, how many of you have heard, or perhaps have even said, something like “Kids these days just don’t have a work ethic?” Or, “Most workers only perform well when you watch them?” If we act on these attitudes by closely supervising workers or by treating young workers with suspicion we will send a clear message to them. How would you feel if your “boss” checked on your performance constantly, or hovered in the area while you were working, or required you to provide constant updates on all that you do each day? Would you feel trusted and valued? Would it motivate you to try harder? I doubt it.

If this approach wouldn’t work well for you, why would it work well for anyone? Sure, a new employee requires instruction, guidance, and closer supervision than a veteran does, but primarily to insure that work processes are properly learned and the worker is protected from the consequences of any error due to lack of knowledge, not to make sure the worker is working!

I suggest that workers are just like you, very much like autonomous, thinking, feeling, human beings. So much like that in fact, that they are just that! Why would we treat them otherwise?

Here’s the thought experiment — Imagine that 4 out of every 5 times your boss speaks to you, it is to criticize your work, find fault with what you have done, nitpicking, carping, and expressing dissatisfaction, saying things like, “Here, let me have that, here’s how to do it, see?” and similar comments. Now imagine you see the boss walking toward you. How do you feel? Are you happy, excited, glad of an opportunity to show your work? Not likely. More likely you feel tense, threatened, and wish you could hide, anticipating some new complaint.

Yet this is the trap that awaits nearly everyone who supervises others. The 80-20 rule suggests that managers spend 80% of their time on the 20% of work that is not going well. But, managers who believe this can easily fall into the trap of constantly watching for errors, hoping to spot them early on and save some of their valuable time consumed in that 80%. They end up like the boss above, hyper-alert for any shortcomings, and constantly critiquing work to try to keep it on track. This creates nervous, insecure employees, who then pass this mindset on by using a similar approach to their own employees and so on.

But what if, instead of criticism, your boss looked for things you do well, and pointed them out for recognition? This type of supervisor pays attention to what’s getting done all along the way, and provides regular and appropriate feedback, but instead of hunting for errors, tries to catch you doing things right! And not just exceptional things, either. In fact, performing work exactly as expected is cause for celebration, not ambivalence.This is not, and should not be seen as, Pollyanna-ish, happy talk, but rather as honest feedback that can even address outcomes that didn’t measure up, but in a positive way.

“Thanks for getting that done.”
“Nice job on that. You did it exactly as it should be done.”
“Okay, that didn’t come out as we had hoped. Let’s talk about it and let me show you another way to do it. I want you to be successful, so let’s work it through.”

Of course, competent, well-trained employees who really want to do a good job sometimes make mistakes. When the mistake occurs, management should ask these key questions: “Why would a competent, well-trained employee who really wants to do a good job make this mistake?” and “What can we do to help assure that neither this worker, nor any other competent, well-trained employee who really wants to do a good job will not make this same mistake again?”

Consistently and diligently offering praise, thanking employees for a job well done, is best motivator you can use; one that has the added advantage of costing you nothing! When I talk about complimenting, praising, and thanking someone for things done well, I’m not talking about things done above and beyond the normal expectations of the job. I’m talking about recognizing work or tasks done exactly as we want and expect them done.

I’m a big believer in self-fulfilling prophecies. If you treat employees as failures, they become failures. If you treat them as quality, productive, successful employees, they become quality, productive, successful employees. In the words of Dean Wisecarver, our founder, “Appreciation on the loose is powerful!”