In his book, "Delivering Happiness, A Path To Profits, Passion and Purpose", Tony Hsieh, current CEO of Zappos, describes a typical work day at his first programming job at Oracle.
"All I had to do was run a couple of tests every day. It took about five minutes to set up a test, and then about three hours for the automated test to run, during which time I would just be sitting around and waiting for the test to finish. So I could only run two or three tests a day at the most. I also realized that nobody was tracking what time I came in or left the office. In fact, I don't think anyone really even knew who I was."
Not exactly the type of career he had envisioned straight out of Harvard, and unfortunately for many people in today's workplace, they are having exactly the same experience. Why do you think there are so many start ups? People are tired of being turned into corporate zombies.
In a society, where individualism and creativity are encouraged when we're young, they are discouraged as we are assimilated into the work force. That's right assimilated. Employees young and old, are discouraged from "making waves", and so in order to keep their jobs secure and their careers on an upward path, they turn into corporate zombies, and most of them don't even know it.
Here are 4 tips to discourage your employees from "turning" into zombies...or worse leaving:
Create A Positive Environment - I hear this phrase used a lot. And I mean A LOT!
"Oh I try to create a positive environment for my employees to work in.", said the manager who meanwhile was revising the office compensation plan to meet his budget, and at the expense of his employees' pay.
A positive work environment does not mean offering perks like rides, and free food, and free haircuts. All of those things are great and you can have all that stuff, but if your employees feel they can't approach you with a concern or problem then you haven't created a positive work environment. Free pizza and freedom of speech are not the same thing.
Affect Their Lives...In A Good Way- I think the best management advice I ever received came from my dad, who was never a manager.
He said, "Do you give a damn about what happens to your employees? Cause if you don't, they won't give a damn about you either."
It's important that you have a positive affect on your employees lives and their careers, otherwise they won't work with you. If you're selfish and only interested in your career they will quickly turn on you and start acting out either against you or the team. It's important for managers to take an active interest in the development and the lives of their employees in order to ensure their own success. That doesn't mean you become a therapist, but it does mean you become a mentor.
Rewards and Recognition- When I mention rewards and recognition this doesn't apply to birthday cake celebrations or anniversary recognition, those things are all great. I'm talking about expressing authentic gratitude for your employee's efforts.
For 9 years I worked for a company and I received stock options, and raises, and promotions, and I never once heard the VP say "thank you". Not once. I was told he was "old school", and I guess by that, they meant he was not inclined to say anything nice to his employees. Well old school is out and the New School is in, and in order for employees to stay active and motivated, management needs to say "thank you" every once in a while.
In addition, I remember the same VP once saying to a counterpart, "I thank you by letting you keep your job." Shortly afterwards my counterpart disengaged from all meetings, didn't speak to the VP ,except to say "hello sir and goodbye sir", and left the company taking all his great ideas to a competitor.
I would say he definitely "turned", and before he left, he infected everyone else.
Engagement: I don't mean you need to marry your employees, that would be silly, but you do need to keep them engaged. Too often, once a person is trained, managers just let them handle their assigned job duties and never encourage creativity or thinking "outside the fence". In fact, some jobs discourage feedback or creativity.
I once witnessed a female employee offer a great idea for a solution to a service problem, only to have the general manager scold her for speaking out of turn during a staff meeting. She went from a bright and bubbly new employee to a wandering office zombie pretty quickly.
If you follow just a few simple steps you can keep your employees happy, involved, and part of the human race. You just need to show them that you CARE.
If you don't CARE then the zombie hordes will overtake your team, and possibly your career as well.
Good luck!
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