BEING A PEOPLE PERSON
I attended a very expensive private university (of
course, I was on scholarship). Although we were business
majors, I was the only one in my classes who had experience
working full-time. This wasn't because I was morally
superior to my classmates, by the way, I just didn't have
any other option if I wanted to eat regularly. One day, the
professor asked the class what we would do if employees did
not go along with a particular policy. The students
answered, "Fire them! You're the boss. They have to do what
you say."
I raised my hand and said, "You can't fire everyone. First
of all, if you did, you wouldn't have a company until you
hired new people. It would cost you a fortune to recruit
and train new people, and the whole time they were
learning, you would make less money because they would make
mistakes. On top of that, if you fired everyone who worked
for you, I can't imagine you would be the employer of
choice for many people after that."
Firing people is a complete failure as a management plan.
That doesn't get the person to work. In fact, since the
person is no longer working for you, it guarantees they
won't do the work. The best you can hope for is to find
someone else who will work. Of course, you only find that
person after the job is vacant for a while, you advertise,
interview and hire a new person. Then, you have to train
that person and hope that she works out and you don't need
to start the whole process all over again.
Motivation 101
Abraham Maslow believed that people have a hierarchy of
needs. Once lower level needs are met, they are motivated
by higher level needs. For example, if your life is in
danger, you won't be thinking about how unpopular you are.
If you are drowning and someone throws you a rope, you
would much rather have that than anything. However, a week
later, when you are on dry land, sitting in a chair and
someone throws you an old rope, you could care less. You
ignore the rope, get up and call your friend to see if she
would like to go out tonight. Your need for safety has been
met and now you are looking to meet higher level needs. If
you have been in a situation where you were poor, broke and
hungry and someone offered you dinner if you mowed their
lawn, you were happy to do it. When you have plenty of food
in your house, that same dinner is not motivating, you
would rather go out with your friends.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Where are you on
Maslow's hierarchy? Take the quiz and find out.