Making sense of inspiration

Leadership is about inspiring employee behavior as an alternative to inducing it (that’s managing). The challenge organizations face is how to motivate employees beyond the job description and performance objectives associated with compensation. This is the point of the obsession organizations have with leadership.Historically organizations have tried practices, such as “stretch goals” and bonuses, to obtain the “extra effort” they desire from workers. However, these are simply derivatives and extensions of managing, providing employees with extrinsic exchanges, which predefine and limit the effort of employees.

The desire for leadership is to tap into the intrinsic motivation of workers so they put forth effort for the benefit of something beyond the personal exchange of behavior for extrinsic reward. At the heart of leadership is inspiration. People use the word “inspire” often, but it’s common to hear the comment “you cannot inspire ….” (fill in the blank, “students”, “cashiers”, “factory workers,” “salesmen”, "teenagers", and so forth).   To inspire someone is not magic or charismatic - there are basic elements of motivation that make something inspirational.

For example, in the movie “Miracle”, where the US hockey team defeated the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics, there is the locker room scene where the coach Herb Brooks “inspires” the team immediately prior to the game. Some may try to immolate the coach’s speech to inspire others, or some may claim it was the coach’s personality that inspired and one either has that trait or they do not. The fact is if we analyze the speech looking for basic motivational principles, we see that the speech included practices that result in inspiration. Let’s examine some of these:
1. Saliency – the coach put the players in the moment, “one game”, “this is your time”
2. Efficacy – he strongly reminded them of their capabilities as hockey players, “we shut them down because we can”, “tonight we are the greatest team in the world”
3. Purpose – he appealed to their intrinsic sense of destiny, “you were born to be hockey players” and “you were meant to be here”
4. Challenge – the coach called upon them to essentially take the mountain, do what seemed impossible, “go out there and take it’
5. Social identity - a member of the US Olympic Hockey team

We see that the coach’s inspirational behavior was not restricted to a unique personality or some magical formula, but basic aspects of human motivation. The work place is not a one off event but a day to day grind against many odds. However, workers can be inspired to work for something beyond their own extrinsic rewards when managers also lead and provide saliency, enhance efficacy, and stimulate the intrinsics of meaning, purpose and enjoyment for their workers.

LMX Concierge is an affordable coaching resource that embeds inspirational practices to enhance worker motivation and remove obstacles employees need for accomplishing their assigned goals

making sense of employee engagement

The term employee engagement is the current term in the historic progression of the notion of employee morale and job satisfaction. This generally represents the degree employees are positive about their organization, their supervisor, their co workers and their job and thus willing to commit themselves to some degree towards their success. The consequences of high job satisfaction are not so much the effort one puts on their job tasks as it is the employee’s psychological attachment to the organization, less job stress, and helping behaviors towards co workers.  This leads to less turnover and absenteeism for employees and the desire to be proactive for the benefit of their team and organization.

Low morale on the other hand will result in employees leaving the organization when given the opportunity and withholding effort beyond what is minimally necessary to keep their jobs. Employees with low morale are less likely to trust management. Lower trust results in resistance to change and employees withholding information from management and other units within the organization. Most importantly, low morale affects customer service as employees who engage customers feel no need to represent the company favorably to them. In that respect low employee engagement can result in declining performance of an organization through lack of collaboration, creative ideas and problem solving efforts required for innovation, and contributing to a positive image for customers.

There can be many reasons employees do not feel engaged. To increase employee engagement organizations focus on their internal practices, such as reward systems, benefits, workplace facilities, employee picnics and recognition policies. However, research has found that what organizations do is not as important for employee satisfaction as how they do it. The way organizations do what they do influence the sense of fairness and uncertainty among employees.

The main principle of improving employee engagement is to drive fairness up and uncertainty down. This requires that, regardless of what choices management makes, organizational practices be characterized by procedural justice. Employees respond better, regardless of the outcome, when they are provided advanced notice, are allowed to provide input, are not surprised by management with a decision, are given a rationale for the action and are treated with respect.

When an employee’s supervisor includes coaching activities, such as those provided by LMX Concierge, employees will begin to see they are more included and have more perceived control of their destiny. This perceived control occurs when employees feel the organization, and especially their supervisor, cares enough about the employee to listen to them and to support them with effective feedback and counsel. The ultimate outcome of bosses becoming leaders is that employees perceive the organization to be fair and they are likely to have more certainty about their career with the organization.  

"Jerusalem, Judeah, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth"

This morning we were studying Acts 1 and focused on the command to be a witness. This raised a few questions, "what is our witness?' and "where are these places for us?"

My response was this:
      our witness is being faithful to play out what God has put in us and doing so without concern of what the world thinks, says or does
      our Jerusalem is the immediate place God has put us, people we can directly serve and influence right where we are

The notion of "Judeah, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" takes a bit more thinking. The obvious interpretation was Jesus' admonition that the Gospel knows no bounds and His disciples should expand their witness to the greatest extent possible.

I have been thinking recently about what it means to do things that are scalable. That means, that one action has many, maybe an unlimited impact. Nassim Taleb calls this "Extremistan," where single acts have extreme and unpredictable consequences. For instance, when we dig a ditch, one action has one consequence. When we make a movie, the one action of making the movie has many viewings with each viewing having consequences in the viewer that the producer could never imagine. Maybe Jesus' reference to this growing concentric geographic circle notion of our witness was saying our witness is to be "Extremistan."

For instance, when I am teaching a class at University, I have 30 some odd students that receive the message where I have a given expected outcome I can see through the grading practice. However, when I blog or write a book, an unpredictable number of people receive the message God has provided me with an unpredictable outcome. I have no idea who reads it or what the consequences of these ppl reading it are. The audience for my book or blog is like "to the ends of the earth". I have no idea who reads them, where they live, or what they may learn from it. Just in the last week there have been ppl in over 10 countries and 3 continents that have read my blogs. Is this "shall be a witness to the ends of the earth"?

Making a movie, blogging or writing books are not the only scalable activities. For example, as I traveled through eastern Europe and met the young ppl there, i was taken back by their enthusiasm for life and their optimism and hope. Yet, I was reminded that they are the first generation in centuries in these countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovokia, etc) where the masses have been free with bright futures. My thoughts then went to my son who is an executive with ING insurance (soon to become NN). While his leadership team's immediate focus is the financial work needed to complete an IPO, soon he will be turning his attention to managing the company for the long haul. It just so happens that NN operates insurance companies in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, among others. While my son's obvious objective is the financial success of NN, this is fairly "Mediocristan," actions that have predictable limited outcomes. However, he is in a position, because of his career success, to intersect the lives of many, many of these young ppl from these eastern European countries. He has so much wisdom and Grace to give them, providing them with a vision of truth. His Christian witness as an exec who influences many ppl, most he'll never know, is scalable, "Extremistan." Through what could be viewed as a job only for self interest and limited economic gain, "shall be his witness to all the ends of the earth."

So it is with all of us, the influence we have on ppl through our witness in the positions God has put us in (our Jerusalem) will go forth in those ppl beyond our Jerusalem, for they go on to Judeah, Samaria, and yes, even to all the ends of the earth.

certainly worth pondering ......

Can You Face Grace?

a friend of mine leads a couple of men's small groups (different ages and stages) that weekly investigate Biblical principles as a foundation for life's journey. Each is studying the parable of the workers in Matthew 20. My friend wishes for the men to fully grasp the message of this parable and not pass over it with just head knowledge. Since I had preached from this scripture (twice actually) and the parable is central to the theme of my recent book, "stuck in stinkin thinkin," he asked me to share with him some insights that may help bring the men to a deeper understanding of the parable. So here goes .....

The parable, like many Jesus tells, is describing what the Kingdom of God is like. This one and the preceding story of the Rich Young Ruler are especially focused on contrasting God's Kingdom to the earthly kingdom. The contrast is that our human nature conditions us to live based on the principles of exchange and equity (carnal mind). The rich young ruler saw the use of his money as a way of finding favor with God. The workers in the field who went out at the first hour saw wages for work (rewards from the King) to be dependent on hours worked (equity). Jesus is explaining that the Kingdom does not operate on principles of exchange and equity, but on the goodness of the King, which is the desire to bestow on his Kingdom dwellers all the privileges and provisions of His Kingdom at His discretion. Jesus says in Luke, "do not fear little flock because your Father has CHOSEN GLADLY to GIVE YOU HIS KINGDOM."

Both the rich young ruler and the first workers could not appropriate this reality and walked away. I like to say they could not face grace. The operating principle of God's Kingdom for them was nonsense (made no sense).

"The first shall be last and the last first" = NO EXCHANGE, NO EQUITY

The redemptive work of the cross and the resurrection power of Grace transforms us in such a way that Grace informs how we make sense of ourself and the world around us. While we can be saved by the resurrection power, the degree we stay stuck in carnal mindedness is the degree we live beneath the provision and privileges of the Heavenlies.This is evidenced by the degree we continue to allow exchange and equity as the basis for of well being. To examine ourselves on this, we should ask ourselves the following questions:

"To what extent do we ....."
     ".... seek our self esteem from our performance or otherwise how others see us?"
     ".... allow our emotions to be affected by the acceptance or rejection of others?"
     ".... worry?"
     ".... get our feelings hurt?"
     ".... want to use giving to get something we want?'
     ".... feel uncomfortable receiving from others and feel we need to repay them somehow?"
     ".... find fear or guilt controls us?"
     ".... seek our identity in our job?"
     ".... feel we get what we deserve and so should everyone else?"
     ".... say, 'that's not fair'?"
     ".... demand our rights?"

and I am sure there are many more questions like these. The point is that the degree we answer "yes" to these questions is the degree that we cannot face grace. Being different as a Christian not only means we have been saved through Grace (by faith), but that we also live in the power of that Grace (by faith). The power of Grace removes from us the principles of exchange and equity and instills in us a working reality of the fantastic gift that our well being has been established by God, not what we can get from others - it is certain, cannot be taken away or destroyed.

If we believe this, then why don't we use it to make sense of ourselves as we live in a world that is actually hostile to our well being, where exchange and equity is futile.

goal setting is about who bears the risk

Goals are motivational because they heighten one’s focus on a desired outcome (make behavior and outcome more salient). Goals are most motivational when one is committed to the goal, usually occurring when the goal is specific, self set, and challenging.

Goals can be oriented toward either behavior or performance. Behavioral goals refer to only the action the individual must take to accomplish his/her goal. Performance goals refer to the outcome one produces by their actions.

For example, if a restaurant manager wishes to increase the number of desserts sold, he/she may set goals for the waitress/waiter as behavioral goals or performance goals. Behavioral goals for the server would be to always take the following actions: mention to customers early in meal to save room for desserts and ask customer at end of meal if they wish to order dessert, mentioning or showing them some of the delicious options. Performance goals for the server would be to sell desserts to 75% of customers.

The difference in terms of goal effectiveness (positively affects effort) is the degree the individual has control over situations that may also influence the outcome, namely number of desserts purchased. Often outcomes depend more on situational conditions beyond the server’s control, like the amount of food in the main course, the quality, selection and price of desserts, all determined by actions of someone other than the server. The more situational factors outside the control of the server affect outcomes, the more likely the goal will not motivate the server because he/she believes the effort they put forth will not result in goal accomplishment.

In organizations behavioral goals put the risk of performance on the collective behavior of the organization, while performance goals put the risk of performance on the individual employee. It is important that leaders be cautious of performance goals for employees who have little control over situations that materially affect the outcome because the goal will actually be demotivating, instead of motivating.

the ole blame game

A major factor in human behavior is the judgment individuals make concerning why something happened as it did (called causality or attribution). Research has found that when a negative outcome occurs, the individual will typically blame the situation, but others will blame the person. When something positive occurs, the person (the actor) generally claims he/she is responsible for the outcome, while others (the observers) may claim he/she was fortunate (lucky). This bias may not occur when the observer has an overall favorable opinion of the actor. When the observer is the actor's manager and this the halo effect exists, the leader may transfer his/her overall favorable opinion of the employee to judge the cause of the specific outcome so that negative outcomes are judged to be the result of the situation and positive outcomes the result of the individual.

Recognizing the human tendencies that affect how leaders and employees make sense of the employee’s success and failure is critical to the quality of the interpersonal exchange. Leaders must first recognize their halo prejudices about their employer or their attribution tendencies - to blame an employee for failure or attribute success to the situation while the employee is doing the opposite.  This requires the leader to be especially open to the possibility that both the leader's and the employee's judgments about the cause of success or failure is biased and seek to objectively probe the contributors to the outcome, helping the employee do the same.

Challenging natural assumptions on causality and overcoming biases enhances listening and is an important element of building trust and loyalty.