BY Alusine Fullah
Dear managers,
Managers, how about your office management? I am quite sure that you are waxing well. This piece is mainly for you. I repeat it is for you. To be candid, I know to some extent it has been really tough on office management. Yes, I got that feeling. I know for the past decades, your office (s) seems as a war zone or mere grave where your workers don’t cooperate with you effectively, and sometimes your workers even challenge or disrespect you. What is the cause? I am quite sure that is because you have not been motivating your team/ workers.
Motivation is core skill. Done well, it allows you (managers) and your staff to achieve more—potentially much more. If you want to be judged as successful managers (especially media managers), you must cultivate the habit of motivational skills. Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them when they perform.
For your organization to thrive, management matters. As a manager, if you have a team of people reporting to you, then supervising takes time and needs both consideration and care. It really does not matter whether the team is just a handful of people or an entire organization; to be frank the principles are the same. So too is the measurement that is applied. Your competence as a manager will be judged not solely on what you do yourself, though this is doubtless important, but of them, in all their aspects. And there is no doubt that people who are well motivated perform better than those who are not.
The days of just telling people what to do, if they ever truly existed, are long gone. Staffs are more demanding of their employers than in the past. They want to know what is going on, they want to be consulted and they want to be involved. They want to feel that whatever they do it has some real worth and they preferably want it to have an element of enjoyment; certainly of satisfaction. When people are content in these kinds of ways they will perform better than if you do not (and certainly better than when they feel management is actively antagonistic in some way). And to be candid, the incentive for doing sp is that a successful team not only gets the job done, whatever that is, but reflects well on whoever manages them also.
Why being so aggressive and nagging to your team. Your employees are human beings and so they are reliable to mistakes. Be nice and disciplined!!! Indeed, motivation matters. It increases efficiency, effectiveness and productivity, and makes it more likely that whatever results are targeted will be hit. Conversely, it lack increases the time management takes, the endless checking up, argument and hassle that comes managers’ way when people are at a low ebb motivationally—and thus take their eye to some extent off the ball.
Let me be clear here; if a group of workers are not motivated, the results can specifically include the following: absenteeism; waste of time—breaks, conversation (unrelated to work) and private tasks (from telephoning friends to surfing the internet); gossips (especially the ladies); challenging organization’s policies; bureaucracy.
To be frank, motivation works. It has a direct link with results. So ultimately, the reason for doing it well-is to help you achieve the results you want. Give the support of your staff it can engender, it may even make your own life a little less stressful.
May be for the past years, as a manager you have been struggling with how to manage your team or staff. Before conching it all, below are the ingredients you need to have. Honestly, without them you are yet to qualify as a manager: effective communication (communicate well, keep your team/ staff informed—and being approachable and listening); have confidence and belief in your team (give them the motivational confidence that they can do, and never cry them down); as manager avoid gossip; give credit to those who always do well; embrace change; empower your team; curiosity; not playing favourites; not procrastinating; if you are the salary payer, don’t delay their salaries; counselling; have a strategic vision and mission, etc.
Managers, I want you to start motivating your team. Sometimes even a smile can create a motivational impression to your team. As managers, don’t be too tense and difficult to deal with. Be flexible but discipline!
