Do You Love Your Job As Much As I Do?

By Simon Thorpe, Leadership coach, Expressions

Perhaps not the first thing you expect to hear when you speak to employees in any industry let alone one that is high pressure, high octane and so competitive. Yet this is a factor that, when present, can transform any good recruitment business to a great recruitment business.

This Statement started as a personal crusade of mine, but the more we researched the link between Happiness and Motivation the more this became a single driver. Now myself and my team deliver this within all the workshops and programmes we run for individuals, teams and organisations. When you have someone who loves their job they are more motivated to do well at their job, because if you cut through all the theory we know that encoded in our DNA is the desire to be happy. The fact of the matter is that we are happy by what motivates us and we are motivated by what makes us happy.

So here are a few simple and effective strategies that will move you closer to having an engaged workforce who can cry out this statement with the utmost conviction and genuine passion.

Tone at the Top ? The success of your organisation will ultimately be determined by the tone of the person or people at the top. Nothing ground breaking is that statement I appreciate, but do you appreciate the tone set at the top of the pile radiates throughout the organisation faster than you could possibly imagine ? Every CEO, MD and Director is as fallible as the next person, but we have to do our best to remain positive even in the bleakest of times. That means being impervious to the daily bombardment of negativity through media, the commute, other people and even customers. Remember that you are on show 24/7 and so you forecast the climate in your environment. What do you forecast today and tomorrow ?

Human Beings or Human Resources? Following recent research conducted on Employee Engagement there were 4 enablers identified in those organisations who found higher staff engagement. One of the most obvious, yet the most overlooked is that of the Engaging Manager. Are your managers engaging your people to love their job. This doesn’t mean being their friend or giving them an easy ride, it’s about giving and getting respect, listening and enabling your people to perform their tasks willing to the best of their ability. “Treat me as a human being not a human resource” was a common phrase heard in organisations with high levels of staff engagement. Perhaps we should amend the full job title of our HR professionals ! According to the CMI research in 2011 80% of the UK workforce at some time in their career left their manager not the organisation. It probably isn’t the manager’s fault either.

It is mainly due to the fact that most managers get promoted from within because they are the best at the technical side of the business and so in some misguided sense of recognition the business leader promotes them to the critical role of the manager. This is often the most damaging of moves in the recruitment industry. Typically your best recruiters are the best because they are functionally selfish determined individuals driven by the deal and often thriving on the personal accomplishment and all this brings. I mean this with the greatest respect as this is what is required to be the best of the best in this industry. We have seen it all too often; the best recruiter gets promoted to recruitment manager accountable for a team of recruiters.

The new manager is still driven by the personal success of each placement and so remains focused on this path. The team never amount to the same level of business as the new manager and the new manager is instructed to bring the team up to standard. As this takes the manager away from his/her first love there is reluctance and even lip service to this task which leads to underperformance form the manager and the team.

They cannot state they love their job in this environment. Identify the right managers, ensure they know what is expected of them as managers and develop them as managers.

Remove the Mood Hoovers ! We all have at least one of these. The person who goes through life thinking the world owes them a favour. The glass half empty guy who finds a negative spin on absolutely everything. We call these the Mood Hoovers as they seem to suck the life out of anyone in their path. You will find that those sat in the same areas as these Mood Hoovers will easily be infected and soon you have a heads down atmosphere which takes more of your time to perk up.

Challenge the Hoover’s motivation, what makes them happy and ask them this simple question ‘Does your behaviour right now help you achieve your ambitions’? Help them find the answer. People are one of two things, part of the problem or part of the solution. Help yours be the later and manage the former out of your business.

Thank You !

When said with sincerity these two little words can be very powerful.

Let's face it customers demand more for less these days, less money, less time, less hassle and less personal effort. You could say customers want the moon on a stick but don't necessarily want to pay for it.

This means business leaders want to satisfy these needs so we demand more from our managers who in turn drive this in the business. Little surprise then that the majority of employees feel the squeeze on resources.

This influences their behaviours. Some react positively from the start and get to work whilst others find it more difficult to perform. The common denominator is that eventually everyone feels the pressure.

At the height of the recession an excellent strategy for recovery was to 'Cut your costs without reducing your ability to compete'.

The sad reality is that this was not articulated that well in many organisations and some focused their efforts only on the first part of that strategy and so reduced their ability to compete.

• When did you last step away from your business and look at your business ?
• Perhaps you even utilised the services of a business mentor or coach to help you do this...Did you ?
• When was the last time you used the Plan Do Review cycle most effectively in your organisation ?

It’s about being disciplined with your time and attention. We all want more and we demand more this is the way of the world, but when do we actually appreciate the contribution of the people who help make this happen? Yes they get paid and we shouldn’t thank our people for turning up to work and getting paid, but a genuine thank you communicating the value the individual and teams contribution has made and is making to another step closer to the ideal is a great ingredient to your people feeling valued, motivated and happy. So much so that they want to come back and do it all again tomorrow.

So I leave you with a personal challenge to see how many of your people can say with full heart and happiness “I Love my Job” !