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Automotive Industry

What do your people want, anyway?

Automotive Design & Production, July, 2003 by Ted Pollock

One of your major challenges as a boss is to fit together the conduct of your department and the emotional characteristics of your people. Doing this successfully requires knowing how to work with people, both individually and in groups.

There is no single formula for sound employee relations. Quite aside from a decent salary and a healthy work environment, there are certain things that almost all people, in varying degrees, want from their jobs.

Most employees have a keen desire for challenging work, an opportunity to use all of their talents. Give them assignments that not only permit them to realize this ambition but require that they stretch themselves and perhaps discover strengths that they had no idea they possessed, and you will have gone a long way toward establishing the special employee-manager rapport that pervades the most successful business organizations.

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They crave an opportunity for advancement. They want to feel that when a better job opportunity opens up, they will be given a fair chance at it. People vary greatly in their ambition and desire to get ahead, certainly, but your most valuable employees are likely to require that their jobs help them to grow as individuals. Promotions and other management support for advancement is one vital way to satisfy this need.

In this era of downsizing, incentives for taking early retirement and layoffs, they also crave a sense of security. They want to know that their jobs will still be there tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. Above all, they yearn to feel psychologically secure within the group in which they work. They want to accept their fellow workers and be fully accepted by them and their managers.

Effective leadership is also important. They want to feel confident that their boss knows what his or her job is and how to do it, and is respected by others. They want to feel that the steering wheel on which their security and well being depend is in good hands.

Finally, high in their hierarchy of needs is a sense of participation. They want to feel that they are part of the team, not just hired hands.

Bear these desires in mind as you manage and you will go a long way toward eliminating areas of friction in the employee-manager relationship.

The Care and Feeding of Problem People

The law of averages virtually dictates that some of the people with whom you must work are not a pleasure to deal with. Yet, there they are and somehow you must find a way of getting along with them, Some common types, with suggestions on dealing with them:

People who think you're telling them how to do their jobs and resent it. They may justifiably feel that they know their particular jobs better than anyone else. Make allies of them by letting them know that their experience and knowledge are recognized and valued; that the purpose of talking to them is to exchange ideas and pool experiences for the common good.

People who carry a personal grudge. Avoid discussions about their pet peeves. If necessary, explain that you are not interested in their personal prejudices, but in running a smoothly operating organization.

People who are wrong but won't admit it. Avoid direct criticism, sarcasm and ridicule. Use indirect methods instead. For example, analyze a "similar case" without reference to them personally. Above all, talk to them in private.

Argumentative people. They quibble over the most trivial details and love to get other people's goat. The primary rule: keep cool, Use questions to draw them out. When possible, cite hard facts and figures to refute their position.

The Positive Power of Criticism

Employees need feedback to assure them that they are on the right track.

Positive feedback in the form of recognition, praise or reward reinforces their drive to continue in the proper direction. Negative feedback--criticism, correction, discipline--teaches them what not to do.

Thus, praise and criticism are motivational guideposts of equal importance.

People need the assurance that they will be informed if their general performance Falls below par. If they are sure they know how they stand with their boss, they have the confidence necessary For decisive action.

From a psychological point of view, people normally expect to be reprimanded when they have done wrong. Criticism relieves their guilt feelings.

Some people are not so conscientious, of course, and are less prone to feel guilty when they make a mistake. If these people are not criticized, they exploit what they perceive as a weakness on the part of their boss.

So don't overlook the positive power of criticism. It can be an important motivator.

How To Beat Procrastination

One secret of achievement: start. But that's sometimes easier said than done, for most of us are positive geniuses when it comes to Finding alibis for not starting a job. "its too complicated'; "We're too tired"; "It's too late to start now."

Fortunately, there ore remedies for procrastination. If you are prone to putting things off, one or more of these may be just what you need to get going.

Automotive Industry

What do your people want, anyway?

Automotive Design & Production, July, 2003 by Ted Pollock

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