I'll motivate her...
Hannes has also been hit: his employees are no longer motivated. According to the latest staff survey, employee motivation in his department has fallen for the second time in a row. This time it is 0.4 percentage points less. Although the level of 86.491398 percent is quite respectable, there's always room for improvement - says the CEO. You can never be satisfied with being satisfied, he says.
Basically, all employees expressed positive opinions about the processes, the volume of work and also most of the other points. It is only the criterion "I feel motivated in my daily work" whose positive tension on the rating scale has slackened somewhat. From this point of view, the statement is precise. Employees no longer feel as strongly motivated. Hannes' boss's motto is just as clear: make sure that this figure is higher again next year, preferably around 90 percent. At first Hannes is a little unsure about what to do. At some point he has learned that a boss cannot motivate his employees. At best, he should not demotivate them in an initial phase and then create an environment in which everyone can develop and flourish. According to science, this motivates. But that only takes effect in the long term. Hannes only has a few months to improve the motivation level. So he has to motivate actively. Hannes would not be Hannes if he did not proceed in a planned and structured manner.
First he buys a stack of motivational books with titles like "Motivating Employees in 30 Days", "Go and Motivate", "The Steve Jobs Motivation Method". He even consults relevant literature from former ice hockey and football coaches who learned how to motivate in sports and now pass it on for good money at conferences and in best-selling books. However, they are no longer in demand on the sports field - perhaps they motivated too much there. Anyway. Hannes internalized what he had read in a neatly structured way and put it into his usual plan of action. He decided that he would use "think-positive" as a basic motto for motivation. Just before he goes into the office of his department or into the factory floor of his production islands, he looks in the mirror. "Positive face" - he puts on an XXL grin, not just briefly, but permanently, until he leaves the office or the production hall again. That radiates. Just like his euphoric "Hello, I wish you all a beautiful, great morning and super success". Thrown into the office in an exuberant tone, it is supposed to be infectious and energizing.
In the Fish motivation video he saw that throwing fish is motivating. Hannes has bought a supply of paper clips for this purpose. When he enters the open-plan office of his internal services team, he always throws a handful of paper clips into the air just for fun. The addressees of this message will probably get the message - although they don't yet manage to show the joy of it. Hannes now also wears "smiley buttons" on his shirt. It's infectious, literally. Every day he greets an employee with a handshake and wishes them a very special day. Of course, at lunch, he emails everyone a positive message for the day. "It's not about winning, it's about fighting. Let's get it on!" or "Every day is the best day, especially today." or a simple "The world is beautiful." Again, he doesn't feel the success immediately. Feedback is still lacking. Well, it doesn't have to be successful immediately, it has to have an effect in a few months - in the next employee survey. Hannes has even made the signature of his e-mail account more motivating. The professionally and succinctly formulated "Kind regards" is replaced by "Wishing you lively energy and a suuuperduper day...". Hannes is not at all fond of such gimmicks. As a trained engineer, he is committed to scientific facts. In terms of type, his main focus is on "DISG-blue", which means he is structured, orderly and task-oriented. But if the books say that such bells and whistles are useful, then I guess they will be.
He has also adapted his clothing, taking Barack Obama as a model. "He's also a motivator," says Hannes, and from now on he always rolls up the sleeves of his shirts by a quarter. Finally, he searches for a suitable video on YouTube. The beginning of a speech by Steve Ballmer to his Microsoft crew seems fitting to Hannes. Ballmer jumps on stage, runs back and forth, cheers, shouts, almost gets out of breath, stands at the lectern and starts "We - we are the best companyyyy - yeah!" Exactly, that's it. Hannes also practices a text, increases his fitness and at the next department meeting he storms into the meeting room, runs three laps around the table, gets completely out of breath, looks enthusiastically into the amazed and irritated faces of his employees and starts his speech - "Crap, I forgot the text". But he quickly catches himself: "I'll email it after the meeting."
