Agile PLM - The CIO's Guide to Oracle Products and Solutions - page 39

TABLE 1.2
What Do Employees Really Want?

What Employers Think
Employees Want What Employees Want Items

1 Interesting work 5

2 Appreciation of work 8

3 Feeling in on things 10

4 Job security 2

5 Good wages 1

6 Promotion/growth 3

7 Good working conditions 4

8 Personal loyalty 6

9 Tactful discipline 7

10 Sympathetic help with problems 9

Source: Kovach (1999).

The first step is to understand your own motivations, your strengths as a
manager, and your weaknesses. Probably the best approach is to ask your
peers and employees to make an anonymous appraisal of your performance
as a manager. Have them rate such traits as listening and communications
skills, openness, and attitude. Painful as this process may be, it will actu-
ally make you seem heroic in your employees' eyes. At the same time, it will
give you some food for thought on ways to improve your own performance.
The second step—one that many managers pay only lip service to—
can really make the difference between having a motivated employee
and one who feels that he or she is just another number. Take the time to
learn about your employees and their families. What are their dreams?
Then ask yourself how you as a manager can fulfill these dreams from a
business perspective.
Perhaps the best way to learn about your employees is in a nonwork atmo-
sphere—over lunch or on a company outing. As you learn more about your
employees' motives, you can help each one develop a personalized strategic
plan and vision. Ultimately, you could convert those horrible yearly per-
formance reviews into goal-setting sessions and progress reports.
Generating a positive attitude is the third step. Studies show that 87 per-
cent of all management feedback is negative, and that traditional manage-
ment theory has done little to correct the situation. Your goal should be to
reverse the trend. Make 87 percent of all feedback good.