We Need You

We Need You

I’ll hope for the purposes of this article that your work environment has several shared goals, often quite related.  Whether driving revenue, managing cost, serving internal colleagues, providing client service, or giving great patient care, the unit in which you work will have shared goals.

Everyone has to matter in attaining those goals.  If anyone’s performance is not associated with those goals, if the work does not contribute to those ends, the job doesn’t matter.

People with such jobs will recognize this first.  By the time you know, they know.  They know they don’t matter.  

An outcome of this is that the quality of their performance does not matter.  Less likely to care.  Why would they care?

Everyone has to matter.

Everyone has to KNOW they matter.

They need to hear it.

They need to recognize it.

They need the leader to recognize it.

They want colleagues to recognize it.

Most jobs DO matter, and the strong leader insists that everyone recognize the importance of an individual’s performance.  ”We need you.”  Good words to hear from a leader.  Rare to hear from a boss.  Should be heard often, in some fashion, in some context.  Everyone needs to know they matter and everyone needs to know that others recognize the significance of their work.

If it does not matter whether you do your job well then you don’t matter. I consider it an immutable law of human nature that we all need to matter to feel fulfilled. We have to know that our work product has some effect.

I distrust unions because membership in a union ensures that seniority is essentially the only factor that drives better pay, better schedules, and better working conditions. Those who are willing to stick around long enough are eventually going to “earn” the best schedule, the preferred hours and the best options.

Consider who is likely to start a career comfortable with that dynamic?  Not a meritocracy where if I work hard I will get ahead.  Not a job where if I bust my ass I can get noticed for my great attitude or enormous work ethic.  No, in general, I think it’s safe to say those who are less likely to be self-starting, driven, goal oriented, and much less likely to exhibit leadership skills will be the ones left standing decades later in that union environment.  Just wait your turn, even if it takes years. Just stick  around long enough until you get yours.  The doers self-select out of that early on, and employers are left with what?  Some good-soldier types interspersed with the slackers.

Government employees represent great examples of unhinging outcome and performance. First, understand government employ is for life.  No one gets fired.  Ever. It is virtually impossible to be terminated from a government job. If they screw up big time, they might get put in a bullpen were they are categorized as some sort of administrative leave but they still get paid.  Hey, they lose their responsibility, but they bear that pain. Then they get great benefits subsequent to their retirement.

Think about how the government is structured at the federal level. They have GS ratings that drive pay grades. The higher the GS level, the higher the pay. That GS level animates their compensation. The GS level is driven primarily by responsibility as measured by staff and spend. The more you spend and/or the more people you have on your team, the more you make.

Hire some people!  Need more staff! 

It will not surprise you to know that many government managers try to expand their base. Government agencies generally will not proclaim that their mission has been accomplished.  Oh no.  The problem just gets bigger.  They have MORE people who need help. They need more money every year. They need more employees every year. In the federal government if their department’s percentage increase year-over-year goes down they call that a cut.  If they got an 8% increase last year and just a 6% budget increase this year, they think they got their funding cut.  Seriously.

Better to say your mission has grown than to say it is under control.  That damn sky keeps falling.

Government employees make more money not by solving problems, but having them grow. They can’t solve the problem- what would they do then?  Who would need them?  No, better to enhance their level of responsibility by getting more funding, or more staff.  Likely both. To fight a bigger problem. They often essentially fail in the core mission, insist on more resources to combat the problem, grow their base, grow their responsibility, etc.  

How nice- then they get the GS level bumped up and, voila, more pay and better retirement benefits.  Not by accomplishing, but sometimes  by proclaiming their utter failure!

When have you heard that a government agency fully addressed the reason for their creation?  Mission accomplished. Got everyone taken care of?  

Nor I.  Never heard that from D.C.

A case could be made that we have  a scenario where, by virtue of failure, the government employee has opportunities to build pay levels, responsibility, and job security, (if job security could get any firmer).

Sorry- that was a too-long riff against providing positive reinforcement for negative behaviors.  We in the private sector have to fight against cost creep and failure to accomplish the goal. We need to recognize and remedy the placement of folks doing tasks that are not targeted toward those goals. 

Everyone has to matter.  Colleagues need to be accomplishing tasks which move the unit toward the goals. They need to understand how they contribute, and they need to know their leaders recognize their contributions.

As a boss, find various ways to communicate We Need You.  Do it in emails, do it with hand-written notes, do it with verbal feedback, do it with bulletin board captions and newsletters- do it many ways and in many contexts.  I have great confidence you will see a greater sense of pride and higher levels of performance in those colleagues.

Ensuring people matter meshes with with Positive, Productive, Fresh and Enthusiastic.  PPFE.