How to Get Employees Excited to Do Their Work

INFLUENCE

How to Get Employees Excitedto Do Their Workby Kelly Decker and Ben Decker

MAY 18, 2015

What keeps you up at night as a manager? Are you worried about hitting your numbers? How

to boost the results of lower performers? What about how to keep top performers motivated?

We often believe that the most effective way to respond to these concerns is to directly tell

our employees what to do. Directing a team is certainly one way to achieve your goals. But

while its tried, its also tired. Several trends suggest that its no longer enough to lead by

authority. Theres an ever-increasing trust gap between leaders and employees (we are twice

as likely to trust someone just like us than we are a CEO), endless distractions make it

harder to separate the signal from the noise, and more than 67% of employees arent engaged

at work. All of this has left people thirsting for inspiration, which means managers have to

rethink how they communicate with their teams.

No one wants another checklist task that they have to complete. We want to be called to

something greater. So instead of informing and directing your direct reports, aspire to inspire.

When you focus on persuading them, youll be able to turn even a corporate initiative or new

product launch into a cause that becomes their own. Theyll want to step up and own their

results.

The challenge is how to shift someones response from I have to to I want to. After

pulling together the tips weve shared with thousands of leaders from Fortune 500

companies, nonprofits, and startups, we developed what we call the Communicators

Roadmap.

The vertical axis measures emotional connection. This is your barometer of trust, and its

comprised of the rapport you build with others, your likability, warmth, reliability, and

empathy. You can strengthen this connection by showing warmth and care. Personal stories,

especially those that reveal vulnerability, can also help others relate to you. As social

psychologist Amy Cuddy explains, Warmth is the conduit of influence: It facilitates trust and

the communication and absorption of ideas.

On the horizontal axis, we have content. A self-centered message, on the left side of the

spectrum, is not necessarily selfish, but its all about youyour expertise, your wisdom, your

opinions, and your agenda. The right side is all about how the message relates to the other

person. These are not mere facts, figures, or frameworks; they are human-scale, concrete, and

actionable. If your message is not relevant to someone, it wont be persuasive.

Looking at the four quadrants, most of us default to Inform and Direct as a way to get things

done. Sometimes that works but its not a long-term solution for retaining top talent,

growing your team, or raising the bar.

We worked with a client at a financial services company who had a direct report, lets call him

Bill, who was not well liked. Bill was a good performer, he was effective on a stage, he got

paid wellbut his colleagues didnt like him. No matter how hard his manager tried to direct

him, Bill, you need to do a better job and connect with others, he wouldnt make any

progress. Bill didnt care if his colleagues liked him or not.

After many dead ends, Bills manager shifted her approach. She said to him, I see a future for

you here at our company, and I want whats best for you. Empathizing that Bill had such

great potential, she made an emotional appeal to Bills long-term goal to join the management

team. She continued, Peer relationships at that level are critical to work through others and

its just not possible if you are not trusted and cant connect well with your colleagues.

This shift in message (toward Audience-Centered content), inspired by her confidence in him

(through Emotional Connection), changed Bills perspective. Building relationships with his

colleagues was no longer something he had to do; it was something he wanted to do as part of

his own goals and objectives. There was a new personal level of accountability.

In another example, a client had grown substantially through a series of acquisitions over the

span of three years. Every manager suddenly had a lot more on his or her plate, including

keeping teams engaged, motivated, and performing, rather than feeling bitter about the

changes.

The corporate communications team had already been churning out emails highlighting new

expense procedures, sales process changes, escalation flows, etc., but this wouldnt engage

employees. When a message comes from above, it has to be adapted at every level; otherwise,

its just a directive. What made the great managers stand out was their ability to tailor the

new vision to each level of direct reports. When they shifted the message to be audience-

centeredby explaining why each team should personally care about the changesthey were

able to motivate a positive, self-propelling response from team members. They became part

of the cause.

Inspiration is not something to be left for the annual company kickoff. There are

opportunities every day: when you want to empower a team member to take ownership of a

project, when you want your feedback about someones performance to stick, when youre

communicating change, etc. Being a leader who persuades others through inspiration starts

with connection. Greater empathy and relevance leads to growth, increased motivation,

faster action, and real results. Use the Communicators Roadmap before your next meeting

with your direct report to create an experience that will shift his response from Sure, I can do

that to Count me in!

Kelly Decker and Ben Decker are leading experts in the field of business communication.

Together, they run Decker Communications, a global firm that trains and coaches tens of

thousands of executives a year. Their new book, Communicate to Influence: How to Inspire

Your Audience to Action, shares real-world stories and tips from the C-Suite that apply to us

all.

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Related Topics: LEADING TEAMS MOTIVATING PEOPLE

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EDGAR GOMES 6 days ago

The Communicators Roadmap and Taylor to the situation and goal. I think we got something here. That willhelp a lot...

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