Situational Leadership Motivation Respect Autonomy and Justice in the Workplace.

From: Gordon Borneman To: Tami Borneman Date: 5/9/14

You and I are both motivated and driven by cause and purpose, not money. Though money helps pay the
bills, what really gets you up in the morning is the belief, knowledge, and hope that your work will make a
positive difference in this world. These motivations are at the core of our being.

We are internally motivated people, not externally motivated. Its a good thing since, psychologically
speaking, money as a motivation lasts about 2 weeks only When someone gets a raise, for
example. After that, the person tends to drift back to being the person they were before and the new
funds have lost their motivational value even in some people motivated by money.

Also, in Situational Leadership courses, we find that there are 4 levels of employees.

1. Level 1 new employee, not as trained in all aspects in the work environment.
They are deemed to be unwilling and unable as general categories. Management
spends time in training, but not any buddy-buddy stuff. The employee must
earn their standing at the next level.

2. Level 2 some experience, deemed willing, but unable. Starting to see major
Improvements, but not yet fully trained. The employee is fully on-board
with the program. Management spends more time with these employees
assisting in training and reinforcing their improvements.

3. Level 3 - fully experienced, but may be finding some issues with the work
environment that are trouble in negotiating. They are deemed to be
able, but not willing employees. Management spends more time with these
employees to understand the barriers they face, how to change what they
see as a negative influence in the work environment.

4. Level 4 willing and able. These are fully on-board experienced employees
who are major contributors. Few employees reach this level without being
internally-motivated. Respect and autonomy are what these employees
value from their management and work environment. Management spends
much less time with these people as employees but 80-90% of the time
the employee is treated more as a co-worker. This lack of constant focus of
management on the employee may seem a surprise to the less educated, but it
is a reward to the top employee. Part of managements job Is to provide only
overall strategic level direction and assisting to remove organizational
obstacles to getting projects finished. Management is more ask-assertive here
providing the direction primarily through asking the right questions and making
recommendations rather than giving direct orders.

a. To micromanage a level 4 employee is to take away one of the main drivers of
such employees, autonomy.

b. Power plays on level 4 employees take away the perception of respect the
employee may have felt and take away autonomy. This is a huge mistake and should
be employed only when a genuine attitude problem develops which reduce the
employee back to Level 3.

c. To ignore genuine problems that such employees are having in the work environment
takes away the perceived respect that the employee thought the manager had for them
and/or their work, a big de-motivator.

The above three mistakes by management are a direct assault on the core makeup of an
Internally-motivated level 4 employee. They attack the very core of the persons reason for
being. Level 4 employees may not stay at Level 4. Due to lack of motivation, they may
slip back to Level 3 and it takes more management time to restore them again.

Level 4 employees can accomplish major things for the organization and the world.
Level 4 employees want to focus on the more challenging far reaching in time and scope
projects. They want the appropriate credit for a job well done. They want to build their
reputation to peers based on real, important, lasting accomplishments.

The #1 most damaging mistake of management is to attempt to externally motivate through threats or
extraneous or frivolous rewards an employee who is already internally motivated. Raises and monetary
rewards are viewed as a measure of the organizations respect for an internally motivated employee.

The reward is not specifically in the amount of the money, but rather the amount reflects on the perceived
value the employee has to the organization which is translated into respect and/or admiration. That is
where lasting motivation can be found for such higher-level employees.

You and I are driven by cause and purpose, and are rewarded by autonomy, authority, respect, the
knowledge that we made a positive difference, and admiration. We are also driven by individual justice,
not as a group.

We whole-heartedly believe that we are responsible for our own words and actions. For an organization
to respect us also means to provide justice on an individual level. To make major contributions, to
become proficient to the point of expertise, to be admired and respected by co-workers also means that
management must provide a work environment that is just and yet compassionate at some level.

To overplay the correction on a violation of minor policy or a well-meaning decision that did not work out
after all we have done and accomplished represents among the highest insults to us.

When given sufficient training, having proved our skills and expertise, having made major contributions in
our field and then to be taken aback by petty moves of management, failure to assist in resolving conflict,
administering correction where needed in the work environment represents a major assault on the
motivating views that we had that we are respected and our work is of sufficient value that management
would assist in clearing the way for us when needed. That is enough sometimes to take a Level 4 fully
able and willing employee back to level 3 able, but unwilling.

Without justice in the workplace, the people fail through learned helplessness. They learn their
accomplishments mean little, that people dont care, that they are just a cog in a machine. They quickly
see themselves just earning a paycheck and that they cant get anything real done that has lasting
value. They cant stick their necks out for anything for fear that they will be unjustly humiliated in front of
their peers.

They had done experiments on dogs with a large box with two sides where the floor can be individually
electrified to give a minor shock to the dog. When one side was electrified, the dog jumped to the other
side each time. When both sides were electrified, the dog jumped back and forth and, within a few
seconds, crouched in the corner and trembled in fear not doing anything. That is how quick helplessness
is learned in animals. How much quicker in people?

Without really sitting back and examining managements own provision of a just and fair work
environment, many times employees end up working at sub-optimal levels of performance and then
management steps back and wonders why? What happened to this employee? They just cant seem to
perform as well as they did. At this point, managements best move is to first examine themselves in the
issues presented here rather than place sole blame on the employee for the drop in performance. What
do these lapses in management do to destroy the hard-built workplace make-up of their best
employees? Quite a bit.