When I was in sales, I had a boss who never spoke to me outside meetings for an entire year. Not kidding. Not even a “hello”. This was not the case for the two top performers on the team. Not only did they get a “hello”, they had lunch together and chatted frequently about non-work related subjects. Only until I surpassed sales records did I become a member of the “in crowd”. Needless to say, the morale on our team was filled with frought and disgruntled people.
Angles Arriene, a cultural anthropologist, tells us that around the world, everyone needs three things:
1. To be seen
2. To be heard
3. To be acknowledged
If you can do this, you’re already steps ahead of the curve. Employees don’t leave jobs, they leave their boss!
Taking it a step further, Gavin de Becker, writer of The Gift of Fear is a master at studying human behavior. He explains there are “some broad strokes that can be fairly applied to most of us:
- We seek connection with others.
- We are saddened by loss and try to avoid it.
- We dislike rejection.
- We like recognition and attention.
- We will do more to avoid pain than we will do to seek pleasure.
- We dislike ridiculue and embarrassment.
- We care what others think of us.
- We seek a degree of control over our lives.
While the context of his book is related to violent behavior, it applies to the workplace as well, particularly with disgruntled employees.
Tags: Difficult staff, team morale
