Understanding The Employee Mindset
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 13, 2010
On Tuesday afternoon I was at a meeting of an organization whose board I sit on. In this particular instance, I also hold an official position; no, I don't get paid for it.
The conversation turned to one that's fairly common in most companies, but it was a crucial discussion about the possibility of doing something positive for the employees. The suggestion that was made was to do things one particular way, which I felt was pretty complicated and would cause many people a lot of consternation.
I also had a different thought, which I conveyed to the group. I was of the opinion that a failing many people in leadership positions have is that they don't try to understand the employee mindset. In this case, the initial proposal would have done something that would have affected all the employees in a different way. And, as anyone who's ever been in management knows, employees are going to talk and share things about themselves and their situations that we always wonder why they don't keep it to themselves. The truth is they don't because commiseration is a more powerful drug than privacy. And in this case, once a few employees started talking, there would have been a riot.
At least that was my opinion. I was joined on that opinion that all the other board members, which surprised me. It also surprised the executive director, who admitted that it was a thought that had never occurred to him. Now, what I expect is that he's coming from a position where he still leads employees on a daily basis. I work for myself, as does one of the other people who was at the meeting. One of the other members is retired, and the other two are disabled and thus not employed, though only one of them has ever had a full time job. So, it made sense that how we saw things was much different than how he saw things.
If you have employees, you need to pay attention to the patterns that continuously come up based on specific and repeating stimulus. There will be times when people are going to talk about things that occur; that's just how it's going to be, even if you have a policy of telling employees not to talk to each other about private stuff. It's like having a policy that says no one is allowed to make personal phone calls from their desks and realizing that you have a mother with five kids working for you and it's summer, which means school is out, or it's winter, which could mean one of them is at home sick with a babysitter. It's unrealistic thinking on a manager's part, thus it's incumbent on them to be smarter than that and think about how they'd act if they were in the employees shoes, which at some point in their business career they probably were.
Managers and leaders need to try to understand the mindsets of the people who work for them. If not, then they'll be perpetually clueless, and continue making stupid mistakes that will cause turmoil and reduce working efficiency.
Hi Mitch, I’m an employee of a trucking company and I still consider myself ‘business oriented’. I am amazed at how dumb big business can actually be. We just witnessed the grand daddy of all with the banking industry.
I am also amazed at just how little big business understands those that work for them. Being an employees doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t or don’t want to help improve the company.
I agree that there are a lot of unrealistic thinking managers and I think arrogance plays a huge role here. Many managers and business owners set themselves above those that work for them by looking down on the ‘little guy’. Not only do they need to pay attention to the employee’s mindset, they should also learn to work with them as well. The people in the thick of things don’t see the whole picture but they do see things management doesn’t get to see. For example, I know for a fact that the company I work for is loosing thousands of dollars (probably millions company wide) with unorganized routing. They seem oblivious to it and can’t seem to hear the suggestions given by their drivers. We’re talking about very experienced (20+ years) and professional employees freely giving advice yet management can’t seem to hear.
Suggestion boxes are a joke if they aren’t taken seriously. One more example if it’s ok. I thought the company could save a ton of money by asking drivers, about 10,000 of us, to call their local numbers rather than their toll-free 800 numbers that they have us calling now. Most of us are using cell phones, our own, so it doesn’t effect our service or cost either way. The cell phone company doesn’t care if it’s toll free or not, a minute is a minute. I submitted this suggestion via their website, a digital version of the suggestion box, twice and I haven’t heard a single word about it. The page says you will receive a reply within 24 hours yet months have gone by. I even called corporate to make sure the second one went through and I was assured they had it and would respond. Nothing.
The notion that ‘they know what they are doing or they wouldn’t be where they are’ is simply backward thinking to me. Every company has a wealth of great information and ideas hiding in their employees. If they don’t then they need to reevaluate their hiring process. That’s Right, I Said It!
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Fine Example Of Viral YouTube Marketing =-.
Brian, I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said here. I blame it on the lack of leadership and managerial skills in general, as well as a disregard of the thoughts of others. Managers sometimes forget that they didn’t get the position they’re in necessarily because they’re the smartest person in the room. It’s a reason why I believe companies shouldn’t always rely on certain degrees in evaluating talent. Thanks for sharing; I hope some folks listen to you one of these days.