Building and maintaining a productive workforce is one of the biggest challenges executives and managers have in running their businesses.

In the industrial economy, machinery was the main asset which did not have the emotional aspect that employees of today’s more service oriented economy.  You could schedule preventive maintenance and “tweak” machine settings to increase quality and productivity.

Employees need maintenance as well but the skill set in performing that maintenance is much different than machinery. 

Although some employee related issues around productivity can be complex, most can be boiled down to two core issues, Entitlement and Fear.

Entitlement

This occurs when an employee gets too comfortable in their position and feel as if the job is “owed” to them and they really don’t have to do too much to keep it except for showing up everyday.  It can be seen sometimes with long term employees and also in industries where tenure exists.  Continuous improvement is foreign to these change resistant individuals who typically like to complain a lot and view their job solely as a way to get a paycheck.

Fear

On the other hand, the fearful employee has the “deer in the headlights” look a lot of the time.  They are afraid to say things in meetings and tend to agree with everything their bosses say.  They are also terrified of making any waves that could draw some level of attention to themselves.  They avoid risk taking like the plague and are deathly allergic to making mistakes.  These types of employees could be very productive if they could get over their hang ups around job security.  At the end of the day, they have bills to pay and mouths to feed.  Their personal vision statement reads, “Don’t Rock The Boat!”

Now most employees are not at the extremes described above but it is important to understand it so they don’t end up there.

Managerial Balancing Act

The graph below depicts the managerial challenge:

Simply stated, an employee who feels 100% entitled to their job and fears no threat of losing their job based on poor performance will not be very productive.

In turn, the employee who is 100% fearful of losing their job for making mistakes, for challenging management, and for taking chances or risks; will also be unproductive.

Employees will swing from entitlement to fear and back, and it’s the manager’s responsibility to read this quickly and make adjustments to keep them near the center.  The successful manager will attempt to balance the employee so they know there are consequences for poor performance but also that they won’t get fired for making mistakes and taking risks.

The amount of adjustment is based on how far to the extreme a person is.  If a person feels 100% entitled, the manager needs to create some level of fear that this is not guaranteed employment and performance must improve or there is a chance of termination.

On the flip side, if an employee is engulfed with fear of losing their job on a moments notice, they need to be supported and encouraged that there is security in their job and you what them to challenge things and take chances.  Assure them that they won’t be penalized or fired for expressing opinions, taking risks and/or making mistakes.

Continuous check ups of where your employee’s are on the Entitlement vs. Fear graph line will help the manager identify issues before they become problems.  This will make them better managers and employees will become more productive in the process.

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