When we were growing up, many of our parents would yell to motivate us. We would push them to the brink with our continuous resistance to their requests. Finally, they would holler a hollow threat from the other room… “If you don’t clean your room, you’ll lose your Nintendo!”
As we age and mature, we find ourselves in the workplace, where that same style of communication no longer motivates us to jump up and complete whatever task needs to be done. Different from our childhood, generally, those tasks aren’t done because of greater workload and desire to do more, not less. Sometimes things slip through the cracks, fall off an over-full plate, or simply get forgotten. We are all trying to do so much more than we’ve actually allotted the appropriate time to get done. Hence the need to multitask.
When things need to be done, sometimes it is incumbent upon the manager or supervisor to follow up. Many business books and courses teach the adage that managers must “inspect what they expect.” This is true and does produce good results. The opposite, not inspecting what you expect, does not generally produce good results and demonstrates a lack of integrity at the management level.
Once a manager or supervisor identifies that there is a gap between what was asked and what was delivered, he or she needs to address it. The manner and tone in which a manager responds will make all the difference for motivating their team members. Making threats is the fastest way to suck the motivation out of an excellent team and drive them into mediocrity. Even the best team members will feel betrayed by the lack of recognition of the quantity and quality of hard work they are doing in other areas. Most likely, if your team is a good one, they were just too busy to complete the task efficiently.
An effective way to follow up and reiterate your expectations is a direct communication with the team members. Face-to-face communication is best but if that is not practical, a phone call is sufficient. An email can also work if it is framed properly. An email that includes a threat is a nonstarter and will have people gritting their teeth and giving you gestures behind your back. Resist the short, threatening email. If you can imagine (in your parent’s aggressive yelling voice) “complete your reports or I’ll put a memo in your file!” then you’re probably using the wrong tone. Try again.
Originally published at LeadersAmong.us in 2019.