Over the decades, Management 101 has served us well: Define your work flow, assess your personnel needs, run ads, hire the “right people” and then hold them accountable to their job descriptions. It’s a straightforward process with no surprises, as everyone knows the rules. Many fortunes have been made though this approach, but indications are now pointing to the possibility there may be a more direct way to get to where you are trying to go. Perhaps it’s time to look at how work works from a fresh vantage point.

Carrot-and-Stick Has Lost Its Luster

At its most basic level, work is a means to put food on the table. Prior to industrialization, workers grew their own food. With industrialization came the option to work for others in exchange for money with which to buy food. Over the years, managers have tinkered with different methods of keeping the work experience fresh and motivating. One of the longer-lasting techniques has been the carrot-and-stick model in which management dangles incentives and workers give management what they want in exchange for bonuses. But even the carrot-and-stick model is losing its luster, and the workers are growing antsy and more challenging to motivate.

In the Management 101 process, the given is the work flow and the variable is the job description that is written to fill the gaps in the flow of work. This means that the system relies on the workers to adapt their activities to what is needed. (Remember the infamous “and all other duties as needed” clause?) But is that the wisest approach? Are humans at their best when they sign on to fulfill a job description, or are they at their best when they are hired to work to their strengths?

Assuming a human is at her best when she works to her strengths, and assuming we want to leverage this to our business advantage, then the nature of our new and improved management system would be the inverse of the old. The given would be the worker (and all that she brings to the table) and the variable would be the flow of work that fills the gaps between the workers. It’s a simple yet profound turn of the tables that honors the employee working to her strengths.

An Engaged Employee Is a Motivated Employee

Some call this “employee engagement” – a system designed to leverage the employees’ inherent gifts for organizational benefit. An engaged employee is intrigued, or captivated, or enthralled by what she does. She is motivated by being able to do things that she, in keeping with her very nature, finds intriguing. When an employee is following her natural intrigue, you will get the best she has to offer.

From a management perspective, it takes some practice to let go of old patterns and embrace the mechanics of new ones. One place to start is with your vocabulary. Many organizations think that asking an employee, “Can you do this project?” is what employee engagement is about. However the nature of that question pulls people away from engagement. It’s almost a challenge. The question that elicits engagement has a different spin: “What elements of this project intrigue you?” That question frees the employee to let go of expectations and go with her inherent intrigue.

No one ever said that good management techniques were set in stone. An astute manager is forever scanning the horizon for ways to eke out a critical advantage. Sometimes necessary adjustments are minor and sometimes they challenge a premise that we all take for granted. Management 101 has had a lot going for it, but perhaps it’s time to take management to an entirely new level.

About the Author

Mary McCoy is a recognized expert on how humans relate to the work they do, specializing in sustained engagement. She is the decisive resource for issues that arise at transitional phases of an employee’s workspan within an organization. A popular speaker on the dynamics of employee engagement, Mary is able to articulate, in user-friendly concepts, how employee engagement happens and why sustained engagement remains so elusive. Visit her website, MaryMcCoy.com, for more information.