We all have inherent behaviours, triggers and motivators and these vary from person to person. The key to effective management is to find out what these motivators are and then modify your behaviour as a manager in order to manage effectively.
To simplify things, we can look at DISC profiling and the 4 main behavioural factors – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. We all have a mixture of these, but let’s look at the most prevalent and work with that.
Dominance
Highly dominant employees are driving and competitive so their basic motivator would be tangible goals. They need to have challenging assignments but also have an inherent drive to succeed – failure is their basic fear. They also prefer direct communication.
Influence
High Influence employees are outgoing, positive and enjoy people, popularity and attention, Their main driver is social inclusion, showing actual interest in people and recognising their achievements – they love certificates, awards etc. Their basic fear is being unpopular and rejection.
Steadiness
High Steadiness employees are dependable, amiable and persistent. They enjoy being part of a team or group and security is hugely important to them. They become insecure in times of quick change, preferring to be consulted during the process. They prefer a systematic environment and are happy with repetition.
Compliance
High Compliance employees are accurate and thorough, they are orientated towards careful planning and factual analysis and they are motivated by clear areas of responsibility, detailed communication and specialised tasks. They fear conflict and error of any kind.
The mistake we make as Managers is by managing all employees in the same manner or by managing the way we would like to be.