If you are an independent business owner, practice manager, or department head – if you are in any kind of leadership position as an eye care professional – you have had some version of the following conversation with yourself, probably while driving home after a frustrating day at the office. “My employees are just going through the motions; they don’t seem to care enough; what do I have to do to motivate these critters?” At that moment, the optical manager immediately goes into problem solving, thinking about all of the creative things she is going to do to try to motivate the team – things like free lunches, time off, contests, and recognition programs. Meanwhile, nothing seems to work. More frustration sets in. Soon the manager dreads going to the office almost as much as the employees.

For those of you who think the problem of motivation (or more accurately the lack of motivation) in the workplace is overblown, consider the findings of a recent Gallup poll. The poll discovered that more than at any time in the past 20 years, Americans are frustrated with their jobs. In fact, 77% of the people polled said they “hate their jobs.” If that fails to get your attention, flip the statistic around. That would mean that only 23% - less than a quarter of Americans – do not hate their jobs. Furthermore, 87% said they do not like their jobs. If so many people are dissatisfied with their work, imagine the ripple effect that must have on their psyche, the patients and clients they serve, their fellow employees, their families, and even society itself. Gallup research confirmed that last conclusion with another astonishing revelation: Job dissatisfaction costs American employers more than $350 billion in losses every year.

Upon learning all this, and as a kid watching his father “trudge off” to work every day, author and leadership consultant Patrick Lencioni researched this subject and in August 2007 published his findings in a book entitled, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (And Their Employees). Any eye care professional interested in gaining insight as to why employees are so dissatisfied and how to help change that could do no better than reading Lencioni’s insightful work. Eye care managers who do not think they can do anything to improve the situation are simply dead wrong. In fact, the relationship between an employee and his or her direct manager is the single most telling factor in an employee’s level of job satisfaction. The nature of that relationship was found to be a more determining factor than pay, benefits, perks, and even life-work balance. The wisdom of the nearly 300 pages in his book cannot be justly served here, but I will not leave you in suspense as to what the author claims are the three signs of a miserable job.

The first sign of a miserable job is Anonymity. This sign starts to be a problem when it becomes clear that a manager has no real interest in the employee as a human being. They become anonymous, a number, a face in the crowd. Imagine your manager approaching you and asking, “Hey Kevin…how’s the wife?” Meanwhile, you went through a messy divorce…six months earlier. When an employee realizes that his manager/employer cares little about him, guess what. That employee cares little about the work or success of the manager, and by proxy, the company. On the other hand, a manager who takes interest in the hopes and dreams of his staff members sends the opposite message.

The second sign of a miserable job is something the author calls Immeasurability. I know (and Lencioni acknowledges) that “immeasurability” is not really a word, but it drives home the point. It is the inability of the employee to monitor or assess her contribution to the success or failure of the team. In the absence of an empirical measure of her contribution, an employee must rely solely on her manager’s feedback for the assessment. People play better, people play harder, and people play more as a team when they keep score. Managers who, in cooperation with employees, create compelling scoreboards at work largely avoid this problem. 

The third sign of a miserable job is Irrelevance. This, I believe, strikes at the center of motivation. The problem of irrelevance takes root when employees cannot see how their work and their efforts positively affects, or makes some kind of difference, in the lives of others. The more an employee can see how his work benefits himself, the manager, the company, the client, the patient, the community, or some end-user in Boise, Idaho whom he will never meet – the more that the employee feels that his actions have some relevance, the more motivated he will be. 

For a managers or business owners to gain some further insight into the whole conundrum of motivation, all they need do is look a little closer at the word:

M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N

If you look at the word for a few moments, the essence of what you need to provide to your employees might come to you in a moment of genius and insight. With a little imagination (and by providing an extra letter or two) you can split that word motivation into two separate words: Motive and Action. Therein we find the secret of motivation. There is another great book on motivation called 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson. The latest edition was published in 2005. Think about it: over a thousand ways to reward employees…wow! But it all comes back to the words. Whatever it is a manager does to try to motivate the team, he is simply trying to provide a “Motive” for “Action,” or to put it more simply, he is trying to provide a “Reason” for the employee to “Act” in a certain way – a reason to act.

If you asked a frustrated manager, “What would you like to see change? What do you want? How would you like your employees to ‘Act?’ they would immediately tell you. “I want them doing their jobs to standards…no, above standards. I want them to work hard, and share information with one another. I want them to show initiative. I would like them to come in early once in awhile, and not mind staying a little late. I want to see productivity up and error rates down. I want them calling in sick less often, and showing up to work on time more often!” That is easy for mangers to do: to describe the “Action” they want. The challenge comes in providing a “Reason” for them (the employees) to do it. Moreover, while dozens (if not hundreds) of books are written every year on specific things we can do, managers have to start thinking a little more globally. Managers truly need to concentrate on the following goal: Strive to create an environment in which a reasonable person would be motivated. How? Take steps to show them that they and their work matter. How? By always rewarding employees for their efforts and accomplishments, and by dealing with their failures and transgressions. How? Through feedback that is applied early, often, and in a commensurate fashion.

There are also, I believe, eight characteristics of a workgroup that are usually demotivating. (If motivation means to give people a “reason to act,” demotivators might be giving people reasons not to act the way we want them to.) If any if the following things exist in your work environment, try to eliminate them if you can.

1. Individual Internal Competition – Gear your rewards and contests toward the success of the team, not individuals. 

2. Unclear Expectations – Without clear expectations, most employees feel frustrated and lost. Although managers think they have clarified expectations, one of the top employee complaints is that managers do not tell them what to do.

3. Unproductive Meetings – There is nothing worse than death by meeting in the workplace.

4. Unnecessary Rules – Rules are important, but rules that seem to exist for no good reason are demotivating, and in fact, insulting.

5. Too Much Criticism – Pick your battles.

6. Treating Employees Unfairly – Consistency is key.

7. Underutilizing an Employee’s Ability – Tap in to all they have to offer.

8. Tolerating Poor Performance – When a leader tolerates a poor performer it usually demotivates the rest of the team. Why? A message has been sent about the irrelevance of all the good they do.

In conclusion, the more a manager concentrates on avoiding the three signs of a miserable job, creating an environment of trust and respect, and on eliminating some of the classic demotivators listed above, the sooner that manager will be leading a team of happy, productive, professional employees. But like everything else: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got. Start to do things a little differently, and maybe…just maybe…you will begin to see real, positive changes in yourself and in your team. You can do it!

Anthony Record
RDO