The world outside our comfort zone

During one of the interviews I had a few years ago, I have asked one candidate what made her stay for 5 years at a company where her experience was not valued. 

Her answer was: “Well… the colleagues are nice, I got used with everything in the company and the management is also not that bad.”

She knew the whole time that she could do much more. However she continued there for so long because it was cozy.

Recently I have had the chance to talk again with her and I have found out that she is still with the same company but much happier. What happened?

She had decided to take the risk and try something new. She has discussed with her manager, she has been assigned to new projects, had to learn new technologies, was noticed by the management and got promoted.  She had left her comfort zone and decided to go for more, take risks and work hard until she got what she wanted.

When was the last time you have tried doing something new? What was the biggest step you took out of your comfort zone?

Here is a good illustration about the comfort zone and what could happen if we dare to get out of it.  

Do you want to know how to motivate your employees?

STOP DEMOTIVATING THEM. This is what one of my clients told me last week. Although not demotivating employees doesn't mean that they will be motivated, knowing what could be demotivating might help in building a solid and productive team.

Therefore, here are some of the most common things that can demotivate people at work:

Uncertainty. Employees expect from their managers and from the company clear messages and full information regarding what is expected from them, what they need to do, who is evaluating them and on what criteria, what they need to do to have a good performance, how they can achieve that, how the company functions and why certain decisions are made. Without that, the employees will not feel part of the company, will not understand what their role is and will feel like their efforts and skills are not used and appreciated.

Inappropriate or no feedback. Everybody needs feedback in order to see where they have done good and wrong, to improve and to see if they are going in the right direction. Giving only negative feedback or positive feedback can be very demotivating and have a huge impact on the productivity.

Unclear strategy. When the employees don’t understand what the strategy of the company is and why some decisions are made, they will see them as chaotic and they will show resistance in implementing those decisions. On the long run this is very demotivating.

Lack or poor leadership. Lack of support towards the employees, poor communication, lack of empathy, not keeping ones word, inconstant decisions and unfair treatment towards the employees are just some of the signs of poor leadership.

No development or new responsibilities. Repeating the same processes and not facing new challenges can negatively affect one’s attitudes. Most employees want to keep on learning new things. Some want to do that faster, some slower, some want to take on more responsibilities and some not. In any of the situations, people need some variety in their work in order to keep their motivation and performance high. What managers should do is to find out what are the expectations of each of their employees and try to offer manage them by offering the right development opportunities at the right time.

The most common situation is that employees who feel demotivated leave the company. However, not all demotivated employees do that. Some of them stay there and complain, have a poor performance and create a bad atmosphere in the team.

No matter if they leave or not the company, having demotivated employees can be extremely negative for any company. 

WORK LIFE imBALANCE

For some people their job is not just a source of income but a part of who they are and therefore they will go the extra mile to get the job done even if that means constantly doing overtime, working also at home or in weekends. In the end they are so caught in their work that they almost have no time for personal life. The stress and tiredness will inevitably lead to the phenomenon called burnout. Some of us learn the importance of work life balance only after they go through or are close to exhaustion.

After almost a year of working an average of 55 hours per week, skipping lunch breaks, being available also during weekends and covering the responsibilities of 3 jobs in 2 different locations I started questioning my life style. My body was also giving me all the hints I needed that things are not ok. I could not sleep well, I started feeling burns in my stomach, I was always tired and nervous. Why did I push myself to the limits? It was not for money, that's for sure.

It all happened with a promotion, a great chance I've been given and my wish to prove that I can do a good job. This motivated me so much that I did not think anymore about my personal life and health. Getting things done and being able to deal with such high volume of work gave me a sort of energy that was making me continue in that rhythm for a quite long period of time. One night, while going at home from work I waited in the subway station for about 30 minutes because I was not realizing that I need to take the subway to go home. I was so tired that my brain must have stopped. I was just standing there staring at the subways passing one after another. When I realized what had just happened, I decided that this can't go on like this.

It's ok to be devoted to your job and to want a career, however no rewards or money could ever pay back one’s health or personal life.

A trainer told me once that it's up to us how we use our time at work. If we need to eat at our desk and at the same time do something for work that's fine. I totally disagree with that.

The lunch break should be for two things only: lunch and break from work. Only like this we will refresh and be able to concentrate for the rest of the day. When it comes to overtime, unfortunately there are many companies where working long hours is already part of the corporate culture. The managers work until late and they expect all other employees to do the same. Some employees will even start feeling bad for leaving at the end of the normal working hours.

Doing overtime can show someone's commitment to the company if it's done occasionally, in special or emergency situations. However if someone is constantly doing overtime this can be a sign of bad time management, incompetency or overloading. Working until exhaustion might have good results on short term for the company but devastating effects on medium and long term for both the company and the employee. Employees who take care of their personal life, who work normal hours, rest enough and who keep themselves healthy will be far more productive and motivated than the ones who do the opposite.

No matter the cause of work life imbalance, there is always a solution. The first step is to admit that we have a problem.