KEY POINTS:
Managers who spend too much time helping poor performers could end up finding their best people walking out the door.
That's the view of Keith McGregor, an industrial psychologist who says it is human nature for everyone to want some attention, even high flyers.
"The top performers are the easiest people to ignore, and when you ignore them they can go off the boil and start looking for other jobs," says McGregor. " They are the people you are relying on to keep your business functioning."
He says good staff go when they don't get the attention they think they deserve. "And that happens because managers pay attention to the behaviour they want to see less of, instead of concentrating on what they want to see more of."
McGregor, who runs Personnel Psychology NZ in Lower Hutt, says that companies should treat staff like machines to get the best out of them.
"It's what I call my machine model of management," he says. "The secret of leadership is to treat staff like machines.
"If you are a logging contractor with 10 rigs and you are relying on them to keep you fed and clothed, you would do daily checks because you want to keep them running beautifully."
He says that like the logging machines, staff are leased assets costing thousands of dollars a year.
"It doesn't take long to check the oil and water on a truck, if you don't expect to find anything wrong.
"But if you don't do it, it may work fine for a while but then something will go wrong."
And that "something" could be staff disengagement, low productivity, and people deciding to leave because they feel unchallenged and not valued.
McGregor, whose background includes 12 years as an occupational psychologist in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and more than 15 years in the private and public sector, says the analogy of members of staff as machines gets managers thinking.
"Their lights go on and they say `so that's what managing is all about'," says McGregor. "It's all about making sure the assets are working well."
So what can a manager do to ensure all their staff get the maintenance they need, so they feel valued and part of the team?
"The key to retaining staff is to create an environment in which they feel valued," says McGregor. "And that can be achieved with simple things, such as saying good morning to people and taking an interest in their professional and private lives.
"I have often said that if we can get New Zealand managers to say good morning to their staff, then it would shut down the entire management consulting industry."
McGregor puts the state of management down to people just not being aware of the positive psychological impact of taking an interest in their staff.
He says managers could solve a lot of issues by asking their staff just two questions every day _ "How is it going?" and "Is there anything I need to know about?"
And the staff are all going to say: "It's going fine, there's nothing you need to know about."
McGregor adds: "And by the time a manager has done that three times, they will know - by the responses they get - which staff are coping and which ones aren't. And that is what you do with machines."
McGregor says that by speaking to all staff regularly, taking an equal interest in the good and not so good performers, then staff turnover will reduce and morale will rise.
*Contact Steve Hart via his website at www.stevehart.co.nz
- Spy, HoS
