Making People Care - A Managerial Oxymoron

I was talking to a small group of managers who were discussing elements of their ideal culture. One person mentioned that they thought the ideal culture was one where all employees cared about and helped shaped the organization's future. Another manager said, "man, they don't care about that, they just want to do their jobs and the best care about their customers. And isn't that enough?" The first manager disagreed and suggested that perhaps managers ought to do more to require employees to care about the business. And then he caught himself, immediately realizing the fundamental error of his statement.

You know this!  And yet, I see this idea, or shades of this idea, come up again and again. We think that if we clarify expectations and hold people accountable that we can "manage" increases in how much employees care and their engagement.

Care is an element of ownership, and it is a gift. We can't make people care. But we can lead in ways that inspire, uplift, and engage our employees' hearts and minds.

Going back to the original example. Do you share business results with your employees and hope that they will internalize the information and play an active role in making the organization stronger? If your employees don't seem to care about the business, the solution is not to shove MORE information down their throats or tell them they are expected to care about the business. The solution is to inspire and engage employees so that they ask for more information and ask questions that show you they are interested.

“You ain’t gonna learn what you don’t wanna know.” Jerry Garcia

You know this! And yet, I don't see an emphasis on this in how we train, select, evaluate, and promote managers. Do you? I mean REALLY. For example, is it NOT OK to have supervisors who drag the vibe of their teams down?

As I was finishing this post, I looked back over it and realized I have written this same general message repeatedly in several recent posts. Why? It keeps popping up as a theme in the projects I am working on. Many clients, many different projects.  One key theme. Hmmm...

Being a manager is a privilege and great management is not about pushing employees. Great managers create pull environments.

Comments

[Abe Kohan]

This article reminded of an article I read on MSN reporting that hiring decisions are mostly based on attractiveness of an applicant and other qualifications such education and experience may be intentionally overlooked. I am not sure if it is a new phenomenon in hiring practices, but it certainly is sad to see such factors continue to play major role in hiring and promoting workers. With these types of employment practices it is no surprise that you find low employee morale in most workplaces. I believe it can be helpful in helping workers care more about their work, employers and customer when their relevant and professional qualifications are given full weight in hiring and promoting them, rather than their beauty or lack of it.

[Harris Silverman -- Business Coach]

It's clearly true that you can't demand that people care, or force them to care, but you can usually get them to care by keeping them motivated, giving them a positive work environment, listening to their ideas and input, and generally making them feel they're a part of the team rather than resources to be consumed. in general, if you treat people with respect and make them feel valued, they will naturally take an interest in the business.

Harris Silverman
www.HarrisSilverman.com

[mjblake]

Wow. This is a really good point. If only we could MAKE them care! I do believe that environment is everything though. I've seen two managers in the same company (on different shifts) have radically differerent resulst.

Why?

One manager built people up and gave them a voice, the other micro-managed them to death and made everyone miserable.

[Mais Medical Practice]

What a great article! It's so true that some people don't seem to care enough but you can never force someone to care more. That is why employees who show genuine care towards others, including their coworkers and the company, stand out and are treasured employees like in the medical practice management business. http://equationconsulting.com