Hope Springs Eternal
Seneca. . .why do you think we have a winner?
What do you mean?
I mean, why do we have a winner? I mean, if we just wanted to intimidate the districts, why not round up twenty-four of them at random and execute them all at once? Be a lot faster. . .Hope.
Hope?
Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. A spark is fine, as long as it’s contained.
Hope isn’t something you normally consider when talking about business principles. But, it’s a cruicial element of all aspects of business.
You hope your business does well. You hope you get the promotion. You hope you don’t get fired. Everything revolves around hope.
As a manager, you have to understand hope. People join a company for the benefits. They always leave for the same reason; management.
So, as a manager, your goal is to figure out how to keep your employees from wanting to go work for someone else. The easiest way?
Hope.
And let’s be clear, I don’t mean false hope. I don’t mean throwing carrots at a starving mule and hoping that will make a difference. Of course, you have to make work a place where people feel their work is important and where they feel valued. But, you also have to give them hope.
As President Snow said, even a little hope is effective. A lot has been written about managers vs leaders. (Some of it written by me. (Manager vs Leaders Cage Match.)
One of the roles of managers and leaders is to provide a vision for their teams. Even if you are line manager, you can inspire hope.
What gets measured improves.
Every team has some measure of success. I work in the call center industry. Our front line teams have metrics like customer satisfaction, technical accuracy, first call closure and similar call center metrics. The most effective front line managers are those who work to inspire their team.
We are going to set the top achievement for customer satisfaction this month! And here’s the plan that will get us there!
And while President Snow worried that too much hope might cause an explosion, that’s exactly the reaction you want.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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