One of the secrets to successful team management is selecting the right employees. If a manager complains that “people are like this,” it is primarily a question for that manager. However, such a manager might respond that when they hired the employee, they clearly saw the person’s enthusiasm and eagerness. Yet, once the employee started working, that initial zeal seemed to vanish.
Oh, here we go. This is actually what the post will be about. When hiring people and assessing their motivations, a common mistake is to confuse the desire to get a job with the desire to succeed in that job. A successful manager knows how to hire those who are already motivated for success. They understand the motives of these individuals, know them, and can trust them. Firstly, such people will require less “selling” of the work attitude, and secondly, their motives are known, which means the approach to each person is also clear.
What if what we are evaluating is simply a desire to get the job, and we assess this, for example, based on how well the cover letter is written? Then we might hire people whose goal will be achieved as soon as they are hired. Why would they want to work then? We would need to find new motivations.
We hire someone, and they enthusiastically respond, “Yes! I’ll do this, I’m ready for that, I’ll figure this out, I’ll ensure those sales, and this and that and the other…” Meanwhile, we forget that the harder it is to get a promise out of someone, the more likely they are to actually fulfill it.