Role of motivation and relationship management in the workplace

For as long as we can remember, it was instilled that corporate culture was fiercely competitive, individualistic, and valued hierarchy above anything else. However, coming into the 21st century, a new generation of employees are creating a shift, introducing flexibility, teamwork and a sense of autonomy within the workforce. As a Community Leader at Illuminate Universe, I had the opportunity to review the Talent Retention & Relationship Management work-integrated learning experience. Here is my reflection of my learning and leadership journey and what I learned.

Part 1: What is a leader?

The first aspect of the learning experience that stood out to me was the examples and the in depth understanding I received from the modules I completed. The modules are placed in a logical manner, to allow for a steady understanding. Firstly, it is important to understand why it is increasingly important for employers to showcase Sales Leadership. A leader keeps the company together by keeping the employees focused on a common goal while ensuring needs are being met. Through sustaining a healthy workplace environment, a leader can improve motivation and consequent relationships with employees. Superheroes and comic book characters have many examples of great leaders, all of which showcase these important qualities:

1. Superman: Empathy and Endurance

• Understanding that employees are human as well allows for less burnout thus productivity in the long run. Being able to face challenges with a level head and finding ways to move past them ensures the company stays focused.

2. Spiderman: Humility and Selflessness

• Leaders must be humble and willing to put the needs of the organization and their employees first over personal endeavors.

3. Batman: Adaptability

• Leaders must be able to adapt to unexpected situations and have the flexibility to revise current plans accordingly.

4. Thor: Spanning boundaries

• Leaders must be able to satisfy the needs of both internal and external customers. With different departments needing different resources, a leader must be able to ensure sustainability to prevent conflict.

5. Avengers: Collaboration

• Leaders must facilitate a collaborative work environment, an important factor in relationship management to improve productivity.

6. Captain America: Integrity

• Leaders must promote an honest, equitable and just workplace to further motivate employees and allow for open mindedness.

Through examples and visual aids this learning experience effectively educates the community by providing multiple pathways for information to be comprehended. This learning experience acknowledges not everyone learns the same way and takes measures to ensure diversity and equity.

Key Takeaway 1: A leader is not only someone who delegates tasks, but someone who plays an active role in the team to understand and cater to the needs and workstyles of the employees in order to achieve a certain vision which ties the team together. This is the basis of relationship management between an employer and employee and plays a key role in the motivation of the workers.

Part 2: Catering work practices to employees

The second part of the learning experience included information of Millennials and Generation Z, who now make the majority of the employees in the workforce. It is important to change and cater the work environment to better facilitate the employees, as this can improve productivity and by default business processes.

Millennials expectations:

• Mission driven company

• Collaboration and Creativity

• Flexibility and Remote Work

• Work-life balance

Generation Z’s expectations:

• Meaningful work

• Inclusion and diversity

• Career advancement

• Stability and balance

• Collaboration and autonomy

Understanding the motivations of your employees, provides a guideline to how the business should be set up to maximize productivity. The learning experience provides real life scenarios to allow for individuals to use the knowledge they acquired and apply it, allowing for thorough comprehension of the topic as well as an opportunity to test their skills.

Why is this important?

• The higher the retention rate, the more supportive the workplace seems to the employees. This helps build cohesion in the team and reduces costs related to hiring and training.

• It is important to realize that money is not the only thing the new generation of employees are looking for. Looking at these work values, it is more about self actualization and possibility of growth within the company.

Based on the above mentioned expectations for the new generation of employees, these are ways to improve motivation in the workplace:

• Increase autonomy of employees:

• Include them in project planning

• Decentralize the business

• Make expectations clear to prevent poorly made decisions and boost self-assurance

• Increase acknowledgement and progress made:

• Recognizing progress can motivate employees and encourage them to work harder as a result improving productivity.

• Offer constructive feedback:

• Advice allows the team to grow and understand the care that the business puts in their personal growth. This is crucial in order to build positive relations with employees.

Key Takeaway 2: In general Millennials and Generation Zs are looking for a more open working environment, with an increase in autonomy and freedom over their work life. They value more projects that require creativity and collaboration, as well as need to feel like they are making a difference. I personally learned what the workforce might look like in the future, for example more collaborative and autonomy and will gear my experiences to develop these skills in the future.

Part 3: Maintaining employee relationships through communication

This module encapsulates the importance of communication, more specifically, non violent communication.

4 Elements of Non-Violent Communication:

1. Observation

2. Feelings

3. Needs

4. Request

For example:

You are awful at coming on time.

Try this:

I see that you are not managing to arrive at work on time and it makes me a bit worried about your progress in the company because I want you to be successful. I suggest making a few extra reminders to keep you on schedule going forward.

When learning this concept, this learning experience provides many examples so that the individual has a clear understanding on how violent communication can be altered to seem less aggressive.

Key Takeaway 3: Communication impacts the way an employee views their workplace, thus it is a crucial aspect to relationship management. Through consistent reinforcement of the information with tests, Illuminate provides a healthy, positive method of retaining knowledge in the mind of the individual. I personally learned that it is more beneficial and effective when you consider the perspectives of those around you when you choose your communication style

Final Thoughts

To cumulate my thoughts on this work-integrated learning experience, it allows for a thorough understanding of the relationship between the workplace environment, the employer, and the employee. Through multiple resources provided to test knowledge in varying ways, it allows the community to learn the concepts in ways that best suit the individual. This experience encourages positivity and personal growth through encouragement and personal examples. All together, through this learning experience I was able to develop a thorough understanding of factors that are important in relationship management. I have also developed my communication skills and will put the knowledge gained towards future experiences. Through this module, it allows the individual to personally learn and develop an understanding on how to become an effective leader and communicator.