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The "do it my way" leadership style rarely inspires employees to excellence. Supervisors are usually experts and self-starters. They try to figure out why employees don't do things the way he/she would do them. Supervisors have a much greater power to influence performance than the power of personal example or personal control. They can build a coherent and motivated workforce by creating an environment in the workplace that is motivating in and of itself. Six key factors in the work environment that influence employee motivation and performance are: 1. flexibility, 2. responsibility, 3. standards, 4. rewards, 5. clarity, and 6. team commitment. Managing these factors requires that supervisors think about better ways to use their personal power to influence the context in which the work is assigned and accomplished. It takes as long to create a motivating work climate as it took to create a de-motivating one.

When Frank Sinatra sang "I Did It My Way," he was not giving helpful advice to leaders who want to motivate the troops. Some supervisors try that approach just the same, giving employees close direction about the how to parts of their jobs. They call it modeling, or standard setting. It isn't either of those.

The "do it my way" leadership style, most supervisors discover, rarely inspires employees to excellence. Even if the supervisor's specific approach to a given job is, hands down, the best one to take, employees may resist because of how that approach is presented. Some employees may passively follow orders, shutting down whatever personal energy or ideas they might have offered.

Others, feeling they have no real power over their own performance, exit if they can and increase the turnover rate. At many levels, these situations can be the most frustrating parts of the job for supervisors and for their employees.

Here's the dilemma underlying the frustrations. First, supervisors tend to come from the ranks of experts and self-starters. In their former individual contributor jobs, they thrived on setting the bar high for themselves and finding faster, better ways of scaling it. The adrenaline rush came from meeting challenging goals, and from delivering a personal best, a result beyond what the work required. At the end of the day, the most satisfying part of the job for these future supervisors was feeling "I personally accomplished something." "I personally did well."

The other half of the dilemma is that, once promoted into the supervisory ranks, these individuals find that leading other doesn't give immediate (or sometimes any) feedback on what they are accomplishing, or how well they themselves are doing. They are in the frustrating position of trying to figure out why employees don't do things the way he/she would do them....why people don't seem as energized to do more than the minimum. At the end of the day, it's an unsatisfying job for everyone.

How do supervisor's resolve the dilemma? Everyone is different, of course, but the following is a frequently seen response. Like a character in the play, "Bye, Bye, Birdie," some supervisors first moan about their people, "why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way.' Over time, they give up on "the leadership thing." They simply try to figure out how to control people, focusing more on the basic work output needed rather than how to motivate people to want to deliver that output. Ultimately, in a time crunch or a real emergency, they may do their employee's job themselves to "get it done better and faster," or they may ultimately resort to discipline or coercion. None of these scenarios will create a more cohesive, productive workforce.

The fact is that supervisors have a much greater power to influence performance than the power of personal example or personal control. They can build a coherent and motivated workforce by creating an environment in the workplace that is motivating in and of itself. They can tap into the diverse motivational needs that people have, so that they find their own kinds of rewards in what they accomplish.

Here's how that's done. Solid research by Harvard psychologists George Litwin and Richard Stringer, and later refinements by noted Harvard University psychologist the late Dr. David C. McClelland, identified six key factors in the work environment that influence employee motivation and therefore performance. Depending on how the supervisor manages those six factors, they can make it harder or easier for employees to do what they are supposed to do.

In other words, they make it harder or easier for employees to want to give effort over and beyond the basic demands of the job because they feel they are working for a motivating cause or for a winning team.

These are the six factors that were identified. After each, some beginning strategies are outlined for supervisors who want to test these in their own workplace:

* Flexibility. When flexibility is high, employees feel free to innovate; to do their personal best without being tied up in red tape. Some strategies to try:

Real or perceived red tape irritates workers and slows or shuts them down. Explain why specific rules and procedures are in place.

People can feel they are experiencing red tape when a rule or procedure is not clear. Rules and procedures may not need changing, just clarifying. Be open to tough, challenging questions about those.

Encourage employees to explore alternative ways of doing things to get faster, better results. Implement and reward good ideas; explain why when an idea can't be utilized.

Look for and get rid of duplicative or add-on procedures that cause employees to waste time and energy.

* Responsibility. When the responsibility factor is high, employees feel ownership of their work outcomes, both positive and negative. They feel they can make decisions appropriate to their level of authority without checking everything with their boss. Some strategies to try:

Develop people sufficiently so you can delegate authority to the lowest possible level. Protect people from the negative outcomes of appropriate risk-taking.

Coach people to plan, to manage their time well, and to see their fellow employees as team members and resources for help. Then, give them room to act and hold them accountable for their work outcomes.

* Standards. When the standards factor is high, employees feel that the goals they have to meet are both challenging and realistic. They know how well they are performing at times in addition to, not just at, their performance appraisal. Some strategies to try:

Set goals and objectives with employees so they understand the rationale and the resources they have. Tell employees which job activities they should focus the most time and energy on and which are less critical.

Ensure that performance standards are clear and are fairly applied to all employees. Don't demand high performance from some and accept mediocre performance from others.

Give frequent constructive feedback, positive and negative, about where employees stand versus their performance targets.

* Rewards. When the rewards factor is high, employees feel that the rewards available in the workplace are linked to performance rather than to subjective and/or political issues. Some strategies to try:

Make sure rewards, both verbal and tangible, are linked to an employee's specific performance results.

Make sure the amount of recognition and encouragement exceeds the amount of criticism and negative feedback given.

Reward team performance, but remember to highlight individual contributions to the team's success. People need personal feedback about how they are doing to be motivated to do better.

Use rewards as a teaching tool to help employees learn what the standards look like when they are delivered well.

* Clarity. When the clarity factor is high, employees unstand the big picture about the company's goals and strategies and understand how their own function, department and job fit into the scheme of things. Some strategies to try:

Spend time communicating the "whys" to employees so they will understand the business reasons for their department's objectives. Communicate changes in strategy or work priorities.

Make sure the structures of teams and jobs support the priorities. Invite questions about how things are organized and how things could be improved.

Make sure lines of authority are clear.

* Team Commitment. When the team commitment factor is high, employees feel everyone is pulling together and pulling in the same direction. Some strategies to try:

Speak positively and enthusiastically of the organization and of your group as part of a winning team.

Recognize employees who are good team players.

Create symbols of team spirit that generate energy, excitement and pride in the performance of the team.

Managing these six factors doesn't require that supervisors relinquish their personal power. It requires that they think about better ways to use that power to influence the context (the environment) in which the work is assigned and accomplished. That process is not an instant one. It takes almost as long to create a motivating work climate as it took to create a de-motivating one. Supervisors who want to take the first steps in influencing the environment will need to:

* Assess the condition of each of the six factors, one at a time, and objectively. The clarity factor is a good place to begin. When people understand the big picture from the same perspective as the top leadership of the organization, they can better understand the whys behind the company's business decisions, and rationales for their own roles, goals and performance standards. They are able to manage themselves and their decision-making better, without close supervision. Spend time sharing information and checking for understanding. Get clarity for themselves, from their own supervisor.

* When people begin to understand how their jobs fit into the big picture, assess the standards factor. Describe the levels of performance they need to deliver in order for their jobs to make the needed contribution to the business. Set objective business and development goals with employees that will help them reach their targets. Give frequent, data-focused feedback so that employees always know where they stand versus those targets. Be a resource for their success.

* In order of priority, the responsibility factor would come next in an assessment of the workplace. The level of trust supervisors have in the ability of their people to make the right decisions and to use alternative ways of getting the job done is key.

If experienced adult workers feel they can't exercise reasonable judgments about their job tasks without a supervisory watchdog, they might as well sit still and wait for the next discrete item on the supervisor's "To Do" list. That's wasteful of both time and talent. And, if supervisors feel that it would be high risk to let employees exercise more judgment, that's a coaching job that needs to be undertaken. Train and develop people, make their accountabilities clear, give positive or negative feedback as needed. Make employees the owners of their jobs and supervisors will just need to coach from the sidelines.

Flexibility, rewards and team commitment tend to get better when the other three factors start to improve. Employees then have enough understanding of the "big picture" to:

Know what's red tape and what isn't.

Find personal satisfaction in seeing his/her accomplishments recognized, and moving the department's goals forward.

Feel that they are part of a winning team.

But, where will the supervisor's sense of personal accomplishment, his/her feeling that s/he has reached a personal best come from? Those terms will need to be re-defined in the supervisor's (and sometimes in the company's) work objectives and in his/her mind. They will need to:

Accept that his/her success is ultimately measured by the employees' results, not just his/her own.

Spend more time coaching and developing employees that they can deliver those results and more.

Set long term goals for making the work environment an easier place in which to be successful.

Supervisors' transition from a "me" management style to a "we" management style will be a good change for everyone, and for the business.

[Author Affiliation]

In her 17 years as a senior management consultant to businesses worldwide, Dr. Susan Surplus has worked with leaders at every organizational level in a broad array of industries. She is presently a free-lance consultant and writer based in Portland, OR. She earned her Ph.D. from Fordham University, along with an M.S. from Fordham and a B.A. from St. Joseph's College.