Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2015; the roles it mentions, such as Jay Simons as president of Atlassian and Plumtree Software as now part of Oracle, are as of 2015.
Do you want employees who are happy to come to work, committed to your company and motivated by their jobs? Then you need to understand their needs and focus on them. This wisdom comes from Jay Simons, president of Atlassian, a maker of collaboration software for teams.
Simons learned his approach to management through an unconventional career that included years as a hotel bar pianist in Southeast Asia. When he returned to the United States, he moved into sales at a software company and was soon put in charge of running a sales office abroad. He joined Atlassian to lead sales and marketing, and was promoted to president three years later.
This is what he has learned along the way about motivating and inspiring the people who work for him, as reported by Inc.
1. Take the time to understand them
Don’t assume you know everything about a person from what they do or the experience they have. “When I was playing piano in Rangoon, I learned that Burma had a good education system, but the problem back then was that there was no opportunity to put what you learned into practice,” says Simons.
“Waiting tables and other restaurant jobs at the hotel where I worked were among the best jobs in the country.” Some of the people doing those jobs had degrees in physics or biology, he recalls.
Simons learned a valuable lesson from this experience. “We all come from all kinds of situations and influences in our lives. Each of us has different things to contribute.”
2. Give them opportunities to try new roles, even if they don’t have the obvious qualifications
“I’m a big believer in giving people opportunities, because I’ve been a beneficiary of them,” he explains. “People gave me the chance to do things I hadn’t done before.” There was no reason for Simons’s first boss, at Plumtree Software (now part of Oracle), to assume from his past experience that he had what it took to be a good salesperson. They gave him the chance, and he was so good at the job that he expanded his customer base beyond the United States.
3. Find out where your employees want to go and help them get there
One of the most inspiring things for any employee is having their boss ask about their aspirations and then help them fulfil those dreams.
That might mean sending employees on special training, giving them flexible time so they can pursue a particular passion, or even introducing them to contacts outside your company who could offer them their ideal job in a few years if you can’t.
It also means helping employees with suggestions and encouragement, letting them know when they’re on the right track to reach the goals they want and when they need to make a change. “They want to know whether they’re heading in the right direction,” says Simons. “Encouraging feedback is really important.”
4. Give people opportunities to pursue their passions
One day each quarter, Atlassian lets its teams get together and carry out a project of their choosing. The event is called “ShipIt” because each team has just 24 hours to complete its project from start to finish.
“The only requirement is that they have to stand up and explain the finished work to the rest of their colleagues,” says Simons. “We had one team who were frustrated that all the chairs in the conference room were fixed and set up in a particular way, so their ShipIt project was to make the chairs adjustable so everyone could set them up however suited them.”
5. Don’t be afraid of failure
If you’re encouraging people to spread their wings and fly, it’s normal for someone to crash into a wall now and then. And that’s a good thing, says Simons. “It’s not just a feedback mechanism. It’s almost as good as succeeding,” he explains. “I’m the beneficiary of people who gave me the chance to fail. It’s my responsibility to create an environment where people aren’t afraid of failure, and where, if it happens, it’s taken as a learning experience.”
See: 8 ways to kill employee motivation
Featured image: darkhorse166, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
