How can you get the best out of yout team and enjoy your job?

As Edward Muzio describes in his book, Four Secrets to Liking Your Work, by understanding your own behavior, negotiating tasks, and mastering your motivation you can grow to love your job.

Not that this is a problem for me I should point out if you are listening Boss!!

Think of a job as a relationship, as if the job itself were another person.
Sure, some are abusive, and the best thing to do is get out.
But many rescued with a little focused effort.

Here are 4 secrets that can help.

1. Observing Behavior:
- Some people tend be more outgoing. While others are more introverted.

-Some focus on budgets, timelines, and tasks. while others are more concerned with the other
people involved?

The different permutations of these behavioral tendencies generate 4 different personality types:

Directiveness - an assertive focus on results.
Inspiration - an extroverted focus on other people.
Stabilization - is a reserved, supportive focus on the team s needs.
Regulation - is an analytical focus on facts.

We can all behave in any of these ways, but the fact is that we have preferences.

I might prefer to Inspire, for example, but you might prefer to Regulate. Clearly we ll have conflict if we don t recognize the diversity between us and learn to benefit from our differences.

Consider what behavior your job wants from you.

Does it want you to Direct? Inspire? Stabilize? Regulate?

How does your job's preference compare to your own? If the two of you are too far apart, it's a problem. You may not need to quit, but you may need to negotiate.


2. Mastering Motivation

If behavior is how we act at work, motivation is what drives us. Here is a list of six motivating factors:
- Reward -obtaining money or results
- Autonomy - steering your own ship
- Coaching - helping others
- Cooperating - experiencing harmony
- Consistency - being consistent.
- Continuous Learning - being challenged and discovering new things
[RA4C]

Which of these sound most compelling to you? Which of them sound unimportant? Give them a scoring from 1 to 5. With 5 being most important.

The fact is, we are all motivated by different combinations of these six factors. If I m trying to help other people, and you re trying to make money, imagine how much conflict we might have in a selling situation!

What s more, we won't even realize why we disagree. We'll just be silently pushing for totally different goals.

Again, this secret helps you understand both the people you work with, and your job itself.

How is your job trying to motivate you? If you are in a research position but don t care about discovering truth, or you re a commissioned salesperson who cares more about harmony than money, there may be a mismatch.

3. Harmonizing Tasks.

Did you know that everything you do at work falls into one of only three categories?

- Routine Tasks - like filling out a time sheet or expense report.
- Problem-solving Task - like repairing a buggy program or creating a new application
- Strategic long range project - like redesigning a business process or generating a framework

Each of us has a unique preference for the amount of each type of task we get. Whatever blend you want, you will begin to feel frustrated with your work if you re not getting it.

Remedies:
- When restless at work, be sure to change task types when you change tasks.

- Try to get really good at the task types you dislike that way you can get them done more quickly!

- Try to negotiate trades with coworkers. If you re getting too much problem solving, and someone else isn t getting enough, a trade will help both of you.

4. Get the Right Skills

Get good at what you need to succeed.

What you could learn to make your life easier? This is especially important when your job changes. Many people move into management, for example, without re-examining their skill sets. Skills like influencing or facilitation that were less important before can now mean the difference between happiness and misery at work.

In summary, Observe Behavior, Master Motivation, Harmonize Tasks, and Get The Right Skills.