Motivation-Retention.md

Motivation and Retention

Motivation

• Building and Motivating Engineering Teams - by Camille Fournier. Takeaway:

  1. Money: When you don’t pay people well enough, you contribute to undermining their resilience in the face of problems at work. Think of it as the baseline of Maslow’s hierarchy.
  2. Purpose: There are always technical challenges to be found in organizations, but you’re probably not building a company with a bunch of insanely hard tech problems. This means you have to work harder to sell the learning opportunities. Let engineers into the non-technical decision-making processes.
  3. Respect: Respect that engineers are smart individuals who often have more to add to your business than just their coding talents. Teach them to respect that the other parts of the business have equally valuable skills and perspectives. Engineers don’t need to feel like the company royalty to be inspired to do good work, but they do need the opportunity to be treated like a partner.

• Grow Your Team by Focusing on Strengths Not Weaknesses - by David Lynch. Takeaway: "Getting the maximum impact from everyone on your team, and growing their potential for impact over time, is perhaps the most important thing a manager can do, but it can also be one of the hardest. Here’s a simple way you can do that." The simple way is to get your people to focus and build upon their strengths instead of their weaknesses, and to do it from a team-context perspective. Four skills areas to focus on: "leadership, expert execution, strategy and planning and cultural alignment."

• Habits vs Goals: A Look at the Benefits of a Systematic Approach to Life - by Farnham Street. Takeaway: "Habits are processes operating in the background that power our lives. Good habits help us reach our goals. Bad ones hinder us. Either way, habits powerfully influence our automatic behavior."

• How to Bullshit (podcast) - by Happy Melly, with guest Tomas Kejzlar. Takeaway: this podcast is more of a breakdown of bullshit and how it impedes progress, distracts teams from action or innovation, and demotivates teams.

• How to Feel Progress - by Jocelyn K. Glei. Takeaway: "Making progress in meaningful work is the key to staying engaged...A palpable sense of progress typically emerges from studiously tracking our “small wins.”

• How to Foster Talent through a Growth Mindset and Grit - by Jessica Collins. Takeaway: "[L]eaders can leverage growth mindset and grit to better develop talent and drive performance. This article outlines what it takes to build a culture of continuous improvement, among other evidence-based practices."

• How to Tell the Truth - by Ben Horowitz. Takeaway: Do not lie to your people when it comes to telling bad news, but attach meaning to it.

• I Do a Yearly Review, Here Are Some of the Questions - by Camille Fournier. Takeaway: a list of 12 simple questions meant to provoke reflection.

• Motivating People to Be on Time - by Ken Rubin. Takeaway: Bribes and penalties don't work. Intrinsic motivation gets people to show up on time.

• Moving Motivators - by Jurgen Appelo. A fun exercise you can use with your team to understand which values and aspirations motivate them—status, freedom, power, etc.

• The Neuroscience of Trust - by Paul J. Zak. Takeaway: "[B]uilding a culture of trust is what makes a meaningful difference. Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance."

• The 3 Motivational Forces of Developers - by Ben Northrop. Takeaway: Developers have three main different motivations, and each motivation can be used in different states of a project life-cycle.

• 3 Simple Secrets to Motivating Employees You Can Do Today - by Lighthouse. Takeaway: Give specific, frequent, strategic praise on something great they did; give feedback on their work (millennials want it more frequently); remind them of their impact and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: yearning to do something larger than ourselves—e.g., hospital janitor as “ambassador” or “promote healing by creating sterile places.”

• 12 Ways Leaders Can Help Their Team Overcome Culture Issues - by Young Entrepreneur Council. Takeaway: Communicate directly and frequently; keep your team focused on strategic goals; set people free; let the team step away from work; openly address issues; reinforce your values; anchor the team to a bigger purpose; form a bubble/shield the team; appreciate people's work; listen; be a role model, and reformulate your values.

• Vacation Time Can Boost Employee Performance - by Amanda Eisenberg. Takeaway: Research shows that more vacation time off leads to better performance.

• What Do Workers Want from the Boss? - by Lauren Weber. Takeaway: "People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers." A study of 7,200 people showed that half had left a job because of their manager. Employees want daily face time from their manager, and regular meetings.

  1. Business Motivated: Driven most by a desire to get things done for the customer; have a can-do attitude. In terms of code, they think more concretely, and aren't always the best at creating abstractions that support reuse or other non-functional goals. They just want to get things done and see a functional product.
  2. Technology Motivated: Love learning new things for its own sake; eager to find the newest framework, language, or methodology and will take every opportunity to try it out on their current project. Know all the trending technologies, and have probably dabbled with them over nights and weekends. On a greenfield project they thrive, but when the field turns "brown" and new code turns into legacy, they look for greener pastures, or—possibly worse—seek ways to shoehorn in technology even if it's to the detriment of the system.
  3. Problem Motivated: Hard problems excite these developers, independent of which technology is employed or even if it adds value for the business. It's all about the puzzle. Coming up with an elegant, clever, or quality solution is the victory. While their solutions are solid, sometimes the details slip.

• When Your Manager Isn't Supporting You, Build a Voltron - by Lara Hogan. Takeaway: “no one person will ever be able to manage you the way you want or need,” but “there are a plethora of people out there whom you can lean on to find the variety of support you need.” Look for people who “will push you out of your comfort zone; have different levels of experience than you (both more experience, and less experience); have experience in a different industry; are good at the things that you’re terrible at.”

• Why Aren’t My Engineers Taking Initiative? - by GitPrime/Jean Hsu. Takeaway: “One of the signals that managers might need more training is when their engineers aren’t taking initiative.”

• Why Happiness at Work Is Good for the Bottom Line - by Andy Cope. Takeaway: Being an inspiring and positive person can be learned. Very happy employees "are rare but when you find them you discover they are positive energisers who create and support the vitality of others. They have an uplifting and boosting effect that leaves others feeling lively and motivated."

• Why Motivating Others Starts with Using the Right Language - by David Marquet. Takeaway: "the next time one of your subordinates tries to trick you into telling them what to do, take the time to ask them what they think you should do. Then be quiet and listen. With time, these incremental changes will have a profound impact not only on your organization’s effectiveness, but on the lives of its people."

• Why Today’s Workplace Creates Emotional Conflicts: The Dark Side of Success - by Douglas LaBier. Takeaway: "Periodically a new survey appears, documenting depression in the workplace and dissatisfaction with leadership. Other research confirms that demoralization rises when work isn’t very engaging; or when opportunities for continued growth and expanding competencies are too limited or blocked. It’s time we recognize the negative psychological impact that the management culture and the 'requirements' for success can have on people and the organizations they work for. They exist at great cost to both."

• Why Your Programmers Just Want to Code - by Marcus Blankenship. Takeaway: "How you handle ideas from new programmers sends an important signal. Good or bad, it sets the stage for what they expect. This determines if they share more ideas in the future… or keep their mouth shut."

Retention

• Coaching Should Be The New Free Lunch in Tech - by Lisa Nielsen. Takeaway: "Apparently, having an employer invest in your growth as a human makes a big impact on an employee’s willingness to stay put." About Keen IO's decision to create an internal team of coaches to offer coaching all employees; 91% have opted in to take advantage of the service.

• “Cost of Turnover” Calculator - by Lattice HQ. Takeaway: Plug in your company size and turnover rate, along with the costs of hiring and onboarding. The results may surprise you. And that says nothing of the emotional headache and cultural drain felt from losing great people.

• 8 Bad Mistakes That Make Good Employees Leave - by Dr. Travis Bradberry. Takeaway: You'll lose your best employees by making lots of stupid rules, treating everyone equally (not to be confused to "fairly"), tolerating poor performance, not recognizing accomplishments, not caring about people, not showing the big picture, not helping people cultivate their passions, and not making things fun.

• 8 Key Tactics for Developing Employees - by Steve Olenski. Takeaway: to motivate and retain your team, create individual development plans, provide performance metrics, provide opportunities outside of a job function, give constructive feedback, remove barriers, link to a professional network, outlay resources, and set the example.

• 4 Core Steps towards Decreasing Employee Turnover - by Sapling. Correct what’s not right; foster a culture of open communication; develop your employees, and recognize and reward effort and success.

• The 4 ‘Perks’ Good Developers Really Want - by Mike Melnicki. Takeaway: The best developers "want to have an impact in all aspects of the company: product direction, marketing, human resources, design and even finance." The other three: Allow your devs to build a personal brand; create opportunities for them to demonstrate creativity; and consider the unique needs of your team members, and support them with flexibility.

• How to Grow Your Employees When You Can’t Promote Them - by unspecified Lighthouse blog writer. Takeaway: There are still opportunities for employees even if promotion is not currently an option. Lateral moves, and specific skills focus can help retain folks. Tapping into intrinsic motivations can help with engagement.

• How We Pay People at Basecamp - by DHH. Takeaway: "There are no negotiated salaries or raises at Basecamp. Everyone in the same role at the same level is paid the same. Equal work, equal pay." Basecamp offers employees salaries in the top 5% of the market (Chicago) and meaningful benefits, and has instituted a new profit growth sharing scheme.

• People Leave Managers, Not Companies. Don’t Let That Manager Be You. - by Rich Archebold. Takeaway: Avoid manager overconfidence by asking for advice and peer review, owning instead of blaming, give feedback with empathy, savor success, and constantly revisit what it takes to be a good manager.

• Quantifying Personal Retention Impact: A Mathematical Thought Exercise - by Roy Rapoport. Takeaway: Offers a scale from -3 to +3 for determining how much you'd join a company based on whether a former colleague you liked or disliked is working there.

• Retention and the Cross-Generational Pipeline - by Kate Heddleston. Takeaway: "You can retain any employee by valuing them equal to their work, training managers at your company, and giving employees the benefits and work flexibility to manage life outside the office. I wish we valued retaining underrepresented groups as much as we valued hiring them."

• Tech Leavers - by Kapor Center. Takeaway: A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults who left a job during the previous three years. "Workplace culture drives turnover, significantly affecting the retention of underrepresented groups, and costing the industry more than $16 billion each year."

• 10 Surprising Employee Retention Statistics You Need to Know - by George Dickson, Bonusly. Takeaway: surprising stats and context about retention, from "35% of employees said they'd look for a new job if they do not receive a pay raise in the next year" to "93% of millennials say they left their employer the last time they changed roles."

• To Keep Employees Loyal, Try Asking What They Want - by Anne Fisher. Takeaway: When the article was published in 2011, Aflac CEO Dan Amos worked with a team that was 70% women. His company's approach to reducing turnover, he just asked employees what they wanted. It produced results.

• Tomorrow Half Your Company Is Quitting (So Win Them Back) - by Ryan Pendell. Takeaway: "Organizations that rely on world-class talent must find more creative ways of re-recruiting their top performers, even when traditional incentives (i.e., pay and promotions) are not immediately available."

• Turning Around Employee Turnover - by Jennifer Robison for Gallup. Takeaway: "According to Gallup's research, 9 of the 12 workplace elements consistently predict turnover across business units, regardless of an organization's size. These elements are: having clear expectations, having the materials and equipment to do the job right, having the opportunity to do what you do best every day, the belief that someone at work cares, the belief that someone encourages your development, a sense that your opinions count, the mission or purpose of the company making you feel that your job is important, a belief that your coworkers are committed to quality, and having opportunities to learn and grow at work. If these needs are met, as shown by higher scores on these employee engagement items, turnover is likely to be low."

• 20 Simple Reasons Your Top Performers Quit - by George Dickson at Bonusly. Takeaway: "Start by taking a step back and objectively analyzing the causes of voluntary turnover. Understanding why top performers quit is the first step in preventing yours from leaving for greener pastures. Luckily, you don't have to make these mistakes yourself to learn from them. Plenty of others already have."

• Why I Rejected My Manager - by Mianya Ong. Takeaway: Ong rejects in managers the “their way or the highway” attitude, being busy being too busy, lack of awareness of what reports are working on, infallibiity, inability to explain why, hiring people exactly like them, and inability to compromise.

• Why People Can’t Wait to Quit Your Company - by Nicole Sanchez. Takeaway: Bad managers, HR isn't trusted/can't do its job well; misalignment; your company treats people like tools; the CEO is underperforming instead of working; your approach to hiring senior leadership looks more like cronyism than rigorous selection; the smartest person in your company is buried deep in the org chart and underutilized. But you can fix it.