Page 216 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

the eight principles model � 195

they’d lose too much by leaving it. That loss could be money, benefits,
relationships, or even accumulated vacation time. When people feel
that they have to stay with an organization simply to avoid loss, they’re
motivated and committed, but not as much as they would have been if
they’d had a strong love of the organization. 12
Technology changes constantly, but you want your employee loy-
alty to transcend the latest software update or new gadget. How to do
that? Richard Morris, the director of learning technologies for Mis-
sion Aviation Fellowship, says you have to depend on deeper qualities:

I think the problem is a changing world. [It] makes the importance of
a commitment to a vision, the mission, more important. Because, par-
ticularly for us, where we’re in technology (a part of what we do), it’s
constantly changing. So I can’t make any commitments on things I’ve
done, or things I’ve built, or products that we’ve developed, or whatever.
We can’t hang on to those things. . . . [We need to] focus much more on the
people we’re serving and their needs and the calling that we have rather
than on stuff. 13

principle six: manage expectancies
It’s interesting. Two people with exactly the same talents and skills
will react differently to a similar challenge. One will set low goals,
not try too hard, and give up early. Another will set stretch goals, put
tremendous effort into achieving them, and will persist beyond what
anyone would expect. One of the biggest reasons the two behave dif-
ferently has to do with what psychologists call “self-efficacy.” 14
Self-efficacy is the belief an individual has that he or she can do a
particular task. If that belief is high, a person is more likely to go to
the mat to achieve the goal. If it’s low, that person is more likely to
give up. So it’s in your best interest to help your employees to build
it. In that sense you are an “expectancy manager.” Your job is to move
someone with low or marginal self-expectations to the belief that he
or she can climb mountains. You can see sports coaches do that all