Sticky Management Issues

Managing Employees with No Goals

"I don't have any goals. I just want to do great work". "You don't have any goals?" I asked my newly hired supervisor-level employee with unmasked incredulity. My mind was immediately flooded with questions like: Is he lying or just lazy? Didn't I ask him this question in one of his interviews and why can't I remember what he said then? And what on earth do I say to him now? If this employee has no professional aspirations, how will I motivate and manage him?

Every management training I have ever attended stressed the importance of sitting down with an employee soon after hiring her to clarify my performance expectations, her professional development goals and to share the guidance, resources and support that I will provide her in support of her performance and career success. And to be honest, that management tactic worked beautifully most of the time. But sometimes it didn't.

Over the years, it became clear that conventional management theory wasn't always the answer. If every employee were the same or even mostly the same, it would be easy to decide which tested management theory to apply to resolve the staff challenge du jour. That is, if the challenge really is a staff one and not (gasp!) a leadership one.

When my new hire informed me that he didn't have any goals, my first assumption was that he was a liar or lazy. In other words, I assumed that the problem was with him and that his deficits were going to make my job of managing him harder. What if instead, I assumed that the quasi stand-off that we were experiencing was less a challenge to my leadership than a challenge of my leadership? What did I say or do to create the situation that we were in? From his perspective, he had answered my enlightened management question directly and honestly. His answer was causing me angst, not because his answer was wrong, but maybe because I had asked the wrong question.

If I remember correctly, the question that I asked him that prompted his shocking reply was, "What professional development goals would you like me to help you achieve?" Standard management speak, right? And therein lies the problem. What if instead I had opened with, "What is important to you?" or "What do you look forward to?" or to borrow a phrase from a respected marriage counselor, "What lights your fire?" These more general questions acknowledge the fact that while we may act differently at home versus at work, unless we are schizophrenic, the core of who we really are and the essence of what propels us forward is generally the same in the office as it is after hours.

Rather than admit that he didn't really know how to articulate the driving force in his career or perhaps out of fear that I would consider him to be too needy and presumptuous to expect my help in guiding and supporting his professional drive, he tried to wiggle his way out of the conversation by saying that he didn't have any goals. But when I followed up with, "You don't have any goals?" and then the more inviting, "What is important to you?" He replied rather haltingly, "um, my children. Being able to provide them with all of the opportunities that I didn't have. And spending a lot of time with them, especially since their mother and I recently separated."

If I hadn't been open to the idea that his personal and professional priorities and motivations were linked, I might have dismissed his response as off-base or irrelevant to my role as his manager. But I wasn't going to let my leadership challenges get the best of me again. Instead, I asked him additional questions to ensure that I really understood his highest priorities and invited him to help me identify ways to incorporate his unique priorities into his work life.

We discussed his interest in a flexible work schedule and regular salary increases. His pride in being a self-starter who enjoys building systems from scratch. And his distaste for public recognition. Now I knew some of the factors that were his deepest motivators and the position design and meaningful benefits that he would like to work toward. This was some of the vital information that I needed to provide effective leadership for this remarkably goal-oriented, completely un-lazy employee.