Mike Monaghan, Director of Auto Motivate, a motivational consultancy for the automotive industry, looks at how the current COVID situation will inevitably alter the workforce when we do finally come out the other side.
Mark Twain once famously said: “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
The fact remains, our chosen perception becomes our own version of reality! The mind cannot distinguish between real or perceived. It acts upon the strongest thought instructions given to it. So, how do you perceive the current situation with regards to just some of the following:
Skills crisis, mental health, wellbeing, technology, salaries, recruitment and many more of the variables currently affecting the industry on all sides and at all levels.
Given we are indeed a connected industry, when one part begins to not function correctly the remaining parts will soon feel the effects. We must stop thinking and acting with a silo mentality.
So, whether we look closely or chose to ignore the micro or macro effects, we cannot ignore their existence. The only thing we are in dispute about is the perception of its scale and gravity. This is where we must be extremely careful. If we do not keep a very, very open mind to the shifts taking place across our industry and the world, we may very quickly find ourselves reacting too late to its effects rather than planning to adapt and embrace them.
For the last nine years, I’ve studied human behavioural performance in the workplace and the individual, and it’s easy to see how perception from the top down or the bottom up leads to mistrust and poor performance in both individual and the workplace. Yet, too often, we allow our prejudices or perceptions to control our thoughts and beliefs, true or untrue is no longer relevant, it’s what we want to believe which becomes the default thinking.
Today, we have the potential for a perfect storm or a breakthrough moment in our history.
The key elements listed are real and are affecting the industry at all levels right now and possibly even your business. We’ve often adopted a position of working longer, harder and faster to address these issues previously, but now a new type of thinking and approach will be required.
The pandemic has shone a spotlight on life and made everyone reconsider their goals and values, and so must the employers, if retaining and recruiting the best possible talent is a prerequisite of good performance. It’s no longer just about the salary, it’s about the workplace environment and culture. It’s about staff feeling valued and the life-work balance.
To shift from the longer, harder faster method, to being able to adjust to these new changes is going to require a slow, ‘small & often’ approach with incredibly good communications and listening skills. This is an adjustment many already think they have, but that could just be a perception. The Dalai Lama said: “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”
When we only know what we know, it’s important not to be afraid to ask better questions and seek better answers than those of our own, which we have played out many times before.
Change will happen whether we like it or not, so it’s best to lead and make the changes we seek rather than have them thrust upon us.
So, let’s go back to perception! It’s okay to believe what you want to believe and if you’re right, you’ve nothing to fear, but if you’re wrong, and you chose not to find out and discover more, then your perception could cost you more than the time it would have taken to find out.
The cost of business today will be in managing differently the workforce of tomorrow, not the one we have today; remember what Mark Twain said! Are you ready?
Please visit www.auto-motivate.com
You can email Mike at mike@auto-motivate.com or call him on 07496 543555.
