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Value Insights Monthly
"Expecatations of the Underutilized"

Expectations of the Underutilized

One of the greatest obstacles we've found to personal satisfaction is unrealistic expectations. Our perceptions about were we think we "ought" to be or "ought" to have tend to rob many of us from finding a real sense of fulfillment. These sometimes unrealistic expectations come to us from the lessons we were taught, often at a very early age.

This seems especially true for people in the baby boom era who were taught that "up is better". This little phase has caused a great deal of frustration for many people. Think about it. From the late fifties through the seventies teachers, parents and society in general were attempting to encourage us to do more so we could get more. Not a particularly bad idea, but the expectations that came with it had a great deal of unexpected fallout.

Unfortunately, about the time that the majority of the baby boomers were ready to "move up", the bottom fell out. Many companies began to "downsize" or more euphemistically, "rightsize" their organizations. And even where this didn't occur, many more simply "flatten the pyramid" which ultimately had the same affect; no more "up" to go to for thousands of talented and ambitious people.

Many of today's morale and turnover problems result from companies not developing an effective plan to meet the personal satisfaction needs of people without giving them a promotion. Interestingly, many of these "upward" hopefulls only "thought" they wanted a promotion, because they had been taught that promotion equaled success.

Our studies of the underlying motivation issues for most baby boomers is really more about feeling "valued" and believing that what they are doing actually is worht their dedication. We have worked with many companies who have began the process of assessing individual motivational needs and identifying the talents that can be captured to increase employee value for the organization.

Using the "Value Profile" we have been able to identify specific individual talents and competencies and then make adjustments to job duties and titles that give these talented and under utilized people a greater sense of meaning and purpose. It seems like a terrible, yet avoidable, loss to have so much talent available when it takes so little to gain the benefits from these valuable human resources.