How To Manage Self Motivated And Highly Intelligent Workers

There’s an emerging type of worker who usually knows more about their job than anyone else in the organisation and is not likely to suffer fools gladly. This type of worker is difficult to manage as they don’t consider themselves to be subordinates in the traditional sense. Knowledge workers are skilled, motivated, challenge-seeking people who convert ideas and raw data into valuable knowledge. At the very heart of leadership is the ability to articulate a vision of the future that inspires people and makes them want to get on board. With knowledge workers, it is necessary to first find out what their beliefs are and include these in your vision. Integrity a leader is like the “first citizen” of an organisation, the embodiment of its values. They should be perceived by everyone to act consistently over time, with integrity and competence, in pursuit of the organisation’s mission. There should not be any disparity between what a manager says and what they do. Integrity leads to the gradual accumulation of trust that can be destroyed in a moment if a lack of integrity is evident. Action-orientation and resilience a manager should be seen to take direct action in pursuit of objectives. They should recover quickly from setbacks. They set a good example by maintaining forward momentum and don’t necessarily blame competitors, the government or the universe when things go wrong. Considering workers as individuals Knowledge workers need to know that they are understood and valued as a whole person and not an expendable unit of production valued only for certain skills. The best course of action for managers in dealing with this is to encourage the worker to achieve goals with empathy and positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement should only used as a last resort as it can create resentment.

Reference : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/how-to-manage-self-motivated-and-highly-intelligent-workers