Common consensus about human services:
We work or plan to work in a field with a lot of challenging work to do, without enough time to do it and without enough funding. Furthermore, many people in the field spend so much time worrying about others that there is little time to take care of themselves.
Often what gets the right staff in the door is that their intentions or personal mission aligns with the mission and vision of the program. The individual and program have shared concerns or dedication to a cause and intend to make a certain impact.
We also can see that initial drive fade over time. So how do we keep our staff motivated, even when we cannot often provide them with significant financial increases as a reward or a way to show gratitude?
Human services has a high rate of burnout and it is important to be able to identify early and address as a leader- both within others and yourselves.
On text pages 106 and 107, Brody talks about different types of "problem people" that leaders may have on their staff.
The "dead-ender" can be used as an example of the challenges faced by leadership to retain staff that perform well. Brody describes actions to consider to prevent a dead-ender from losing motivation.
A. Discuss two specific efforts that you could make as a leader to keep this staff motivated and why you feel those efforts would be the most successful approaches.
or
B. If you feel, as a leader, that investing significant time or efforts for a dead-ender would not be worth it, explain why and how you would work to prevent that staff with diminishing motivations from impacting the larger staff team morale.