How you can motivate your employees

How you can motivate your employees

By Sean Tarpenning

How can you motivate your employeesIf you like to motivate your people you have to be motivated first.

Secondly, you have to know your people; have to know their actual needs and expectations. But it is not an easy task because people usually don’t like to express their actual needs. They express it in different ways and most of the time it is misinterpreted by their managers. Good leaders invest their time, effort, and observation to discover the actual needs of their team members. Since different people expect differently so they are motivated by different motivational factors.

So, you can’t motivate all of your team members by a single motivational factor. You can motivate some people by giving monetary benefits but not all people. If some one expects recognition or respect but you try to motivate him by giving money, it will not work there. So, identification of the actual needs of your team members and developing customized strategies to meet their needs is the key to employee motivation.

Motivate yourself first If you like to motivate your people you have to be motivated first.

Your vibrant presence in the office will spark your team members.

Your speech, actions, movement will energies them. If you are demotivated, frustrated or demoralized you can’t be the source of great inspiration, you can’t influence others to be motivated. So be enthusiastic in your role in the office.

Don’t forget to give due recognition Giving recognition of their achievement is the best way to motivate employees. You can get many jobs done by recognizing them what can’t be done by giving money. Although it is very effective tool to motivate employees but most of the time managers fail to capitalize it. You can recognize their achievement by giving sincere thanks, writing an appreciation letter, giving them appreciation in public, rewarding best employee award, best achiever award, best service quality award etc or by mentioning their name in the company’s newsletter. Recognize every achievement no matter how small it is. It improves motivation level and inspires your team members to repeat their actions or behavior again.

Be an active listener Listening attentively means you are respectful to your employees and you are open to accept their suggestions. Most of the employees feel that they have wonderful ideas but unfortunately they can’t share their ideas and suggestions with their managers.

Managers believe they know better than their employees, so they don’t listen to them carefully. Employees get frustrated and become de-motivated. Besides employees face different type of difficulties while doing their job that they want to share with their managers. If you listen attentively you may get creative ideas from your team members and you also can solve most of their problems.

Help them to achieve their target

When we achieve something it gives us a sense of satisfaction.

When employees successfully complete their assignment their moral goes high and they feel proud of it. Achievement is a great motivator for employees. If employees consistently fail to achieve their target, they become demoralized and it causes unsatisfactory outcome. So set realistic target for your team members; train, coach and develop them as they can achieve their target consistently. Give clear guidelines; arrange necessary logistic support, if necessary join your hand to help your team members to meet their deadlines.

Offer challenging assignment Offer challenge to your team member for the difficult tasks. I am sure some of your team members will spark and they will be willing to accept your challenge. They will put their best effort to win that challenge and they will do it. Because they like to be recognize in that way. You cannot do all jobs by giving money but you can get the toughest job by offering challenge. Offer due recognition of their extraordinary achievement, it will help you to motivate your whole team.

Communicate effectively Communication is the key to become successful in every position.

Confusing and unclear information causes de-motivation in the team. They don’t understand what to do. Communicate clearly what you expect from your team members and explain them the rationality behind your expectation. Communicate company’s vision and mission statement clearly to your team members. This will motivate them because everybody likes to work in an organization that has a vibrant future.

Delegate Responsibility Delegate responsibility to your team members as they can work independently. Proper delegation of authority will decrease your workload and will increase motivational level of your employees.

Every employee likes to work independently; they don’t like to be controlled. If they need to seek your permission in every step operational activities will not run smoothly. So allow them to work independently. Frequent interference and disruptions make employees agitated and don’t bring good result for the organization

Ensure good working environment Good working environment is one of the important components of employee motivation. A well organized and congenital working environment helps employee to improve their productivity. Make your office decorated as much as possible so that employees feel comfortable because sometimes they spend more time in the office than their home.

Picture on the wall, plants, paintings make people feel good about their environment. If possible keep enough space, right sized desk, comfortable chair, suitable room temperature, adequate lighting etc in the office. Take initiative to develop a sound interpersonal relationship and stop bad mouthing, internal conflicts and office politics which destroy congenial working environment.

Align employees Goal Every organization has a unique goal for which it operates; at the same time every individual has his own personal goal. If you like to get the best of your team members, you have to harmonize employee’s goal with organizational goal, otherwise they will lose their interest or even they may quit organization. It is the responsibility of a good leader to present the job to his employees in such a way that they feel they are advancing to their own goal by serving the organization.

Respect your employees You can ensure exceptional working environment, good training facilities, offer handsome salary, everything for your team members but if you don’t respect them, your every attempt will end in smoke. They will not be motivated, because people like to be treated with respect. Listen attentively, be considerate to accept their opinions, they may have some great ideas and people will feel motivated contributing to the organization. If they don’t perform to their full potential, breaks organizational rules, even if they face severe punishment treat them with respect. These will intact high morale and motivation level of your employees.

Assign interesting work Assess employees’ individual skills and interest and allow them to work where they fit into the organization. In some cases you have to interchange their job or territory according to their interest and potentiality. If changing the scope of their work is not possible, help them to see their job from different angle as they can enjoy their job. If you assign a job they don’t like they will be bored and it would be difficult for them to be successful. Create an environment that allows their inherent energy to flourish.

Ensure job security If you like to get the best output from your team members, ensure the security of their job and let them feel that it is their organization. They will be committed to serve the organization for ever and will put their best effort for the development of the organization. You can’t expect outstanding performance who is worried about his jobs security. It will destroy creativity of your employees, they will looking for suitable opportunities to leave your organization instead of concentrating their own job. Sometimes employs are fired simply because his boss or CEO or owner of the organization doesn’t like him. This is worst example of employee’s job insecurity. It creates panic in the team and the whole team become demoralized.

Ensure good training facilities Provide good training facilities for your employees, because it brings mutual benefits both for the organization and employees.

Some employee specially younger and talented employees are more interested to sharpen their knowledge and skill. You can offer them in-house training or send your team members outside the organization for a good training. If it is not possible for you than arrange training session within your team for development of your team members. Arrange training as they can enjoy, sometimes it becomes punishment for employees and causes demotivation in the team.

Show them Career Path A leader is called a “Dreamer”. Let them see their future in an optimistic way. Clearly visualize their future position in the organization and give a clear guidelines how they can reach that position. If your employees don’t see any opportunity for their career development they will not stay with you. Set career path in your organization, promote people from within. If you do that you are sending a positive massage to everyone that there are indeed further career opportunities within your organization.

Let them understand your door is open for them Let your employees feel that your door is always open for them to share any idea or opinion with you. They may have some wonderful ideas which can help to grow your business. Besides employees face different obstacles while doing their job, if they don’t get the opportunity to share their problems they become frustrated and it may causes poor productivity. Employee’s access to share their ideas and suggestions with their manager will keep them motivated.

Involve your employees Involve employees in decision making process, value their opinions and incorporate their suggestions as much as possible , they will feel proud being the part of decision making process. It will have a greater impact in the execution process, as they own the decision, they will put their highest effort to implement that decision. If decision is taken without consulting employees they may think that it is not their decision, so they may be reluctant to execute that decision.

Celebrate achievement Whenever your team achieves something don’t forget to celebrate it. Celebrate your achievement with all of your team members.

Give due appreciation to every members of the team. Offer a lunch or tea party or something interesting to them as they can enjoy it. They will feel proud being the part of your team.

Make occasional fun in the office Being a boss doesn’t mean you can’t laugh or make fun in the office. Keep yourself natural; you don’t need to be a robot.

Making fun in the office will help you to reduce working pressure and will rejuvenate your team members. Being serious in working place is good but being too serious may drainage your energy and may cause poor productivity. Create an environment where they can express themselves and enjoy their work. Otherwise office will be boring to your team members resulting poor morale and unsatisfactory outcome.

Offer a Handsome Compensation It is true not all employees are motivated by money but if you pay below industry average, I am sure, all of your employees will be de-motivated; at least for fulfilling their basic needs. Employee’s compensation can come in the form of regular raises in their salary, performance bonuses, commissions, profit sharing or any numbers of extra benefits like offering vehicle facility, mobile allowances, leave encasement or may be form of different allowances. If you are not in the position to increase direct monetary benefit of your employees, help them to earn their performance bonuses which will mutually benefit both employees and organization.

Take feedback When plan is put into actions offer regular feedback of their progress, actually where they are standing. If they do well give them due appreciation. If it is not done, find out the reasons, help them to make contingency plan and if necessary offer your assistance to complete the job. If you don’t follow up the given assignments they may be reluctant to complete their jobs resulting disappointing performance and at the end of the day they will be demotivated.

Thank You