7 Ways to Motivate Your Employees
Employees are responsible for motivating themselves. Yet, you know, in managing employees, that you are an integral part of an employee’s success. So how can you do your best in elevating your employee’s well-being and productivity?
1. Employees are different – this does seem obvious, yet managers, because of lack of time, want to motivate their employees with the same offering. Find out what is important to each person on your team. One person may want money, another wants challenge, while another wants to interact more with people. The more you can customize your motivational techniques, the more your employees will blossom.
2. Create A Vision Together – nothing keeps an employee focused then knowing where the company is going and what part they play in this direction. Share your vision with them as often as possible. Be excited about that vision and ask them how they can contribute to making this happen.
3. Employee Strengths – make sure you pair the employee’s strengths with work that needs to be completed. If you don’t, you will have an incompetent or bored employee. Employees naturally want to contribute and the right job, which matches their skills, knowledge and attributes adds value to the company as well as them.
4. Set Standards of Excellence – your job is to set the expectations for the job…go high and stretch each employee. Employees that don’t want to stretch may not be the best match for your team. Employees that are stretching will keep contributing to the department’s growth and productivity. You will be creating excited and happy employees. If it’s too much, they will let you know (as long as you are available to listen.)
5. Time to think – when you set time aside for their creative juices to bubble up, you will see more committed team members. Give them time to brainstorm…either alone or with other employees. While doing that, allow them room to make mistakes.
6. Communication – communicate often and with respect. Be an active manager, one who is involved with sharing information as well as commenting on the performance of each person. Communication is critical to the success of any team.
7. Celebrate – celebrate all wins, no matter how small. Celebrate a new customer, or an employee who learns a new skill and is contributing at a higher level. You can never celebrate enough. An attitude of celebration fosters fun, acceptance, acknowledgement and respect for every member of your team.
There is no one way to manage employees. Managers, who are proactive in creating an environment that honors and respects each person and their contributions, will find that their team’s motivation is high. Even in difficult economic times, you can be successful in collaborating with your employees to increase each and everyone’s motivation levels.
