How To Encourage Motivation In The Workplace

A guide to help you learn how to encourage and motivate employees in an office or work enviornment.

Having a well motivated staff is essential to a productive and pleasant work environment. As a manager, or leader (and a leader can be anyone with a little initiative), motivation must be one of your chief concerns. Here's the caveat, you cannot motivate another person. So what's a manager to do? You have to become a good judge of people, and learn the things that motivate your staff. Every one is motivated by something. When you go to the supermarket, you are motivated by hunger; when you run, you are motivated by the desire to be healthy, etc. So what motivates a person to work? Not just work, but work efficiently and loyally? That depends on that individual's personality. For people with an alpha personality, recognition might be what drives them. Being the best at what you do is worth nothing unless someone is there to see it. For others it could be money, others still responsibility. Many people like to feel needed, like the whole kit-and-caboodle will simply disintegrate without their presence. Sometimes, it's even as simple as acknowledging when someone has done a good job. It makes them feel appreciated, and if they don't get that at your place of business, then they are just a commodity.

Employees are your internal customers, in a sense. You want the service and support to be the best in the world, because that's how it needs to be to keep your customers returning to you. How does that differ from your employees? It only makes sense that you should strive to keep your employees feeling as though their job is the best, most fulfilling work environment they've ever had. If they don't, nothing is stopping them from going to someone else, and turn-over is expensive. Here are a few basics to try at your workplace to ensure that you are doing everything you can to motivate your staff:

1. Ask. Ask them how they like their job, they will tell you. If you notice a reoccurring theme, you might want to address it.

2. Listen. Don't just hear them talking. Active listening is a vital skill to the survival of any workplace. The vast majority of resignations are a result of employees not feeling appreciated.

3. Recognize Regularly. Show them that you notice their hard work. Let them know that you appreciate what they've done, and do it publicly. People want others to know when they have worked hard, because it gives them a feeling of satisfaction to know that they had a hand in shaping the team's environment. It also raises the bar for the rest of the team.

4. Don't Be Cheap. Buy them something. It doesn't have to be expensive; lunch will do in a pinch or doughnuts and coffee in the morning. If they perform well, get them a gift certificate to the local mall, or their favorite video store.

5. Have A Little Fun. Don't lock your ability to have fun behind your suits. Let them play around a little. If it starts to get out of hand, that's why you are there. Bring it back to being productive fun. Make a game out of accomplishing a task, tape a picture of a dog driving a mini-van on someone's computer screen. Enjoy yourself; you spend more time at work than you do awake in your own home. If you find a job you love, you will never work a day in your life.

6. Foster Friendly Competition. It's in our genes. We need to compete against one another, to prove to ourselves and everyone out there that we can do it, and do it the best. The Olympics are a good example, with the vast majority of the countries on the face of the planet competing against one another.

7. Be Friendly With Everyone, But Don't Become Friends. Favoritism is a hard accusation to live down, especially if it's true. Don't put yourself in a position that could result in an environment of favoritism. Giving preferential treatment to a person, on a non-work related basis, is unfair. Unfairness in the workplace leads to turn-over.

8. Share. Don't keep all the information to yourself. Let them know where they stand often; this will keep them in the loop. One of the most common downfalls of any organization is a lack of communication. It's tough trying to be motivated in the face of goals that you can't measure.

9. Coach, And Accept Coaching. Nothing will take your legs out from under you quicker than thinking you are doing a great job, only to find out later that you aren't. Also, don't make the mistake of thinking you always have the best idea. When managers don't listen to their employees and include them in the action planning process, they feel like their opinions don't matter. When your employees feel like their opinions don't matter, start putting up the "Now Hiring" signs. Everyone likes to feel like they can effect change, too.

These are just a few things to try; the real effort must come from you, the leader. Remember: Managers Manage, Leaders Inspire.

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