Motivation in the Workplace

Employee Motivation - Techniques and Ideas

It's Not What You Think

You can foster motivation in the workplace for employees if you learn to understand one simple truth. It's the underlying truth that will make or break fostering work motivation. Are you ready? Here is goes:

You cannot be entirely responsible for motivating employees. Why? Because motivation involves both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. So you should not make the mistake of believing it rest entirely on your shoulders.
motivation-in-the-workplace

The employees are the main piece of the equation and they decide what will and will not motivate them based on their own individual needs and circumstances. Therefore, you should never solely rely on one type of motivation.

A Real-Life Example of One Motivational Strategy That BackFired:

I'm always humored when I read employee motivation advice such as lead by example. I currently have a supervisor who I will refer to as 'John.' He is a highly self-motivated individual who has aspirations of becoming a manager one day. John expects his employees to work as hard as he does. He's always on-time and follows the rules he establishes for his team.

Needless to say, John's employees watch his every move. However, many of them do not work as hard as he does. As a matter of fact, John finds himself following up with several of them constantly. He figures they will eventually come around , so he keeps leading by example.

Then one day, the unthinkable happens - John breaks one of his own rules. He comes to work late on several occasions due to family issues. Many of his staff are 'pissed off'. They could care less about John's work habits. After all, what did his work habits have to with their needs or what they wanted out of the workplace? It only showed that he cared more about his stupid rules than about their needs. The demotivated employees used John's behavior to deflate the motivation of several others.

How was I able to find out how John's employees felt? I asked them. It took empathy, making them feel safe, and tapping into my stored up credibility.

Work motivation is an interesting animal to deal with. However............

There are fundamental things you must do as a manager or leader to foster motivation in the workplace.

Flick the Motivation Spark by Starting With This:

First and foremost, your goal is to provide a clean, save, and supportive work environment for your employees. Just as important, you must establish the tone for your team by establishing the vision while nurturing empowerment and accountability. Execution, coaching, and followup are key. Most importantly, make sure you are fair and consistence with everyone.

How's The Fit?

Next you need to take stock of your team. Is everyone in the right job? Does their job require that they primarily use their strengths or weaknesses? Who are your positive and negative people? Who are your trouble-makers, instagators, drama queens, and dependable employees?

Why do you need to be aware of all this? Because it impacts motivation. You have all of these personalities and behavioral traits mixed together. Some blend in a nice harmony while others are an office blowup waiting to happen. You especially need to pay attention to your unofficial department leaders. This is the person or people who influence your team for better or worse.

Need an example of why assessing your employees is important? I'd like you to think about a difficult co-worker or employee. I bet this person doesn't exactly add benefit to your day? If anything, you probably wish you could avoid him or her completely.

The bottom line is this: When you're around people who zap positivitty out of a room, they contribute to a bad work environment - not exactly the type of conditions to foster positive work motivation.

Hire and Fire Right:

Hiring the right people onto your team is critical. You want to make sure you hired qualitfied people who want to do the job and who can fit into your work environment. Look for people who are enthusiastic - whose skill sets are strengths that match your needs.

On the other hand, you have to get rid of bad seeds. You must deal with the difficulty of terminating those who do not do their job. Do not ignore such situations. Why? Because it weakens motivation in the workplace. Believe me, employees know who is doing his or her job and who isn't. If you think its motivating for a co-worker to carry the workload for someone who does not do his or her job - think again.