Keeping your employees motivated and empowered is often an ongoing duty of any manager. The effort it may take at time is typically worth it, with highly motivated employees contributing to greater productivity, higher levels of morale, and
Even the very best employee will need an extra boost of encouragement at some point during their employment. Taking last week’s post on determining what motivates your “stuck” employees one step further, it is important for managers to be familiar with the countless proven motivational techniques that help to not only encourage them to not only pull themselves out of the occasional rut, but maintain a certain level of engagement and productivity.
Allow Employees to Exert Control Over Their Work
Often a manager’s great fear is losing control, but employees feel more respected when they are given an opportunity to call some of the shots relating to their job. Managers need to learn how to delegate responsibility. The more responsibility you can successfully give to an employee, the more loyal and motivated that employee will become.
Track or Measure Employee Performance
Let your employees know what you will be tracking or inspecting and always follow through. If you fail to inspect, you will lose the respect of the employees by delivering false promises. Most managers are not aware that they are being carefully scrutinized by their employees and need to constantly reinforce exactly what message they want to send to their employees.
Praise Excellence Publicly and Privately
Recognition is free. If you will salute genuinely good work, employees will be motivated to repeat the excellence. It is almost impossible to overdo praise, as long as it is genuine and the work praised was indeed outstanding.
Respond Promptly to an Employee’s Valid Complaints and Make Sensible Proposals
Nothing discourages feedback or communication quicker than failing to promptly respond to legitimate complaints and sensible ideas. If you want to motivate employees to come up with ideas for improving the workplace, then you will need to respond in a timely and respectful manner and let them know that you appreciate any information given.
Provide Opportunities to Learn and Grow Both Personally and Professionally
Many employees will respond well to an opportunity to obtain training. Use training and other learning opportunities as incentives for fine work. Select your most diligent or outstanding employees to attend outside seminars and conferences where they can pick up new job skills and spend time mentoring a dedicated employee for an hour or two a week as a reward for excellent performance.
Demonstrate How an Employee’s Performance Impacts the Company’s Profitability
Often employees are motivated by seeing how their specific job impacts the profits of the organization. The more you can demystify the innards of your business and help your employees to track the way profits are made, the more they will tie their job to the bottom line performance.
Appeal to an Employee’s Pride
When pay, praise, and promises don’t work, sometimes it is necessary to appeal to the pride of an employee. Many employees take great pride in their personal work and how what they produce benefits the company. If you make them feel truly valued and indispensable, they’ll continue to produce high quality work that is worthwhile and important.
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