It is Management Monday!
Any manager can attest to the importance of employee motivation. Without proper motivation, organizations typically suffer huge setbacks including high turnover, low morale and ultimately declining success due to lack of employee productivity. This is a chain of unwanted outcomes that typically are not brought on solely by one party, but rather by everyone involved. Companies and employees who want to be the driver of change in this arena could benefit from the array of resources including our recent post about becoming a top company to work for as well as our Burn Bright productivity post.
Now, if you are a manager looking for specific details on boosting productivity, here are some tips just for you:
Photo Credit: Deprasantens
Motivate Employees Tips:
1. Practice awareness
Have you ever been friends with someone who always wanted help or advice, but never seemed to care about your needs? That is considered lack of emotional intelligence. Develop your ability to understand their spoken as well as unspoken language. Truly caring for your employees will go a long way in motivating them in the same way that you feel motivation in healthy friendships.
2. Be Humble
Showing humility while maintaining authority is a fine line to walk. People are willing to work harder for management they trust and care about. If you come off prideful then you will be a distant and disliked manager, hurting office productivity. Aim to let your human side show through.
3. Consider Work Life Balance
This concept derived from the theory of job-design by Hackman and Oldham is huge in Industrial/organizational psychology and states that for an employee to be motivated to do the job it needs to have certain characteristics. Besides the ethical component and the Golden Rule, intrinsic motivation is created not handed out.
4. Make the place comfortable
Offices can easily become too cold or too hot. Some team members may find the lighting too bright. Other individuals may want to listen to some music in their headphones because other office noises distract them. Whatever the specific employee need, try to accommodate it. Everyone functions differently. If an employee is cold and wants to bring in a blanket which is kept in their desk, allowing them to do so means they will accomplish more.
5. Encourage Initiative
Micromanagement can dampen employee enthusiasm. It isn’t easy to be approachable when employees need assistance while still offering freedom for the employees to develop their own methods. Research shows that typically employees prefer to solve challenges on their own.
You can easily avoid landing in the “Terrible Bosses” category. Utilize the tips above to form better relationships with your team. Be confident and emotionally intelligent because in turn you will motivate your employees. High productivity fueled by motivation will lead to team success, which will lead to a successful business. You can do this.
