Are You Motivating Your People and Bringing Out the Best in Them?

If you have ever downloaded any tools or other resources on our site, you know that we usually ask you about your Biggest Business Challenge in our forms. In response to your feedback, we are featuring a blog series on your biggest business challenges! This post is a response to the challenge “How to Keep Staff Motivated."

One of our readers asked for more information on how to effectively motivate their staff. There have been a lot of books and articles written on this subject. It is different for every individual in your organization, and the key is to get to know your people and understand what makes them tick.   Understanding this and investing time with each person that reports to you can yield amazing results. 

To get you thinking, I have created a list of ideas I have learned through the years. I cannot say that I have always done the best job of implementing these, but I believe they are solid points.

• Set realistic goals and expectations.
• Give feedback in a positive manner.
• Be truthful and address issues head on and in a timely manner.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt - most really do want to give their best and do the right thing.
• Have your employees’ best interests at heart and help them succeed in the workplace.
• Develop a path of progress for your employees so that they have a vision of their future growth path and know what development activities to work on.
• Challenge your employees to think outside the box, look for new solutions and create a safe environment for them to fail while looking for new opportunities.
• Create an environment of stability and security so that employees feel safe and believe in the future of the organization.
• Keep the BHAG front and center and help your employees understand how they can help you reach it.
• Provide recognition for achievements often, publicly and in private.
• Incentivize your employees monetarily in a way that aligns with your company goals and encourages SuperGreen performance.
• Promote balance and make sure the work environment is one that promotes happiness and well-being as well as hard work.
• Take an employee to lunch to foster better relationships and communication.
• Create opportunities for the team to socialize outside of work. This can really help employees to bond and get to know their teammates on another level.

You might consider developing employee health or happiness KPIs to get a pulse on how your people are doing. This can be helpful to gauge how happy and motivated your people really are.

I hope you find the list above useful, and please let me know what you do to motivate your employees.

Good luck and lead well, Alan