The Art of Motivating Employees

The ability to motivate others is one of the 31 leadership competencies we focus on as we work to turn high-potential employees into leaders and help experienced leaders become more effective. Sometimes motivation can be hard to come by, but effective leaders know how to inspire their team members to remain productive and keep doing great work.Below, are some recent blog posts and articles with expert advice on the art of motivating employees. I think you’ll find them useful.  Setting Goals: 3 Steps to Igniting Workplace Engagement. Entrepreneur: “It’s the job of the CEO to select the company’s top goals. Maybe they include new product development or a way to help the local community. They’re not random, of course; you’ll listen to the market, analyze past results and brainstorm with key advisors. But the real secret here is listening to the customer. The smartest businesses today practice agile strategies, and in this case that means aligning your goals with what your customers are trying to achieve.”Don't Let Your Passion And Values Erode Employee Motivation. Forbes: “Many managers believe the only way to get results is to drive for them. But evidence points to the contrary. How do you drive for results? Create pressure. But pressure can diminish results and limit both creativity and innovation. People simply cannot sustain high-level productivity under pressure. Your other option is to hold employees accountable, which makes a statement about trust. People want to be accountable, but there’s a big difference between being accountable and being held accountable. When your needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence are satisfied, you accept responsibility and take initiative. You go the extra mile for the greatest good, and you continually learn and grow.”How to Really Motivate Salespeople. Harvard Business Review: “Concerns about fairness create other pressures when designing comp plans. For instance, companies realize that success in any field, including sales, involves a certain amount of luck. If a rep for a soft-drink company has a territory in which a Walmart is opening, her sales (and commission) will increase, but she’s not responsible for the revenue jump—so in essence the company is paying her for being lucky. But when a salesperson’s compensation decreases owing to bad luck, he or she may get upset and leave the firm.”5-Step Action Plan to Motivate Your Team. Real Business: “Businesses should see their staff not just as a sounding board, but rather the lifeblood and true character reference of an organisation. Leaders need to find out what makes the team tick. They could use (preferably anonymous) surveys to establish what really motivates and de-motivates them; and what employee benefits matter most to them….Good leaders are quick to separate the concept of ‘morale’, which is how employees are feeling, from ‘motivation’, which is the ability to turn talent into productivity. Even employees who have low morale can remain highly productive and engaged. This is an important principle.”Stop Trying to Motivate People—It Won’t Work. Success: “Sometimes supervisors try to motivate employees with perks—’carrots’ like a gift card, paid time off, a great parking spot. These might initially work, but people will start wanting and feeling entitled to more. And to continue improving performance, bigger and better incentives become unnecessarily mandatory. Negative motivators are a go-to, too—’sticks’ like fear of failure, fear of no respect, fear of losing money. Some people are able to motivate others in the short term by using the stick of fear, but it never lasts… and it never produces the best results.”Need help teaching your company's leaders the art of motivating employees? Contact us; we’re happy to assist.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.