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 How can you motivate your employees? Maybe you have no problem attracting good candidates, but once they're hired, they don't seem to work as well as their resume and references indicated. This might cause you to question your leadership abilities. After all, you pay well and you don't have a large turnover. What do you do when employees just don't seem to be as enthusiastic as they were in the beginning?
This is a question on the minds of all sorts of people, from parents trying to motivate kids to do homework and house chores to business owners and corporate executives trying to get more from their employees. And there is no easy answer.
But if we take a look at what it means to motivate, we find that motivation is something internal, that is, within each person. In other words, each individual must come with his or her own stuff that motivates them.
According to psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, self-actualization is the highest need on the ladder of drives and motivation. Self-actualization is the use of your talents, gifts and potential to realize your dreams.
To help the self-motivated person, create an environment that supports and enhances his or her talents. Or, make certain that you don't create an environment that inhibits an employee's growth and potential.
Sometimes it's easy to think that because you are the boss you automatically know best.
This becomes even easier if you have what I call "protective parent" syndrome.
For instance, several months ago I was riding with a friend to her office. She was driving. As she approached the intersection the traffic light turned from green to yellow. The driver in front of her stopped for the yellow light, making her stop just slightly more quickly than usual. She automatically raised her hand in front of my chest to protect me from going forward. She said that she had made that hand movement for so many years with her children that it had become automatic.
Of course it didn't surprise me that during my visit at her business she treated her employees in that same sort of motherly, protective manner. She gave an employee an assignment to complete and explained in complete detail how it should be done. When the employee started to suggest an easier way to perform the task, my friend cut the employee off and said, "No, you do it the way I said and everything will work out just fine." The deflated employee took the paper of instructions and walked away with his head lowered.
Employees want leaders and managers, not parents.
Let's take a look at a few things that might help.
• Do you hold regular staff meetings and invite suggestions and ideas from your employees?
• Do you use their suggestions and reward them for their advice?
• Are your employees working in the jobs they were hired for? Or, did you promise one position and place them in another that hinders their growth?
• Do you encourage them to set work goals and report their successes as those goals are reached?
• Have you established mutual trust between you and them? Do they feel like you trust their judgment?
• Do they learn of an important business decision directly from you or through the rumor mill?
Remember, your ability to establish an environment to help them realize their dreams and goals will be copied by them as they advance into management or businesses of their own.
Creating an environment that helps your employees grow and develop is an ongoing process. According to Maslow, the more we grow and develop the more we want to grow. So, plan to review regularly various ways to keep an environment that allows your staffers to use their gifts and talents. It can be beneficial to you and your company as well.
-By Gladys Edmunds, USAToday.com
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