Many leaders are searching for information on how to motivate employees. While it is always a good idea to learn how to motivate employees, leaders must first understand how they can motivate. Motivating someone when you are insincere with the method is not going to achieve results. Start with your own sincerity and then move toward motivating others.
If you’re a leader (not necessarily a manager), focus on influence over power. Don’t use your position as a way to force your people into accomplishing tasks. Influence will go a lot further. As will your own motivation!
You cannot motivate employees to do something when you are not motivated to act, either. Build up your excitement and your passion before trying to do the same in someone else. Only then can you take these actions to inspire people and motivate employees.
1. Ask Them!
As leaders, we might think we know what will motivate employees but never ask them. Truthfully, most leaders do not know how to motivate employees properly because of this lapse in communication. What drives one person is not what drives another. If Sam is aiming for the corner office, he probably does not care that he could earn casual clothes Friday. On the other hand, if Phil wants more time with his family, he likely doesn’t concern himself with the bonus pay for working Saturdays. So, ask them what they want!
Mine for their ‘Why’
Sometimes, asking someone why they want to work sounds like an interview question. In many cases, you won’t get the most honest answer from them, but whatever they think sounds good. Jenny might say she works to put her kids in private school. Paul could say he wants to help people. While this may be true, Jenny and Paul could be glazing over their most important ‘why.’
Leaders may have to keep digging a bit to get the complete picture. This doesn’t mean snooping is the answer, but genuinely getting to know your people. Yes, Jenny works to put her kids through private school. But her most substantial reason for working is to discover her purpose. Paul likely does want to help people, but he is most driven by the need for respect.
Learn your employees’ actual wants and reasons for working hard, and you will discover what motivates employees most.
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
Do employees prefer intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Intrinsic motivation is something that is within you – the excitement of improving, feeling good about yourself when you help someone, etc. The opposite is extrinsic, which is more about the physical rewards you receive, i.e., a bonus check, free lunch, or company car. Understanding what a person values can be enlightening when it comes to motivation.
2. Recognize Achievements
Many people love recognition. Whether in front of the whole organization or privately, the knowledge that someone else noticed your hard work is motivating. While some people would hate to be recognized in front of a group, others would thrive on it. Likewise, someone else might be offended if the only recognition ever received is behind closed doors. To deliver recognition in the best way for your people, you must know them and their preferences, which goes back to #1 – ask them!
How to Motivate Employees: Gratitude
You can express knowledge of someone’s achievements by being outwardly grateful for their work. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant event. A simple note or statement can go a long way.
“Thank you so much for all your hard work on that project. It really showed in the end.”
“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your dedication to finding the solution to this problem. It’s going to help the organization a lot.”
Positive Feedback
Sharing positive feedback is a fantastic way to recognize someone’s achievements. Check out these easy examples:
“Your sales are up 12% from last quarter. I think you made the right move in increasing your face-to-face sales calls.”
“Your output has really improved over the last month. Keep up the hard work!”
“I heard you sharing a few tips with the new intern. Teamwork will take you far in this business!”
3. Autonomy
The Oxford English Dictionary defines autonomy as “freedom from external control or influence; independence.” If you’re asking, how can I give my people autonomy – I’m the leader! – you might want to rethink your leadership style. To be a leader means to teach others to lead. It isn’t about power or control. Give up the control so that your people can lead themselves and others to become self-sufficient.
Make Trust Known
As a leader who motivates, you have to trust. Not only is trust necessary, but your employees need to know that you trust them. Don’t just say it, do it and show it.
You might say, “Phil, I’m not going to be in the office tomorrow. I trust you to handle anything unexpected that comes up. Use your best judgment.”
Or, it could look like this: “Hey, Barbara, we have a big client meeting Friday and I’m unable to attend. Will you take it?”
Allow Employees to Make Decisions
Give your people the ability and confidence to make their own decisions. How do you achieve this? Stop micromanaging. Give them the freedom to choose and don’t jump down their throat when something goes wrong. Allow them to make mistakes and learn from them.
How to Motivate Employees: Let Them Lead!
Leading leaders means they will start to lead others. Let them. Your people may have a different leadership style than you – they likely have a different personality than you (and if they don’t, you should look into the value of diversity). While it is best to help your people in their leadership journey and share your own lessons, you have to let them figure some things out for themselves.
4. Respect
If you want to learn how to motivate employees, start with respect. Offer your respect to your people and garner respect in return. Doing so will motivate employees to take action on their own. It increases job satisfaction, which ultimately increases the desire to work. Respect is a motivator for this reason and because of the boost in teamwork. It’s also a part of Servant Leadership!
5. Clear Communication
Have you ever been in a situation where you were hesitant to start something because of unclear instructions or desires? I know I have! Asking questions about the project can be enlightening unless communication continues to be unclear. If communication is a challenge, motivation will be slight.
Focus on improving your communication skills as a leader. There are many components of communication, including listening for understanding, body language, being present, knowing your audience, as well as tone, speed, and inflection. Become a student of communication to better communicate requirements for tasks and motivate employees.
6. Reconsider Annual Reviews
Let’s be honest – annual reviews can become pointless. I remember my annual reviews when I worked in sales management. Goals and expectations were reviewed, but even though I hung up my yearly goals right by my desk, I usually forgot to focus on them. There is too much time in a year to motivate someone with annual goals.
Instead, aim for quarterly reviews or even monthly, if possible. You will be surprised how motivation changes when reviews are more frequent.
Goal Setting Involvement
In reviews, involve employees in their own goals. Ask them about their goals and discuss how they might be met. For instance, if the goal is to increase sales by 10% this quarter, come up with an action plan together to achieve that goal. The plan should be manageable and possible but not easy.
Create Clear Objectives
The objectives should be 100% clear. If any confusion exists, it needs to be cleared up or changed in the review meeting. Even if some confusion develops a week after the meeting, your people should be able to come to you and rework the objectives. Knowing exactly what they are aiming for is important in being motivated.
Set Smaller Goals
They say go big or go home. However, if your goal is to make a million dollars this year and you made $50k last year, it’s time to rethink things. Why would anyone work toward a goal that seems truly impossible? There is no motivation in that. Instead, set smaller goals. If you made $50k last year, your goal should be something more like $20k this quarter or even $6k this month. The goal is smaller in number and in time.
7. Growth Opportunities
Many people are driven by the idea of improvement. If no advancement is available, they could feel stuck and unwilling to put forth their best effort. Even if an employee is not ready for the next step up in their career, the opportunity for growth can be motivating. Motivate employees with some growth.
How to Motivate Employees: Outline Career Paths
Does your organization offer outlined career paths? It can be inspiring to see where someone can go in the future. They may be in an entry level position now, but if they were to achieve x they could move up to the next level. Or, if the next level requires them to become proficient at x, x, and x, they have something to work toward. Work with your people to create a career path that drives them to do their best in their current position.
Motivate employees with this plan and watch your turnover rates decrease.
8. Great Environment
Have you ever worked in an office or space that made you want to sit and drink coffee all day? I have! If the space is unattractive, messy, or even just bland, it can be hard to work up the motivation to get things done. If you want to motivate employees, you need a change.
Make an effort to provide your people with a good environment. You don’t have to have offices like Google – no slide is necessary – but there are other ways to improve. Clean lines, modern furniture, and good lighting can go a long way in motivating employees!
9. Rewards and Incentives
While some people are not overly motivated by rewards and incentives, some are still excited about the idea of something extra. Bonuses can be inspiring to the right people. Big screen televisions, gym equipment, or other pricey items can also drive motivation. Again, it comes back to asking your people what works for them. If they love rewards and incentives, offer them!
10. Open Door Policy
If you’re looking to find out how to motivate employees, this one is big. There is never a good reason for a leader to tell people that they should never be addressed. Leaders are supposed to be the ones you can go to. This is why an open door policy is necessary. When employees know that they can go to their leader for whatever question, concern, or problem they have, they often feel motivated to do good work.
Ask for Feedback
Motivation can also stem from a leader asking for feedback. When a leader suggests that he or she is looking to improve and wants people to tell exactly where improvement is necessary, employees see it as an opportunity to flip it around on themselves. If leaders understand that they are not perfect and want to do better, won’t the employees follow that same model?
Have an open door policy on receiving feedback; your people will respect it and follow it themselves. It can truly motivate employees.
11. Foster Innovation
The lack of innovation is the beginning of the end. So many organizations no longer exist because of their inability (or unwillingness) to innovate and grow. Xerox, Nokia, Compaq, and dozens of others stayed rooted in the past. You don’t see many of their products today, do you? The same is true for leaders and people that do not innovate. They will become obsolete in their roles.
A leader who not only encourages but fosters innovation is a leader that can develop a strong and long-lasting team. While encouraging and fostering are similar, fostering requires a bit more nurturing. The leader must go the extra mile in pulling innovation from their people. Motivate employees in doing so.
How to Motivate Employees: Invite All Ideas
All ideas are welcome in an innovative culture! This doesn’t mean every terrible idea will result in action. However, it does mean that all ideas will be given opportunities to be heard – without judgment. Too often companies create cultures where off-the-wall ideas (which can sometimes be great ideas) are made fun of or scoffed at. Doing so prevents people from speaking up.
Creating a space where any idea will be heard and taken seriously is a space where its people are motivated to put forth their passion and thoughts.
12. Form a Team Culture
What kind of culture does your company have currently? Could it be considered toxic? Overly competitive? Every man for himself? No matter the existing culture, it can change. It does take work and time for a culture to change, but it is possible to develop a team culture in any organization. It’s necessary to motivate employees.
Weekly Team Check-Ins
If you really want to motivate employees, try check ins. Weekly meetings can seem pointless and boring. This is why a quick check in once a week is the best option for building a team culture. Each member can share a short synopsis of what they’re working on and what challenges they might need help overcoming. Others can share input on things that might help.
Not only does each member get to help and motivate one another to the project finish line, but they can also see that others struggle. It boosts the team, the morale, and the motivation of everyone present.
Friendly Competition
Even when you’re on a team, some friendly competition can be great. Think about it like the batting lineup on a baseball or softball team. The first 3 or 4 hitters are going to be the strongest at bat. However, many teams put their powerhouse hitters at numbers 3 and 4 because they can get the first couple of teammates home for the run. Teammates might battle it out for those spots in the lineup; a lot of people want to be the hero.
The team is working toward a common goal, but working to best one another helps to keep them at their best. Do the same for your team but be sure to keep it light. Too much competition can throw off team dynamics. Motivate employees by ensuring the competition is indeed friendly.
However, Individual Motivation Trumps Team Motivation
Have you ever spoken to a team and felt like a couple of people just didn’t get the same level of motivation as the rest of the crew? When you spoke to them one on one, the motivation was high across the board. You cannot motivate an entire team in one go in the same way you can motivate individuals. This is because everyone is different – what motivates Carl is not what motivates Jan.
Transparency
A team that keeps secrets from one another is a team that will crack. Being transparent does not mean sharing everyone’s business all the time. It means that the goings-on of the business should be shared so that the team members can work together to solve any known problems. For example, if a client is talking about going to another organization, it would be best for the whole team to know the possibility of loss is present and brainstorm possible solutions.
The knowledge that an organization has trust and transparency can motivate employees to work for the organization’s betterment.
13. Regularly Scheduled Training
Have you ever worked for an organization that trained you as part of your onboarding process and then never again? It’s terrible being stuck in a position where learning is not a consistent expectation nor offering. Training your people on a regular basis is investing in them. It tells them that you expect them to be around for a while. Consistent training also serves as a motivation tool, as people want to apply new things they’re learning.
This is one that should not be avoided when you want to learn how to motivate employees.
14. Encourage Work-Life Balance
While it’s called work-life balance, there isn’t really a balance. You cannot create a 50/50 balance between work and life – especially since work is a part of life. Even if you were to separate work and life outside work, 50/50 is not feasible for most people. This would mean you worked 12 hours a day and spent 12 hours a day outside of work.
That doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. Hard pass.
Instead of work-life balance, others have suggested work-life harmony, life balance, work-life integration, and more. The term really doesn’t matter; what matters is that you are not overworking your people (or yourself). It’s hard to be motivated when you’re overworked or burnt out. Motivate employees by encouraging time off; you might be surprised at the results.
How to Motivate Employees: Flexibility
Flexibility is vital to any kind of balance. This might mean flexible working hours, schedules, or locations for work. Are you capable of remote work or a hybrid schedule? Can you allow your people to take off in the middle of the day when their kid gets sick at school? This kind of flexibility inspires people to work hard for a company that appreciates their life outside of work.
15. Develop Purpose
What is the purpose of work and life? Many people are still searching for answers. By helping them to see a purpose for their work, they may feel driven to work harder to achieve it. Work with your team to develop their own, personal work purpose plans.
Ask them to craft a mission statement for their career. Get down to the details in a vision statement. Develop a purpose and they may surprise themselves with their own motivation in getting there. Purpose can truly motivate employees.
Share Your Vision
Share your own vision as a leader. You might know why your team is working toward something, but if they don’t, they will be unlikely to share your passion or motivation. This is a big one if you truly want to know how to motivate employees. Share your vision with all the passion you have surrounding it. It could pass on to your people.
16. Fair Compensation
It can be hard to put everything toward a job that doesn’t pay what it should. Why spend the extra effort working when you aren’t compensated fairly? Employees often do the work they are paid for. For mediocre pay, you’ll get mediocre effort. While some are driven by the prospect of a raise, fair pay shouldn’t be something for the employee to strive for. That’s the leader’s job.
So pay fairly to motivate employees.
17. Feed Your People
When in doubt, feed people. There is something special about having your meal paid for in the workplace. Whether this means lunch on the company a couple of times a month or free snacks in the break room, many people feel motivated by the idea of getting a break to eat. “I’ll finish these three tasks before I grab something to eat.”
Knowing that what is available to eat comes as a perk can enhance that motivation. This is a great way to motivate employees.
How to Motivate Employees
So, when you’re testing out how to motivate employees, remember one significant factor: everyone is different. While Paul might be motivated by a big bonus at the end of the year, Tina may prefer the prospect of a big promotion. Talk to your people. Get to know them. Build relationships. You might be surprised to discover what drives them.
If you’ve learned how to motivate employees, it’s time to apply your knowledge. So, test things out! See what works. Motivate employees today and see improvement tomorrow.