How to Motivate Employees - Quick Read

"Let people do their job"

A lot of what I discuss is dependent on developing the leadership skills that work when you have the right staff. Without the right people there is not much you can do to motivate employees to perform at a high level. It is far better to spend the time and effort to build the right staff then spend the time and effort on short term motivation programs.

I have always said that the leadership skill with the highest return is the ability to hire the right people.

The more say so and control one has in life, the less stress one will have. People with less stress are more creative, productive and easier to work with. Our goal as leaders is to create the atmosphere and structure that allows our people to operate at their best.

Lets look at how ineffective management and the wrong leadership skills can undermine employee's motivation.

There are two parts to motivating employees. One is allowing them to grow, develop and make more contributions to the company. The other is to let them have more control and become engaged in their work by making decisions. Employees are motivated when they receive gratification from doing a good job.

Many managers are under pressure to deliver results and overlook this simple fact of human nature. By doing so they are overlooking that which can help them solve their problem.

There is no substitute for positive attitudes in the work place. As a manager you want to try and do everything you can to build or maintain positive attitudes. One thing you can do is to keep your stress to yourself. That's what leaders get paid for and that's why you are in the position.

I have seen managers interfere in all kinds of ways that are harmful; Managers that withhold information to feed their ego, control the employee and make the employee feel inferior, Managers that micromanage because they lack confidence in the employees, Managers that are control freaks, Managers that are incapable of being managers and just want to maintain the status quo, and Managers that fail to see the big picture.

I have seen so many weak and incompetent managers, that it is no surprise that employees show up for work and count down the hours until they go home.

That is why I am so passionate about developing leadership skills being the key to motivating employees. Little progress has been made in the real world of business. There has been a tremendous amount of research and study on how to motivate employees but not nearly enough practical application. If progress can be made, we will see a much more productive workforce. Not to mention happier managers and employees.

Assuming you hired the right people, the employees you have will get more enjoyment from doing a good job then a bad job. Your mission is to put them in a position to do a good job. You do that from removing the obstacles. The obstacles may take many different forms from systems to equipment. And if you ask the employee, they are going to give you suggestions that require spending money.

But it wouldn't hurt to ask the employee, "if there was something we could do to make it easier for you to do your job without spending money, what would it be? Think about it for a couple of days and get back to me."

Over the years, I have received a lot of good suggestions. And remember, everything adds up. All the improvements you make have a cumulative effect. And at some point the effect becomes geometric with a multiplication effect.

The message is, start somewhere.

Letting people do their jobs is not just about staying out of their hair. Employees still have to be accountable for doing their jobs and that you expect above average performance. The employees need to know what the standard is and that the standard is fair and reasonable.

I have always let employees know that I have higher standards for them then people may set at other companies. I want my employees to believe that they are better then the average employee and that they should have higher expectations for themselves. You are like the coach that encourages the athlete to do a little better, reach beyond what they thought they could do.

This mentality should extend throughout the company. You are a company that strives to be the best and each of your employees wants to be the best. Even the worst employee in your company likes to be on a winning team.

As part of the standards you set is the standard that you want every employee to spend time each day making themselves better. The work day should just not be about being on the production line, or making sales calls. Some of that day should be about improving ones ability to do their job better today and possibly having a bigger role in the future.

We are talking about developing talent. It is so much better if you have a farm system within your company to develop personnel that can step up and fill a role when needed. When your company is in a position to do this then you won't have to go through the painful recruiting process with the eventual training and growing pains before they are fully productive.

What is it you want your employees to do? Have them spend 30 minutes a day, of company time, reading trade publications, books, research on the internet. Give them suggestions and guide them. This sends a couple signals, one that you care as much about them and their future as you are about the amount of work they do. They are not just cogs in a machine. The other signal you send is that you are a different kind of manager. You understand the value of people and you have the foresight to develop them.

This elevates employees' perception of you and puts you in a stronger leadership position. When employees know you care about them they will try to do a better job for you. This is even more important when the company is going through a turn-around because you need all the help you can get. Motivating employees is about enabling them, empowering them and respecting them. Keep in mind that all of this will only go so far. You still need to hire the right people.