Motivating Your Employees
Wednesday June 28, 2006
Staying with the motivation theme, let's look at some positive motivators. One of the most productive things a manager can do is to make sure their people are working at the jobs they do best. Read The Right People in the Wrong Jobs to see why that's important.
Another key to successful motivation is the way you give feedback. You have to provide feedback to your employees and they have a right to expect it. Try to focus first on giving positive feedback (here's how) and resort to negative feedback only as a last resort. If you do have to give negative feedback, read How To Give Negative Feedback Properly first.
Today I teach Management following a 25 year management career, for all the tips and techniques we choose to examine – all are valuable – and actually worth employing, but; we will still find that the greatest motivator is within us. When we exemplify the motivated worker, when we exude in fact a template of behavior to follow, we are giving our people what no reward can match… a model.
I follow the servant-leader philosophy, but it stands to reason if we approach supervision as one with an uncaring cold-fish outlook and no visible motivation, who expends no real effort because of our own boredom it will leach into even the best employee. You are the answer! And what’s more, our motivation is something each of us controls, even while many other forms of motivation are restricted; this tip is one that cannot be restrained, under-funded or deprogrammed.