Motivating Employees Is Good Business
Smart business owners know that there is a direct link between motivating employees to be successful in their assignments and the success of that business. Want a good example of why you should be one of these smart managers?
Let's imagine that your best employee has just resigned. How much will it cost -- directly and indirectly -- to find, hire, train, and get the replacement to that employee's productive level? Scary, huh?
Now ask yourself if you could possibly be in jeopardy of losing good employees merely because you aren't properly motivating them in their assignments.
Motivational elements
There are many ways to successfully motivate employees. All of them require managers to focus on the human beings with whom they work, and who desire to be successful themselves. Here are six important motivational elements.
1. Communication is key. There's nothing more fundamental to having productive, loyal employees than good communication. If you're having problems keeping employees, the low-hanging-fruit for you may be to just start talking with -- not to -- your people.
2. Professionalism -- the aggregation of proper business, ethical, and interpersonal behavior -- is critical to successful employee motivation. It's a motivating force that fosters pride and employee loyalty.
Demonstrate your professionalism first, and then help your employees to become professionals themselves. And be sure to recognize them as they make progress.
3. Check your management style. Do you motivate employees by leading or driving them?
Drivers are managers who disregard others, and consume people as a means to their end. They can be identified by high employee turnover.
Leaders value their people and encourage them to be successful. They can be identified by the double-digit numbers representing how many years their employees have been with them, and the multiple digits in black, to the left of the decimal, on their bottom line.
4. Employee training pays motivational dividends. It fosters knowledge, which fosters self-confidence, which fosters leadership, which fosters employee loyalty, which fosters customer loyalty. Could there possibly be a straighter line to return-on-investment than that?
5. Share the recognition. A robin noticed a turtle sitting on top of a fence post. When the robin stopped to ask how he got there, the turtle replied, "Obviously, not by myself."
When talking about what your company has done, be sure to manage your pronouns properly. Whenever "I" can be replaced with "we," do it.
This tiny 2-letter pronoun is a powerful little verbal high-five that will resonate motivational energy throughout your organization.
6. Fun is very motivational. Make sure your organization finds ways to have fun at work.
Write this on a rock... Motivating employees to be successful in their assignments is not only good business, it's also the right thing to do.
Jim Blasingame
Small Business Expert and host of The Small Business Advocate Show
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