Introduction
One of your most important tasks as a manager is ensuring your employees are motivated enough to do their jobs well. A great manager will recognize when their employee’s performance is dipping and work to mitigate that as quickly as possible. Motivating your employees can lead to better productivity for all team members and increased organizational success. It can be difficult to know how to motivate employees as a manager because people are motivated by different things. Read on to learn what you can do to motivate your employees and unleash their potential.
Employee Expectations
Employee motivation can come in a variety of forms. Regardless of what motivates your employees, there are a couple of things necessary to improve motivation in any employee.
First, your employee needs to have a clear definition of what success looks like in their role. What do you expect them to do for the team or organization? What are they accountable for? This is a key first step.
Second, you need to know their baseline performance. If you know how your employee performs typically, you will be able to better recognize changes in output and accomplishments. Reduced output can be an indicator of a dip in motivation and a sign that you have an opportunity to step in to help your employee get back on track.
6 Ways to Motivate Your Employees
Aside from being aligned on expectations and gaining a baseline for performance, you’ll want to have a variety of techniques you can use to motivate employees as a manager. Identifying which motivational strategies work for each employee will allow you to make a great impact on your employees and your team’s culture as a whole. Here are 6 things you can try with every employee.
Set Goals
Have your employees create goals. Aim to have your employees set at least one job-related goal and one professional development goal per quarter. Allow them to lead the conversation and be sure to provide your insights to ensure that these goals will be valuable and achievable. Work together on an action plan for accomplishing the goals and check in periodically on progress and barriers.
Give Feedback
Be sure you give your employees feedback on their strengths AND areas where they can grow. There is nothing more disheartening to an employee who consistently gives 100% than only hearing what they could have done better. Not only should employees hear both the good and the bad, but they need specific examples that demonstrate what you are saying. They also need examples of actions they can take to do better.
Promote Innovation
Innovation is key to surviving as an organization, so this one is a win-win. Empower innovation by promoting diversity of thought and creativity. Allow your employees to explore ideas and take risks. Give space for collaboration, brainstorming, and design thinking. This can create excitement and make employees feel they are contributing meaningfully and positively. This doesn’t mean letting them go in any direction they wish. Validating ideas, experimenting, and staying within the appropriate level of risk tolerance are still important.
Professional Growth and Development
Remember goal setting, as mentioned earlier? When you know who your employees are striving to become, you can help them get there. It can be hugely motivating to employees when they know their managers care about them beyond the confines of the specific role they are in. Ask your employees what they want in their careers and how they want to grow. Then do what you can to help them get there.
Work-life Balance and Wellbeing
Employees today are more stressed out than ever. Check in on your employees’ stress levels, and try to figure out how to help them. With increased access to resources to do our jobs more effectively and efficiently, we can make things easier for employees. If stressors are coming from outside of the workplace, it’s possible that alternative working hours or flexible arrangements could make a meaningful difference. Test out different options and see what works for both parties.
Transparency and Trust
Be transparent with your employees. Focus on helping them understand company direction over the short and long term. Ensure each employee understands how they contribute to the success of the company and why their roles are important. This level of trust in key company information can motivate employees. Allowing them to understand the direction can also help them think beyond the day-to-day and discover better ways to achieve the company’s goals.
Conclusion
As a manager, you have the great accountability of positively impacting your team members and their careers. You can do this by creating a culture of motivated employees who perform well, grow, and succeed. It can be challenging to identify how to motivate employees as a manager, especially when you are new to the team, have a lot of direct reports, or have people who are very different from one another. Understanding employees’ preferences, goals, and needs can help you create an environment where you motivate employees in the way that works best for them, and in turn, they can do their best work for you.
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