Motivate Your Workers

Motivate Your Workers

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There aren’t any particular set of rules you should follow to motivate workers. We each have our own driving force when it comes to doing an excellent job at work. Children, who serve as inspiration to succeed, could motivate working mothers, for example. The compulsion to learn and climb to the top could motivate recent college graduate workers. And financial rewards could motivate others.

As a sole employer or an outsourcing manager, you can facilitate your projects’ success by creating a motivated workforce. Here’s how.

Identify Your Goals for a Motivated Workforce

What does your idea of a motivated workforce look like? What would you have to do, to create such a workforce?

Increase payments?
Build a more experienced team?
Promise bonuses?
Create open communication?

Whatever your idea, make it a goal(link to goal development tool — like Project Kickstart) for a motivated workforce, but don’t stop at just one. You may need more than one goal, especially if you’re dealing with a significant number of workers at once. A large group of workers for instance, could encompass a variety of skills that might interfere with a project’s progress.

Worker A may not be at the same skill level as Worker B, and Worker C’s output might depend on what Worker A and Worker B accomplish together. Worker B may feel as though he’s doing all the work and Worker A may feel as though she’s being ignored. Because Worker A and Worker B bicker throughout the day, Worker C may unfortunately think the both of them are incompetent and find interest in non-work related activities.

What to do?

In a scenario like that, your goals might be to (1) regroup workers according to skill, and (2) restructure the organizational chart so that each set of workers can work independent of another without causing further delays.

Lead by Example

There’s a joke that says the new definition of a boss is one who’s always early when you’re late, and who’s always late when you’re early. Don’t be a living example of this joke. Be consistent and demonstrate the behavior that you want your workers to emulate.

For recent events, check our Employee Motivation news section

The danger of not doing so could create a rift in the workforce because workers may suspect your own rules do not apply to you. You become the, “Do as I say, not as I do” kind of guy. Complying to your own rules suggests that you value worker contributions and you’re willing to put in just as much hard work as they are. You become an equal in a sense, and a part of a motivated team.

Keep the Communication Going

You can garner some hard-core dedication by just talking to your workers. Ask your workers about their day, what they’re working on now, or what they’ve got cooking in the idea department. This demonstrates that you’re interested in your workers as individuals, and not machines – a key component to increasing both respect and motivation. You can also ask your workers to contribute their ideas. There’s nothing like a little creative licensing to get the ball rolling.

Share What You Know

Sometimes, a niche or industry can’t grow because its participants hoard knowledge in order to appear invaluable, especially if they’re the only ones who know about a particular process or idea. This attitude won’t help grow an industry and while we understand the fear of attracting competition, sometimes you have to contribute to the bigger picture in order to succeed.

Example?

A Personal Story: I once worked for a supervisor who stared at the wall when he spoke to his employees.

It was the weirdest thing! No one could figure this guy out, and consequently, no one that I can remember continued to work for him.

Say you’re working in a specialized niche that’s so unique, it’s pretty much ignored by the media and consumers, i.e., the people you need to grow. Hoarding knowledge is one way to remain ignored.

Sharing knowledge is the way to ensure your ideas get as much needed attention as everyone else’s so don’t be afraid to let your workers “in” on what you’re doing or trying to do. For those marketers who suffer from a lack of exposure, a little disclosure could significantly help.

External Resources:

1. 365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Every Day
2. Intrinsic Motivation at Work: What Really Drives Employee Engagement
3. Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works – 2nd Edition