Four Sure-Fire Ways to Motivate Your People, And Dinner With You Isnt One of Them If youre a leader, you know that lighting a constant motivational fire under your people is one of your biggest jobs. And you surely have seen how effective the obvious incentive — money — is in motivating people. Even in employees who claim money doesnt matter to them. Indeed, moneys power to energize people is so tried and true we wont dwell on it. Nor will we talk about two other no-brainers: interesting work and enjoyable co-workers. You already understand how helpful they are in getting people to invest heart and soul in their jobs. So what else can you do to keep your people pumped to over-deliver? Plenty. Here are four more motivational tools -- all nonmonetary and each powerfully impactful. The first is easy: recognition. When an individual or a team does something notable, make a big deal of it. Announce it publicly, talk about it at every opportunity. Hand out awards. When we suggest that to business groups, almost inevitably someone expresses concern about the people not being recognized: They might be hurt or de-motivated. This nonsense indulges the wrong crowd! If you have the right people -- competitive, upbeat, team players -- public recognition only raises the bar for everyone. One more note on recognition, in particular when its in the form of engraved doodads: They can never be given in lieu of money. They are an addendum. Plaques gather dust. Checks can be cashed. And employees know the difference in their bones. The second tool, celebration, should be easy but isnt. We often ask audiences if they think their companies celebrate success enough, and typically no more than 10% of the crowd says yes. What a lost opportunity. Celebrating victories along the way is an amazingly effective way to keep people engaged on the whole journey. And were not talking about celebrating just the big wins. We mean marking milestones such as an important order or a new way to increase productivity. Such small successes are chances to congratulate the team and boost spirits for the challenges ahead. Celebrations dont need to be fancy. Theyre really just another form of recognition, but with more fun involved. Like rolling out a surprise keg one afternoon, tickets to a ball game, or sending a couple of high performers and their families to Disney World. Whatever turns their crank. Which brings us to what celebration is not. Its not dinner with you. Almost nothing strikes terror into the hearts of employees more than a boss saying: Great job! Im taking everyone to Mama Marias tonight. Look, your people spend all day with you, and while they may like you, its not motivating to be rewarded with a forced march to an eatery, no matter how great the meatballs. The next motivational tool is really powerful, but it can only be used if youre absolutely clear about your mission. Now, you may be thinking: Arent all bosses clear about the mission? Alas, too often theyre not. In the course of our travels, weve discovered that many leaders are so busy with the daily grind that their missions fall by the wayside. To move forward, a team has to understand and buy into where its going. It needs a collective sense of purpose. And thats exactly what a great mission gives you, a bold, inspirational creed. A mission allows bosses to say: Theres the hill, lets take it together. Now, thats motivation. The final motivational tool is probably the most difficult to implement. Yes, many great leaders have it, but for the less seasoned, its hard to get just right. Were talking about balancing achievement and challenge. People are motivated when they feel as if they are at the top of the mountain and as if they are still climbing it. Simply put, bosses who create jobs with just the right push-and-pull have a real competitive advantage. Now, back to money. Of course, some people arent moved by financial rewards, but they rarely gravitate toward business. Thats why when you think about motivation, you need to think about money first. Its not always how much you give people, though. Sometimes its how much you give them relative to their peers. We recently asked an investment banker we know well how his year went. While he was pleased with his bonus, he was just as excited by how it measured up to the other top rainmakers in his firm. Money is a way of keeping score. That said, even investment bankers -- at least, some of them -- care about more than money. In fact, very few good people will stay in a job just for the payback. They also need to feel that they matter and that what they do for eight hours a day or more means something. You can fulfill those needs with open appreciation, a sense of fun, an exciting shared goal, and individual attention to the challenge of each job. Its a tall order for any boss, but the returns are incalculable.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 05:57:18 +0000
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