Three Effective Ways To Motivate Your Employees

As a leader or a manager, one of the most important roles you have is motivating your team. Motivated employees are more engaged, they are more driven, they are more innovative, and they actually want to show up and work hard.

So, what are some ways you can motivate your team? Today we are looking at three key areas you can utilize to start motivating your team today.

Show trust and be open
Recognize and reward
Share the big picture

First and foremost, your people have to trust you. If they don’t trust you it is going to be very difficult to motivate them. In order to build trust you have to be open, honest, and transparent. Let them know what is going on with the company and don’t try to hide things from them. They want to feel like they are part of your team, they don’t want to be kept in the dark having to guess what’s going on and what is coming up in the future.

It also is important to show your team that you trust them by giving them accountability over their work. Don’t micromanage, don’t give them the answers, don’t just give them orders and leave. Let your employees figure things out for themselves and give them the power to make decisions without you.

You have to recognize and reward your people. Too often we single people out and recognize them for what they have done wrong. It is much harder to recognize and reward employees for doing well, because we just come to expect it. But it is so important to acknowledge the good things, and it doesn’t mean you have to have a big ceremony with the whole company to call out a few employees. It may mean you go up to an employee at their desk and thank them personally for the work that they are doing.

Employees also want to know the reasons and mission behind what they are doing. Simply telling employees to upsell a product is not as effective as telling them the reason for upselling is because every extra dollar earned will go to help the mission of the company which is saving endangered animals. Having a purpose behind their work gives employees motivation to do well and to go above and beyond. So make sure you share the big picture with everyone. Make sure they know why they are doing what they are doing. How does their work impact the company, the customers, the community, the world?

These three action items are not hard, they may take time, but they are not hard. You can start small, but just start implementing them today. It will have a tremendous impact on the organization.

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