Businesses have different ways of motivating employees. The most popular being awarding good performance. Unfortunately, some people don’t have a competitive streak in them. Fighting for the top positions is not in their personality. They are comfortable with what they can achieve without going out of their way to do it.
If you have such employees on your team, you’ll agree with me that motivating them is an elusive uphill task.
Well, below are five non-traditional ways of getting them fired up for optimal productivity.
1. Have A Servant’s Heart When Leading Your Team.
This may sound cliche, but trust me, it fits well in the context of this post. Many employers forget that their employees have a choice on where they decide to work. Remember they chose to work with you so be grateful that you found a team member that has bought into your vision and agreed to share their life with you.
Apparently, one of the easiest ways of killing employees’ morale is leading them with an iron fist. Yes, some employees can be difficult. However, being hard on them has more negatives than positives, if any.
There are many ways of getting employees to own up to your vision and work diligently. Certainly, lording it over them is not one of them. It only succeeds in breeding resentment and extinguishing morale.
Instead, focus more on earning their respect. And a subtle leadership that’s inclined towards setting a good example will help you achieve that.
Once you earn their respect, they will feel obligated to give their best in their responsibilities. Consequently, this will impact their productivity, hence motivation.
2. Make It Obvious That You Value Them and Their Input
There are many ways in which you can make your employees feel valued. One is by respecting them. Remember, as much as they are your juniors, they have people looking up to them outside the office. In other words, they are valued members of society.
Show your respect to your employees by letting them know you value their ideas, opinions, and concerns. Likewise, show them appreciation by recognizing their achievements. This could be through awards or a simple verbal appreciation. Encourage your employees to lead meetings and make them the CEO while they speak in meetings. By encouraging them to lead meetings this could help your employees feel more invested in the company and appreciate the culture.
Feeling valued will boost their self-esteem and consequently raise their motivation.
Also Read: 5 Benefits Of 1-On-1 Business Coaching Session
3. Make Your Business Their Second Home
Most of us consider our homes a haven. A place where we can thrive and be us without any threats. We can tolerate working in hostile environments that kill our morale because we know at the end of the day, we have a safe place to duck to.
Sadly, employees with poor morale cannot help you maximize your business potential. However, you can overturn the tables by turning your business into a friendly environment that feels like a second home. This can greatly improve their morale, increase their motivation, and boost the overall productivity of your workers.
There are two easy ways of doing this;
- Create a positive business culture by fostering warm relationships between you and your team members, as well as among themselves. This will create an emotionally non-threatening environment where they feel safe and valuable. Certainly, a sense of belonging is a catalyst for motivation.
- Improve the aesthetics of the work environment and offer them the best working conditions possible. Having a homely and welcoming office with impressive decor elements will boost your employees’ sense of well-being. Consequently, they will become more productive and feel motivated.
- Revisit the dress code in your office. Of course if you work at a bank it would be hard for you to do this but try having casual office days. Create themed days in the office where team members can dress down. Of course when you see clients or have them visit you want to look and fell your best. In addition to revisiting the dress code; give away company swag.
4. Encourage Communication
Communication is like a light switch when it comes to motivation. Poor communication in the workplace has a ripple effect that ends up killing employees’ morale.
Embracing an open and positive communication culture is a great move towards motivating your employees.
Start by setting up regular meetings where you can communicate openly. Encourage the employees to open up and share their ideas, opinions, as well as concerns. Ensure you show interest in their opinions and concerns to make them feel valued.
Likewise, purpose to motivate them individually. Hold private meetings with individual employees to discuss their performance as well as their goals. During these meetings, you can freely discuss their personal development goals and also let them give opinions on what they wish the business would do for them.
Knowing you’re genuinely interested in their progress will boost their motivation. Remember to always praise in public and criticize in private.
Also Read: How to Develop a Successful Branding Strategy
Takeaway
Motivated employees are productive employees. They may be going through issues that can potentially hinder their optimal performance, but if they have a positive feeling about their work, they will always push themselves to excel.
The responsibility of motivating your employees largely lies on you than on them. You’re the catalyst that can set everything in motion. Once you embrace servant leadership, start valuing their input, and create a homely environment where there’s healthy open communication, you will get their motivation overflowing.
In return, you’ll have a productive team that’s more interested in optimizing your business potential than finding the next available vacancy out there. If you take care of your employees or team members as we refer to them they will take care of your customers.
Want to learn more about how to maximize your human capital output? Please get in touch with me and pick my brain.