Creating an exciting place to work is one step towards having a highly motivated and productive staff. There are a number of ways to motivate employees, but we want to go beyond just motivating them and find a way to excite them about the work ahead. There is some intrinsic value in accomplishing work, but many times, you will find you need to generate some excitement from your employees. We’re going to explore 4 ways to excite your employees.
1. Assess the Barriers to Excitement
Take out a sheet of paper and write down as many barriers to excitement as you can think of in the next 90 seconds.
Good, you have your list? These are the things that you need to overcome to generate excitement in your team. If you were at a loss to come up with any ideas, in my workplace, here are a few of the ones I thought of:
- This is the way we have always done it!
- The work just isn’t inspiring
- It’s hard to connect results in our group with the results of the company
- Sometimes it gets monotonous
- The group influencers aren’t positive people
As you look through your list, you’ll find that several of the items are emotional in nature. You can make a choice if you find your work fun, inspiring, or meaningful. Help your team understand that each day you can make a choice to have a good day or not!
2. Get the Naysayers Involved
The biggest challenge many managers face when trying to motivate their employees is that there is often an influencer on the team who is a naysayer or negative. An influencer is someone who others look up to and frequently is an employee who has been with the company for a long time. These individuals often are stuck in their ways and often “know more than those around them” – including the manager!
Turn your biggest challenge into a strength – ask the influencers for help. Explain to him that you are trying new ways to motivate team members and you wanted his opinion on some of your ideas. Even if the naysayer is negative about it, he will want to be involved because he will see the value in continuing as an influencer. You might have to tweak your approach because of his involvement, but in the end, having him on board will benefit your cause.
If the naysayer becomes too much and is too negative, you will need to deal with it directly and forcefully. A problem employee can bring down an entire team and when you’re trying to motivate your team, a negative force can destroy your efforts. Deal with the issue head on and immediately.
3. Reward Excellence
If you continually reward excellence on your team, your employees will strive for excellence. The principles of positive reinforcement work well with employees in motivating them to get the job done. There are a number of ways to reward employees for a job well done, including:
- Money bonus
- Extra time off
- Public recognition
- Buy them lunch
- Gift certificate
- Coffee & donuts
- Team building outing
- Company products
Rewarding employees for specific behavior will encourage that behavior.
4. Create an Atmosphere of Excitement
Finally, you will want to create an atmosphere of excitement on your team to motivate your employees. One of the things we do on our team is have a daily quick meeting at 9 am. We discuss our schedule for the day and give everyone an opportunity to ask for help when they need it. We also use this time to publicly recognize people that are doing a good job. For many people, public recognition for a quality job done is better than cash or gifts.
You can use all of these methods to motivate your team and have an exciting work atmosphere.
April 26, 2011
Motivating Employees