Browse Tag: Motivation

Workplace Motivation for Leaders

I recently heard a story about a certain manager who argued that his role had nothing to do with motivating people.  Workplace motivation, he said, was the job of the Human Resources department!  

I know you won’t be surprised to hear that I disagree.  What’s more, workplace motivation is one of the significant issues raised by many good managers, business owners and team leaders today. 

Leading a motivated team is not only more productive, you will find it much more enjoyable and rewarding too.  Poorly motivated employees rarely function well as a team, and typically generate more stress for you than they do results.  So good leaders consider the impact of their actions on workplace motivation carefully. No one wants a demotivated workplace producing barely adequate outcomes and a stressful situation.  

Here are three simple yet effective ways you can boost workplace motivation and morale: 

1. Offer a Reward

Rewards are motivating.  And although money is one type of reward, it is far from the only reward you can use. Frequently it’s not even the best reward to offer.  Exactly what rewards are most appropriate will vary from person to person and according your particular situation, but here are some ideas to consider.  

For many people coaching them to develop new and better skills is a powerful and motivating reward. Encouragement, recognition, more trust or a promotion or new work title may be motivating to some of your people.  Likewise, for some more overtime, less travel, a special project or development opportunity or flexible work hours may help boost workplace motivation.  Once you start to think about it, and get to know your people well enough to know what they would appreciate, you will be able to think of a whole range of motivating rewards that are appropriate in your situation.  

2. Listen to People

Everyone likes to feel that their input and opinion is valued, respected and considered.  It takes only a moment – and an open attitude – to welcome input from each individual on your team. 

Ask for their views and input.  Be genuinely willing to listen to people and you will see an amazing response from previously demotivated staff.

3. Lighten up a Little

Motivated employees enjoy their work.  Numerous studies have shown that people work harder, not less, when the workplace is a fun, happy and enjoyable place.  

As leader, you get to set the tone for a happy workplace.  Take a moment to smile at people and ask after their family, hobbies or interests.  Encourage some team social activities.  Take the team out for coffee or bring in a cake to celebrate an achievement.  

We spend many hours each day in the workplace.  Part of your role as the leader is to ensure your team are motivated to actually be there and contribute fully to reaching your team goals.  

Believe me, everything will be easier for you as the leader if people enjoy actually being there, rather than dread coming to work each day.  

Good leaders accept responsibility for workplace motivation and do what they can to foster it. When you apply these three simple concepts in your workplace you will quickly build a motivated, committed and successful workforce – and a pleasant place to work.

For more ways to improve employee performance and boost workplace motivation check out this powerful tool:http://leadershipskillcenter.com/workplace-motivation/ from Kerrie Mullins-Gunst. Kerrie specialises in helping leaders and managers develop all the skills they need to mentor, manage and lead. 

When should a leader or manager coach someone?

Coaching is one of the most powerful ways to improve employee performance that you can use as a team leader or manager. Once you know exactly how to coach someone effectively in the workplace you will discover that there are three distinct times that the power of coaching is most evident.

First: When you are faced with one – or more – new, inexperienced or poorly skilled team members. Coaching allows you to quickly and effectively enhance the skill-set of new, inexperienced or unskilled workers in a measured and focussed way.

You can focus on specific skills that are most critical to your day-to-day results in your own time frame, rather than having to wait weeks or months for an essential skill to be introduced in an external course or training program. And you can introduce your specific equipment, procedures or requirements at the same time as you are developing the skills, so no re-training is required.

Second: The special personal attention that coaching implies can be a powerful way to build employee motivation and develop a collaborative team culture. So when you are faced with an ‘attitude problem’ or a de-motivated employee try coaching to increase motivation. It can be far more effective than other ways of approaching this problem situation.

Finally: Use coaching to encourage your good employees or team members to become exceptional. This is one of the most beneficial uses of coaching yet it is often overlooked. Just because one of your people is doing well, don’t assume that they couldn’t do even better. With a little coaching they may become one of your most valued people, with just a little encouragement.

The secret to tapping the full power of coaching, and getting the best results from the coaching you do, lies in knowing how to coach quickly and effectively as well as being able to recognise when coaching will be worthwhile. But as a leader and manager when you know how to coach properly and use coaching in these types of situations you will be amazed at how team results and morale improves.

Leadership and management is already hard enough. You’d have to be crazy to miss using such a powerful, proven – and simple – tool as coaching when you face any of these three situations.

 

Learn how to easily and effectively coach employees in the workplace

I’m the boss! Why should I bother to coach anyone?

Well, the short answer may be: “With that attitude you may not be the best person to coach anyone…”

The longer answer may require you to honestly answer the question: “How is management going for you?” If every employee reporting to you is delivering exceptionally good and consistent results and you are happy with the way things are, maybe you have everything sorted and you don’t need to bother with coaching…

However, if even some of your employees could do better, or if your best employees always seem to ‘up and go’ just when you’ve ‘broken them in’, maybe you might enjoy better results if you did things a little differently.

Coaching is a proven and effective leadership skill that delivers consistent improvements in employee results for those who know how to do it properly and use it well.

Unlike management tools which revolve around control and authority (which are very important when the circumstances require them), leadership tools like coaching rely on so called ‘soft skills’ to influence, inspire and encourage different attitudes, actions and understanding in the person being coached.

Really effective leaders and managers are able to distinguish between the situations that require a management approach and those where leadership will be more effective.

If unquestioning compliance with authority is required (a safety situation, for example) a management approach is appropriate. However, when we hope to achieve performance levels that are better than the minimum acceptable standard, a leadership approach will use positive motivation to produce exceptional results.

So once you recognise that some situations benefit more from a leadership approach than a management approach you will begin to see where coaching might be useful to improve employee results.

When you know how to do it properly, coaching can achieve three things that will ensure your people generate exceptional results:

1. Coaching can build skill levels in new and poorly skilled workers quickly and effectively.

2. Employees who lack motivation can be encouraged to willingly contribute their best through careful coaching.

3. Already good workers can be motivated, encouraged and skilled to perform even better, potentially becoming exceptional employees, and willingly delivering outstanding results.

Done properly, coaching is one of the most effective leadership tools you can have in your leadership and management toolkit to improve employee performance and boost motivation and morale. It is a skill worth developing.

If you aren’t using coaching effectively you aren’t getting the results you could be getting from everyone on your team. It’s as simple as that.

Learn how to easily and effectively coach employees in the workplace