by Ryan Bridges

Can you cut the tension and anxiety lingering in the air of your business with a knife? Are there no smiles in your office and little upbeat interaction between your employees? They’re probably not being properly motivated to do their jobs and your business is probably suffering for it. So, how do you motivate your employees and what will it do for you?

Poor Motivation = Poor Productivity

Your drive, belief in your product or service, and your desire to succeed is what motivated you to start a business and develop it to the point of hiring employees, but what happens if your employees don’t share that same drive, belief and desire? The short answer is poor productivity.

Poor productivity is a business killer and is directly related to poor employee motivation. Poor employee motivation tends to be related to a lack of vision, belief and desire to succeed.

Powerful Motivation = Powerful Productivity

When on one side you have poor motivation, the flip side is powerful motivation. Powerful motivation provides vision, belief and a desire to succeed which matches your own. It is powerful motivation because it empowers your employees to be more productive.

What does powerful motivation do for you? Powerful productivity makes a major impact on the bottom line for your business because each dollar spent on producing your product or service is used for that purpose.

Powerful motivation focuses on making employees happier

How do you make employees happier? A paycheck and benefits package just isn’t enough. To be happier, employees need to see that they have purpose in the larger scheme of your company. In order to see that purpose, you have to communicate your drive, your belief in your product or service and your desire to succeed to your employees. You do that by revealing the vision and purpose of the company and show each employee where they fit into fulfilling that vision.

Six tips for motivating your employees

Employee Motivation Tip #1: Communicate

If you want your team to believe in your vision, you’re going to have to tell them about it. Newsletters, emails, meetings and memos are ways of accomplishing that, but they are not nearly as effective as coming out of your office and interacting in purposeful conversation with your employees. Let the people who work with you see your passion and desire to succeed; it will rub off.

Employee Motivation Tip #2: Be a leader and not a boss

Being a leader means a lot of things and entails a variety of strategies and techniques, but in the most basic sense, it is being someone who is out in front of the charge rather than someone sending the troops into battle. A good way of looking at this can be summed up in a simple illustration: Bossing is what you do to get a dog to fetch a ball and leading is racing him to go get it.

Employee Motivation Tip #3: Provide the Resources for Success

Employees who have the proper training and equipment to do their jobs are more powerfully motivated than those who do not. Training and equipment should not be seen as an expense, but as an investment in the success and productivity of your employees. It is a way of saying that you care about their success.

Employee Motivation Tip #4: Develop a team attitude

Everyone, regardless of their role, must feel like they are a part of the team. You can develop that attitude through team-building activities and even friendly competition among teams. A more powerful way of developing a team attitude is to communicate to individuals that you need the special skills, talent, personality and purpose they bring to the company.

Employee Motivation Tip #5: Offer opportunities to advance

Even if they are tiny, incremental steps, you should create numerous opportunities to advance. Putting advancement opportunities out in front of your employees is like the proverbial carrot on a stick. Create new specialized titles along with a bonus or a raise along the way up the ladder of success.

Employee Motivation Tip #6: Reward publicly and discipline privately

Nothing kills motivation faster than making an example of an employee and embarrassing them in front of their peers. On the other hand, nothing is a more powerful motivator than honoring them in front of their peers. Consequently, adhere to a policy and practice of rewarding publicly and disciplining privately.

What are your tips to motivate your team? Tell us what steps you would add to the list below!