Employee Motivation

What does it mean to be a leader? We are all leaders — by choice or by default — so the question is not so much "are you a leader?" as "how well do you lead?" Employee motivation can be a key indicator of whether or not your organization has successful leadership.

Are Your Employees Lacking Motivation?

Effective leaders are, first and foremost, self-aware and conscious of how they impact the people within their sphere of influence. A leader must be vulnerable enough to have an authentic connection to others, charismatic enough to engage others, and humble enough to recognize their role in a lack of motivation within an organization.

According to national research fielded in 2012 on 1500 employees aged 18 to 61+:

• 80% of employees who felt "very dissatisfied" with their immediate supervisor were "disengaged."
• 69% of disengaged employees would leave their current job for just a 5 percent pay increase.
• 61% of employees who have confidence in their senior leadership and feel they're moving the organization in the right direction are engaged.

Troubling isn't it? If you were the top HR executive who was given these kinds of figures about your workforce, you might have these and other questions popping into your head:

1. Are we choosing people with high leadership potential?
2. Are we choosing the right people but not giving them the right leadership training?
3. Are we burning out employees by continually asking them to do more with less?
4. Are we creating anxious and stressed employees through a lack of organizational change management?

How To Improve Employee Motivation

Clearly, there are no quick-fix solutions to motivate your employees. This takes planning, an unwavering commitment to change and execute the plan, and the flexibility to meet your people before and at a point of need. An employee's relationship with his or her direct manager is the single most important factor influencing engagement, the responsibility falls squarely on management to improve engagement and motivational levels in all their employees. However, here are some things to think about to motivate your employees:

Set A Good Example

Remember that your attitude is contagious. Kevin Plank, Founder of Under Armour, says that communication is key to making members of your team feel included in major decisions. "I listened to everyone's opinions, and, without fail, they'd bring up things I had not thought of. More importantly, my team members knew that they were part of the process and that their voice mattered." Employees are more motivated when they feel needed, appreciated, and valued.

Focus on Employee Happiness Rather Than Employee Motivation

Zappos is often hailed as the most employee-friendly business out there. But, perks aside, what really keeps the workers motivated? Zappos, CEO Tony Hsieh really cares about making Zappos's employees and customers feel really, really good. In fact, he decided that his entire business revolves around happiness. Zappos' approach to workplace bliss differs from other employee-friendly businesses. For one, Zappos pays salaries that are often below market rates.

Make Sure Employees Share In The Company's Success

Employee performance, productivity, and motivation can all be tied to how invested a worker feels in his or her company. That's what makes profit sharing such a powerful tool – especially when the company is consistently successful. It fosters employee identification with the organization's success.

Create A Culture Of Autonomy and Agency

Companies should create conditions for employees to find joy in work itself. That can mean giving workers the autonomy to choose what they do and with whom, which can help foster a desire for mastery of tasks and skill sets and simply doing more, better.

Encourage Workers Voice Complaints

There are many reasons why employees do not contribute critique of management or the company's culture – from fear of retaliation to hesitation to appear ungrateful. If that is your culture, begin by changing it. As there are many reasons why employees should contribute these complaints without any fear of recourse.

Take On Fun Volunteer Assignments

In the heat of the recession, Door Number 3, an Austin-based advertising agency, saw business slow. Thus, creative employees were occasionally idle on the job. The company president decided to ramp you the agency's pro-bono efforts. An established way to build work portfolios and maintain track records. It also had the side effect of keeping employees sharp and motivated between projects.

Get In Touch With Your Inner Start-Up

Every morning in the Chicago Offices of Total Attorneys, a legal software and service firm, small groups of the company's 180 employees gather in clusters around the office. Laughter, banter, and collaboration ensue. For about 15 minutes, the office might be said to resemble a college cafeteria, but to the CEO, Ed Scanlan, it's the perfect example of what he calls controlled chaos. That's a process inspired by a process for designing software called 'agile development,' which aims to foster flexibility, speed, and teamwork.

Do unto others as you would have done unto you

When it comes to the treatment of people, this is as basic as it gets. But powerful too - still as valid today as it was a few thousand years ago. It shows you respect your employees as individuals, and for the job they do. Validate them and their work as truly valuable and they will love you for it.

Actively Listen

Do you think this is easy? Try again, this may be the hardest one of all to change one's behavior and skill sets. To actively listen, to really listen is with all your being and all your focus - every ounce of your presence and your active listening skills. Ask really good, open-ended questions and listen intelligently. People will love you for it because it shows you care.

Take a genuine interest in the future path of an employee's career and of them personally

Your employee's attitude will skyrocket when they believe you really care about them and where their career is headed. Mentoring, coaching, suggesting additional training or coursework - all of these can be helpful to employees and highly valued.

Take a genuine interest in their work-life balance

To the extent that managers can offer some flexibility in schedules... and be understanding about family commitments, doctors' appointments, and so on - such sensitivity can be greatly appreciated. Small gestures often make a big difference.

Align individual economic interests with company performance

Okay, this does take more doing at the highest management levels than the rest. But incentive compensation programs that give employees at all levels of an organization a chance to benefit when a company prospers... can naturally boost motivation and engagement.