Top Ten Steps to Motivate Your Employees at work

Got the impression your workforce is lacking that spark of energy? It's never a bad time to motivate employees and to get the best possible performance from them. Not only does it improve performance but job satisfaction will also be increased amongst motivated employees, including you. •

1 Motivate Your Employees to Find Solutions - Encourage your employees to be solution creators instead of problem creators. When employees communicate a problem to you, look at it as an opportunity to empower the employees. Ask the employees how they would solve the problem, express your confidence that they are the person to solve the problems, give them the tools to solve the problem, and follow up with them. You have just empowered those employees to find ways in the future to create solutions and made your team more productive at the same time. •

2 Motivate Your Employees by Soliciting Opinions - Many times during our busy work day, we find it difficult to ask for opinions from our employees. But just the act of asking for their opinions tells your employees that you value their input and motivates them to accomplish more. Just imagine, it may be the first time that an employer has ever asked them for their opinion, and they appreciate it. •

3 Motivate Your Employees by Managing to Their Level - Learn your employees' skill, experience, and motivation levels for performing workplace tasks. Then assign the task and follow-up based on your findings. For example, you may need to follow up more frequently with an employee who is fairly new to the project or organization as opposed to the "veteran" employee who doesn't need much follow-up. Remember, the most skilled employee may not be the most motivated for performing the task you request. •

4 Motivate Your Employees by Delegating Tasks - Delegation is one of the most powerful motivation tools for empowering employees in the workplace. The sheer act of your delegating a task shows your employees that you have the confidence in them that they can do the job. Make sure you understand the task to be delegated so that you can clearly and concisely communicate how to do the task and hand off "ownership" of the task to the employees. Delegation is providing your employees with ownership of the task, providing the tools for successfully completing the task, expressing the reward and consequences for completing the task and following up •

5 Motivate Your Employees by Encouraging Ideas - Ideas are the lifeblood of any organization, department, and team. I always say that every mind is too important to miss that one idea that can increase productivity, reduce expenses, or increase profit. Empower your employees by creating a safe environment for your employees to share their ideas. Remember, the idea that doesn't make sense today might be exactly the solution you are looking for a week from now. Always give your employees credit for the ideas they express. Nothing will decrease employee motivation and dry up the flow of ideas quicker than having managers take credit for their employees' ideas. If your employees are coming up with ideas, reward them publicly. You will be amazed how the flow of ideas from motivated employees will increase with each public recognition. •

6 Motivate Your Employees by Letting Them Run Your Meetings - One of the best ways to motivate and empower your employees is to involve them in running your meetings. Of course, you will set the agenda; but there are many opportunities for you as a leader to let your employees run portions of or the entire meeting. Take the time to work with the designated employees ahead of time so that they are confident with the assigned meeting tasks. During the meeting, you are there to support them and help with any sections of the meeting that may provide a challenge for them. I suggest that you allow as many opportunities for different employees to lead different meetings as possible. By allowing your employees to play leadership roles in your meeting, you will develop your employees for future opportunities and open additional opportunities for you as a leader. •

7 Motivate Your Employees by Embracing Mistakes - Without mistakes, there is no growth. Allowing your employees to make mistakes allows your employees to grow, be creative, and provide a vehicle for empowerment. Create a safe work environment so that when your employees make mistakes, they are not punished. Use the mistakes your employees make as learning experiences. Ask your employees how they would have performed the task differently and allow them to tackle the task again. Your employees will gain a new sense of empowerment and feel confident that you will support them when they try something new. •

8 Motivate Your Employees by Assigning Leadership Roles - Leadership comes at all levels and doesn't require a title. Take the time to align your employees' skills with leadership opportunities. Make sure you provide training in the areas of opportunities for each employee so that they are empowered to step up to new opportunities. •

9 Motivate Your Employees by Rewarding Initiative Create rewards for employees who take initiative. Publicly recognize employees during meetings, with reward boards, etc., so that other employees are motivated to take initiative. •

10 Motivate Your Employees by Getting Goal Setting Buy-In - Your employees will be far more motivated to achieve your goals if they are allowed to help develop those goals. Involve your employees in the goal setting process and get their input so that it becomes believable for them. Once your employees feel ownership of your goals, they will be motivated to move quickly to help accomplish your goals.

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