3 Lessons on Motivating Employees by Not Working on Motivation
Recognize This! – You can’t “leverage” motivation, but you can encourage it.
On this lovely Fall Friday, I’m pointing you to an excellent article by Scott and Ken Blanchard in Fast Company. There are several important points in the article, a few of which I highlight here.
The greatest motivator is freedom to do the job.
You hired smart, capable people. Why not let them do the job you hired them to do? Yes, they need (and want) guidance and direction, but they don’t need (or want) micromanagement. Give them control.
Leadership must be on board for culture change.
Unless your CEO very visibly sets the examples – and lives that example out every day in his or her own actions – then culture change at any level will not happen.
Employees need to know where they fit in the big picture.
Help people connect to each other and their work by encouraging everyone in the organization to notice appreciate and formally recognize the good work others are doing when it is in line with strategic objectives and conducted in line with desired behaviors (the what as well as the how).
Give them the insight they need into where they fit by letting everyone paint the picture.