My discussions with managers about employee motivation often center on getting employees to be more motivated for their work. Managers then describe the reasons they need employees to be “more motivated.” Usually it is to achieve the important goals (or tasks) for which they are responsible.

But discussing motivation in terms of how much someone has is not very useful, so I’ll ask if we can rephrase “more motivated” to something more specific. In these cases, “more motivated” usually should mean that the manager wants an employee to voluntarily—and without manipulation or coercion from anyone else—align with what is expected of them. From there the discussion would go to, “How can I help employees align?”


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</br>The answer to that question starts with who the employee is and what she or he wants for her or himself. But for many managers, it’s easy to mistakenly think that alignment shouldn’t have to consider those things. After all, isn’t an employee responsible for what an employee is responsible for?

But when employees are asked for their side of these motivation stories, they often report that alignment is hard for them because their personal goals and those the organization is asking them to be responsible for are out of alignment. It is just like when a car is out of alignment. They know it should go one way, but it pulls another. When misalignment persists for a long time, managers start to think that the employee may not be a good fit for the organization, and the employee thinks the same thing.

Read Continue......5 Ways to Help Improve an Employee Alignment Problem