My Leadership Solutions

lead·er·ship: not only for those with a fancy title. High doses can lead to success. Side effects include courage and confidence

Motivate Employees for Better Business Results

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Employee motivation was the trendy buzz-phrase for a while, but now that companies are doing more with less money, motivation programs have been pushed to the wayside. It isn’t that people don’t care about their employees. Many organizations are upset about having to cut the programs that they feel are motivators, but costs are a strong factor in this economy.

Why Should You Care About Employee Motivation?

Making everyone feel good doesn’t seem to be necessary when there are hundreds of people ready to replace any employee who isn’t motivated enough. However, motivated employees can make a huge positive difference in your bottom line while unmotivated employees can cost you thousands, even millions.

Motivated and engaged employees care enough to go the extra mile for you. This is especially important in this economy, since each person has to handle a higher workload.  If everyone is doing just enough to get by, your company is not reaching its potential.

However, what you may not realize is that if you’re creative with some of your motivation methods, it’s not going to cost you as much as you think.

Effective Motivators

There isn’t a magical formula for motivating your employees. Each person is different, which is why it’s important to use a mix of methods.  You cannot motivate someone who doesn’t want it, but the good news is that everyone is motivated by something.   For most employees, you can build the right conditions and environment, which will tap into and bring out their inner motivation.

  • People want to know that they are making a difference. Be clear about the organizational mission and goals and to make sure that employees understand how their jobs affect organizational results.
  • Be fair.  Treat employees fairly by being consistent in the way that you treat them and the way that you use criteria to measure performance.  People can sense favoritism and it decreases morale and causes people to lose trust.
  • Recognition is a motivational tool that doesn’t cost anything and is underutilized by managers. Employees want to receive positive feedback about their performance. Make sure that it’s specific and timely.
  • Give feedback on performance in a way that’s constructive and focuses on the work goals.  Focus on the facts so that it doesn’t turn into a personal attack.  Let the employee share his/her ideas for improvement so that there’s employee buy-in of what actions he/she will take to improve. It’s much more effective than you telling the employee that they are to just take the feedback and do what you say without any discussion or questions (I’ve worked with managers who’ve done that and then been surprised that they didn’t see any lasting improvement).
  • Flexible work schedules and time off are also significant motivators. In our time-crunched society, employees need extra time to spend with their families, go to the doctor, or work on their hobbies.  It also helps them re-energize and avoid getting burnt out.
  • The opportunity for advancement and new challenges is another motivator. People get bored doing the same thing year after year. Dell is an example of a company who “gets it.” When employees perform well in a certain role in a project, Dell allows them to move to another position to keep them continually learning.  If you can’t move someone into a new position quite yet, give them increasingly more challenging projects.
  • Build relationships with your employees.  Ask them what their short-term and long-term career goals are and what skills they need to develop in order to reach those goals.  Support them by giving them ideas, resources, and projects that would help them build those skills.
  • Ask employees for their input and show them that you value their input.  They could give this anonymously in surveys or in a suggestions box, or be asked for their input in meetings or in discussions with their managers.
  • Money is not the number one motivator for employees, but without it, you wouldn’t have any employees. People need to first be able to make a salary that allows them to meet their life needs before they can be motivated by other factors.

Also, check out these books:

365 Ways to Motivate and Reward Your Employees Everyday:  With Little or No Money by Diana Podmoroff

Engaged Leadership: Building a Culture to Overcome Employee Disengagement by Clint Swindall

Make Their Day!  Employee Recognition that Works – 2nd edition by Cindy Ventrice

Managers: Prevent Workplace Favoritism

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When managers play favorites, it can not only have a detrimental effect on employee morale, but it can also cost the company money in lost productivity, lower efficiency, and even lawsuits.  Managers are people just like anyone else.  They have their own personalities and get along better with certain people, which is understandable.  It’s not always apparent to the manager how obvious the favoritism practices are to the rest of the employees and how much it can derail productivity.

Favoritism defined

Workplace favoritism occurs when a manager is giving better treatment to a person or group of people based on who the manager likes more rather than on who is the most qualified.  Better treatment can include promotions, projects, development opportunities, perks, inconsistent standards, and even different performance metrics for the same job.  The perception of favoritism can exist among employees even if the manager is basing decisions on work-related factors.  This occurs more frequently if there is a lack of communication from the manager to the rest of the team around how and why certain decisions were made.

High costs of favoritism for the organization

When there’s favoritism, employees feel as if the results that they produce don’t matter.  If other people aren’t being held to the standards, then there’s a perception that getting better results won’t help them advance.

It also divides people and pits peers on the same team against one another.  People may have animosity toward those who are being treated differently.  Team members may withhold support from one another and even try to sabotage each other’s efforts.  Instead of having a cohesive team, people divide into cliques that have their own agendas.

Favoritism can lead to lawsuits, which can stem from inconsistent treatment of employees.  One company I worked with received an age discrimination lawsuit.  The manager was young and was friends with the people she managed who were around her age, so she gave them the best projects and and eventually promoted them to the next position.  The other half of the team was comprised of people wh0 were older and did not receive the projects or development opportunities to move to the next level.  These employees over forty years of age (protected by ADEA) filed a lawsuit, claiming that they had been treated inconsistently and been passed over for promotions due to age.  Even though the manager’s intent hadn’t been to discriminate based on age, her inconsistent practices had caused discriminatory treatment.

Tips on avoiding favoritism

  • Use objective criteria to measure people’s performance
  • Give promotions and development opportunities based on a person’s strengths and accomplishments
  • Find ways to learn about and understand people who are different from you
  • Have developmental meetings with all individuals on the team
  • Communicate with the entire team
  • Allow employees to have a fair chance at coveted projects
  • Develop and communicate a  process where employees can report favoritism or unfair treatment
  • Build relationships with everyone on the team
  • If certain people were chosen for a project/event/promotion, explain the reasoning
  • Do not bad-mouth employees on the team to other team members (no matter how much you may trust your favorites, word gets out)
  • Have a discussion with a manager who is perceived as playing favorites and help him/her come up with an action plan to avoid it

Managers: Be Leaders, Not Time Watchers

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As a manager, it’ s important to learn how to manage an employee’s work and not just their time.  I know that this article may stir up a few emotions and raise some eyebrows.  However, in the new Knowledge and Information Age, managers are doing a disservice by being so focused on employee’s time instead of what they’re actually doing during that time.

For salaried positions, being too focused on employee’s time worked can be demoralizing to employees and send the wrong message.

Sometimes, managers spend so much time on the employee’s punctuality that they overlook the quality of work.  Some managers may be focusing on time because it’s measurable.  When time is the only real black and white measurement to go by, it’s easy to use it as a crutch and make it seem much more important of a factor than it really is, especially for newer managers.

Life happens.  If someone comes in a few minutes late, that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be productive all day.  Making a big deal about a few minutes lost here and there may actually decrease productivity by lowering employee morale or instilling fear in people.

If an employee’s disregard for time becomes a problem that is getting in the way of their work performance, have a discussion with them and hold them accountable for fixing the behavior.  Talk to them about the direct business impact and have them come up with a plan to change the behavior rather than just saying, “Stop being late.”

Also, make sure you’re paying attention to other aspects of the employee’s performance rather than just time.  It used to be a significant accomplishment to never miss a day of work and always come in on time.  That’s great, but it doesn’t mean that the employee is creating high quality work or coming up with innovative ideas or maximizing results.  As a manager, make sure you’re focusing your feedback on all areas of the job role expectations, not just on time.  Keep in mind that the person who comes in the earliest and stays the latest isn’t necessarily the most productive.

Confident Communication at Work

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When we hear confident leaders speak, we usually want to continue listening to them.  They command a certain presence and catch our attention without being overbearing and commanding.  We may have even said to ourselves at one time, “I wish I could speak like that, but (fill in the blanks with excuse).”  There are many excuses we can use to avoid working on our communication skills – I’m too shy, I’ll do it later,  There’s not enough time, I don’t know where to start, I won’t be very good at it anyways.  All we’re doing when we make these excuses is holding ourselves back from developing the skills to speak confidently.

You may not be making speeches in front of thousands of people; however, being a confident communicator can help you be more effective at work.  It could help you be better at delivering performance feedback or making a presentation to your manager or sharing your ideas at a team meeting.  Think about a situation where you would want to improve your communication skills and identify what improvement you would like to make.

Two key ingredients for success that I cannot stress enough are preparation and practice.  I know a CEO who is an excellent speaker and always grabs people’s attention and receives thunderous applause.  People thought that speaking well was his natural talent.  After spending time with him, I found that this assumption was far from the truth.  He had been a nervous wreck when he had to make his first public appearance and had to work with a speaking coach and spend hours preparing.  What looks completely natural to the rest of us is usually the result of days, weeks, and even months of practice and preparation.

Making the change is going to take time and effort on your part.  There’s no quick and easy solution, but there are resources out there to help guide you through your journey.

Check out these books:

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders by John Baldoni

Presenting to Win:  The Art of Telling Your Story by Jerry Weissman

10 Simple secrets of the World‘s Greatest Business Communicators by Carmine Gallo

The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation – Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase

Check out these articles:

The One Skill They Don’t Teach You in B-School  by Carmine Gallo

Thinking on Your Feet by Mind Tools

Communicate Authentically With Others by SUCCESS Magazine