How To Motivate Employees As A Manager
It's no secret that employee motivation is a big deal. But how big? And what makes it so important? For starters, let's look at some recent research on the topic.
As of June 2022, a study by Gallup found that only 20-22% of all employees worldwide fall in the category of being "engaged" at work. If you are a manager out there, that means that almost 80% of the people who work for you might not actually like the work that they do!
This is important because employee engagement has been shown to correlate directly with talent retention and organisational performance — all factors contributing to the bottom line.
In fact, the same study by Gallup estimated that disengaged workers cost businesses worldwide around $7.8 trillion each year in lost productivity alone!
Did you know that disengagement is often a byproduct of a lack of motivation? Motivation is the fuel that powers us; without it, we find ourselves trapped and unable to move forward..
Is There A Magic Behind Employee Motivation?
Have you ever wanted to learn how to motivate employees as a manager? It's a lot more than just telling them what to do. The magic behind employee motivation is knowing how to get buy-in from your people to commit to your organisational vision and goals.
Motivation is an art. It's not some honeyed words you can placate your employees with. The human mind works in complex ways, and it's important to know how it operates to motivate someone effectively. It takes practice, but it's not impossible.
Here's the guide to employee motivation for all managers who want to invest consistently in how to motivate your team:
1. Be authentic
Authenticity sets the tone for a manager to build trust and lets employees see how genuine you are through the example that you set. Nobody wants to work for a manager who says one thing but does something entirely different.
It shows that you are someone who will follow through with what you preach. Managers should set a culture of authenticity and transparency in their team so that there's no room for gossip to fester and divide the team.
This creates a positive and motivating work environment where employees can thrive and trust.
2. Involve, don’t instruct
Another key to building employee motivation is to view your employees as individuals who have their set of ideas and opinions to contribute. Managers should refrain from the traditional "top-down" approach where instructions were given, and employees simply had to follow suit.
Employees are motivated when they feel involved and that they get a say in the work that they do. Get their involvement by asking and being open to their suggestions and feedback instead of insisting on your way if not the highway. Get their input on the kind of opportunities they want to try to further their growth.
This approach encourages them to feel like they have a stake in their work and keeps them feeling engaged because there's a sense of ownership in their development.
3. Set clear goals
Managers have the responsibility of ensuring that everyone on the team feels like they are working towards a goal — even if that goal is just making sales or fixing bugs in code.
If your employees don't know where they're going, they'll be hard-pressed to find their way there. Make sure you break down the goals to something that is clear and attainable for each project or task and communicate them to your team.
Employees desire to take part in something that's bigger than themselves, and when they don't feel like they are integral to the project's success, their motivation decreases dramatically.
Make sure everyone knows their role in the greater scheme of things so that they can feel like they're doing something important. This contributes to them feeling more satisfied and motivated to continue doing it well.
Final Thoughts
You don't have to be a motivational speaker in order to motivate your employees. Eloquence only goes so far because words without action amount to nothing.
Start with those tips above, and you'll begin to notice the changes and benefits of having motivated employees who are connected and engaged at their workplace.
Don't hold it off until you notice signs of disengagement before you start scrambling to put together a plan on how to motivate employees. Start early, and focus on figuring out what makes them tick early in their employment.
When you do, there's a good chance you'll be able to retain your best talents — and reap all the benefits in terms of performance and productivity.
Written by Rachel Chai
Connectedness • Empathy • Strategic • Belief • Context
Rachel is a Strengths School™ Certified Strengths Trainer and the Content Lead at Strengths School™. Being deeply introspective, she believes in helping others draw connections between how their unique strengths play out in their lives.
