Do you know what motivates you and your employees?
What energizes you and them?
What drives you and them to do their best at work?
Ultimately, understanding employee motivations fosters a positive work culture, improves teamwork, and boosts organizational success.
Note: Employees are motivated by different things.
First, Are You Motivated? Let's Try It Now!
List 10 Things that Motivates You | List 10 Things that Demotivates You |
Why are these lists important?
Knowing what motivates you / demotivates you helps you to make good decisions and choices in the workplace. It allows you to surround yourself with the good and find answers for those things that drain your energy.
The same is true for knowing your employees. Understanding what motivates your employees is crucial for several reasons:
Employee Engagement – If you know what excites your employees, you can tailor your environment or approach to that which your employee will positively respond.
Improved Performance – Motivated employees tend to perform better. Knowing motivation helps to align to employee’s goals and tasks to their energy.
Personal Development – When you and your employee know their intrinsic motivators, they will strive for their personal development. They will take ownership in achieving a higher level of career pathing.
Retention – Motivation plays a significant role in retaining employees. If an employee feels motivated, they are more like to stay where they find happiness and excitement.
Team Dynamics – Motivation plays a significant part in the success of a team. How much energy does a person put towards a shared common team goal? How much do I feel a part of the team? How valued do I feel about my contributions?
Employee Motivation
Is influenced by a combination of factors that vary from person to person. Motivation comes through in different ways:
There is intrinsic motivation where employees find purpose and meaning in what they do. It is a genuine interest (and enjoyment) in the work itself.
There is extrinsic motivation – which too often we tend to think of most often. This is where we put salaries, bonuses, and physical/tactical elements to acknowledge achievements and contributions.
A person’s work environment can be motivating or demotivating. Does an employee feel like their culture is supportive and collaborative. Do the policies and expectations support employee growth and wellbeing?
Do organizational values align with one’s personal values?
Leadership can play an important role in whether a person feels motivated. Does the leader provide inspiration, guidance, and a healthy experience?
Team relationships and career development are also factors in whether an employee feels motivated.
Does the job fit the employee? Does the employee feel that their role aligns with their skills, interests, and competencies?
Understanding what specifically motivates each employee can help managers create a more engaging and productive work environment.
Motivation - In the People Around You
To find out about a person’s motivation there are several things to do:
Ask! Take the time to ask an employee what motivates them? Listen and see how you can help to create an environment where employees thrive.
Observe! People give us clues and signals all the time to what motivates them. We just need to watch with that question in mind. Where do they spend their time? What are they doing when they appear to be the happiest? What are the situations that they could do a task a great length of time and not realize how much time has pass them by?
Assess! There are several assessments that help an employee to evaluate their internal drivers. An assessment can provide questions for your employee to think about how they feel and what drives their performance and fulfillment. Using an assessment is an unbiased approach to look at the intrinsic motivators and put it into black and white and on paper.
Please contact us if you would like to learn more about motivator assessment options. The results will provide the secret sauce and insight to how to support employee engagement, increase employee motivation and create an organizational culture where people can thrive.
Email info@trainingedge.com or call 610.454.1557
Comments