Motivating Employees _ Bringing Out the Best in Your People - Barry Silverstein [1]
I think it takes more than good pay to motivate employees.
• Agree • Disagree
Employees would say that I make them feel good about working in my organization.
• Agree • Disagree
Employees would say I inspire them to do their best.
• Agree • Disagree
Scoring
Give yourself 1 point for every question you answered “Agree” and 0 points for every question you answered “Disagree.”
Analysis
8–10
You are an excellent motivational manager.
5–7
You could use some work on your motivational skills.
0–4
You have a lot more to learn if you want to motivate employees.
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Employees who are motivated are loyal and dedicated and become ambassadors of good will for their companies. In fact, it’s widely accepted that companies with motivated employees have lower turnover and tend to outpace their competitors in sales and profits. The more motivated your workforce is, the higher your organization’s productivity will be.
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“Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission.”
—Peter Drucker,
management guru and author
(1909–2005)
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Motivating employees, then, is recognizing that employees are essential to the company’s ability to succeed. It is about building a corporate culture of people who want to be exceptional at their jobs and who are proud of where they work. Motivating employees is not about giving people something they do not deserve or showering them with benefits and rewards so they will work longer hours or accept poor working conditions.
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Behind the Numbers
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DECLINING MOTIVATION
In about 85 percent of companies, employees’ morale has been found to decline significantly after the first six months in a new job. It then continues to deteriorate for years.
A 2006 study showed that fair salary and benefits, the opportunity to accomplish good work, and satisfying relationships with coworkers are vital. If just one of these factors is missing, employees are three times less enthusiastic than employees at a company where all three factors are present.
Findings are based on surveys of about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies from 2001 to 2004.
SOURCE: “Stop Demotivating Your Employees!” by David Sirota et al., Harvard Management Update (January 2006).
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Although it is important to keep motivated employees motivated, the larger challenge for managers is finding out what motivates the other employees. Motivation is a very personal thing. What motivates some employees won’t motivate others. Yet there are certain motivators with such wide appeal that most everyone responds positively.
This book will look at many of these motivators. We’ll also discuss what it takes to be a motivational manager, how to keep employee motivation from falling, and why motivational leadership is essential.
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“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else tries to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
—Stephen R. Covey,
author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
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As you consider how to motivate your employees, a basic understanding of the psychology of motivation is helpful.
The foundation of modern thinking about motivation is Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs,” introduced in 1943 and still used by psychologists, business managers, marketers, and others to understand what motivates people. Maslow theorized that after humans have met their basic physiological needs, they want to satisfy successively higher social and spiritual needs. Maslow identified four levels of needs above the most basic needs for food, sleep, and sex. Maslow’s hierarchy is often shown as a pyramid, with the basic needs at the base, and the need for self-actualization at the tip of the pyramid.
MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
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Dos & Don’ts
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MOTIVATION IS PERSONAL
It’s your responsibility as a manager to keep your staff motivated.
Do get input from employees about what they want before setting up a motivational