Best Practices: Motivating Employees

Bringing Out the Best in Your People

Barry Silverstein

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780061145612
• eBook ISBN: 9780061738975
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Business General

Essential Skill I

Being a Motivational Manager

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“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”

—Dwight D. Eisenhower,
U.S. general and president
(1890–1969)

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Some managers learn the hard way that they cannot motivate others if they themselves are not motivated. As a manager, you set the tone for the workplace. Your attitude permeates your work group. If you are enthusiastic, others will be as well.

If you are energetic, enthusiastic, positive, and assertive, your employees will pick up your style. If you practice self-motivation, it will be that much easier to motivate your employees.

This is not all it takes, however. A motivational manager also learns how to read his or her employees. The manager watches body language, evaluates behavior, and assesses performance. The manager gets to know what individual employees want and need. The manager understands each employee’s motivators.

The motivational manager tends to be one step ahead of employees, anticipating what they might be feeling at any given time. The manager is sensitive, compassionate, and understanding. He or she can be demanding but does this without being harsh, abrupt, or authoritarian.

The motivational manager knows how to have fun with the staff. He or she may throw an occasional party, take everyone out to lunch, or hold some other surprise event. The manager recognizes employees who accomplish something by praising them publicly. If criticism of a certain behavior or performance is required, the motivational manager takes the employee aside and handles it in private.

The motivational manager rewards employees individually when appropriate, and as a group when warranted. Rewards may conform to company policy but are distributed equitably. An employee’s loyalty, dedication, and hard work do not go unnoticed.

The motivational manager is also a motivational leader, one who instills confidence in employees and inspires them to succeed. Many employees will want to emulate a manager who has spirit and determination.

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The BIG Picture

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PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS

Managers who know how to motivate their employees may not be trained psychologists, but they know a lot about human behavior.

Motivational managers recognize that each employee has a different motivational need. One employee might crave public recognition, while another responds to one-on-one encouragement. Motivational managers find out which buttons to push by observing their employees’ personalities and learning what their goals are.

Most employees’ buttons fall into a few basic categories, such as the desire for recognition, rewards, and the opportunity for advancement. By matching an employee to a category, and applying rewards already in place within an organization, a manager can create a powerful motivational experience for an employee.

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Being a motivational manager is not necessarily easy, but it creates the most dedicated, loyal workforce an organization can have.

BELIEVING IN OTHERS

Because employees’ enthusiasm for their job typically wanes over time, managers must start the working relationship off with a bang, providing positive motivation from the get-go.

With new employees, a manager can immediately establish a motivational workplace by exhibiting personal enthusiasm and a positive attitude. Just as important, the manager must show that he or she trusts each employee.

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“The task of management is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.”

—Peter Drucker

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Trust cannot occur without respect. The manager who respects every employee has an expectation that the employee will do the job well. The manager delegates work with confidence and does not micro-manage or meddle. The manager offers assistance when necessary but generally allows the employee the leeway and responsibility to get the work done.

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Dos & Don’ts

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HOW TO STAY MOTIVATIONAL

Being the kind of manager who constantly motivates employees to work diligently and effectively is a matter of using certain good management techniques.

• Do exude energy and enthusiasm.
• Do practice self-motivation—it will be that much easier to motivate employees.
• Do anticipate what employees want and need.
• Don’t be afraid to be demanding.
• Do respect your employees.
• Do recognize and reward employee loyalty, dedication, and hard work.
• Do create motivational events to keep your staff positive and involved.
• Don’t criticize in public—keep negative comments private.
• Do offer public praise.
• Do instill confidence in employees and inspire them to succeed.

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POWER POINTS

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A MANAGER’S EXPECTATIONS

Having faith in your staff means delegating with confidence and not micromanaging. It is important to display the following key sentiments:

• Trust – You assign a task with the certainty that it will be done well.
• Confidence – You assume that an employee will perform to your expectations.
• Respect – You treat an employee the way you yourself would want to be treated.

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By handling an employee in this manner, the manager is sending the signal that he or she believes in the employee. The cornerstones of that belief are trust, confidence, and respect.

Trust means giving the employee responsibility. It means believing that the employee will do the right thing—that he or she will follow policies and procedures and will accomplish the assigned task. Trust also involves trusting yourself enough to let go. It means understanding that while an employee may not handle things exactly as you would, you can accept that, as long as the end result is the same.

Confidence in an employee is based on your certainty that the individual will perform to your expectations. It means not worrying about tasks being completed correctly or on time. It means feeling comfortable that the employee will do what is necessary and right, even if you are not checking up on him or her. It is difficult to have confidence in someone else if you lack confidence in yourself.

Respecting employees means giving them the benefit of the doubt. It means treating each individual as you yourself would want to be treated.

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Dos & Don’ts

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HOW TO SHOW YOUR RESPECT

Demonstrating that you value your employees involves treating them well every day.

• Don’t ask an employee to perform an unpleasant task without providing a positive motivational reason.
• Do tell the truth about a company restructuring or layoff, especially if it is in an employee’s department.
• Don’t assume that showing strong leadership means giving a public dressing-down to an employee who has failed at a task.
• Don’t lose faith in all your employees just because one of them has betrayed your trust.

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CASE FILE

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IN THE FACE OF TRAGEDY

Some 3,000 employees could have lost their jobs in 1995, after a fire destroyed Massachusetts-based Polartec-fleece manufacturer Malden Mills, a vestige of New England’s once-thriving textile industry.

But third-generation owner Aaron Feuerstein did the unthinkable: He reached into his own pocket and company reserves to keep all 3,000 of his employees on the payroll with full benefits for three months—at a cost of $25 million. He considered his workers an asset, not an expense. Feuerstein became nationally revered for his leadership during difficult times and for his exceptional belief in his people.

Although the cost of rebuilding the plant, coinciding with a declining market and competition from low-cost imports, forced the company to file for Chapter 11 protection from its creditors in 2001, it is thriving today, largely because of major government contracts—which its skilled and experienced employees enable the company to fulfill.

SOURCES: “A CEO Who Lives by What’s Right” by Mary McGrory, Washington Post (December 20, 2001).

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The BIG Picture

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A CLINICAL LOOK AT MOTIVATION

Motivation has long been studied by behavioral psychologists. In 1961, psychologist David McClelland suggested that human motivation was based on three dominant needs: the need for achievement, power, and affiliation. To measure those needs, McClelland co-developed the Thematic Apperception Test.

Subjects are asked to look at thirty-one images of different social and interpersonal situations and to make up a story about each one. Psychologists then interpret the stories to determine what they reveal about the person’s needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. Today, the r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Understanding Motivation
• Essential Skill I
• Essential Skill II
• Essential Skill III
• Essential Skill IV
• Off and Running
• Recommended Reading
• Searchable Terms
• About the Author
• Credits
• Copyright
• About the Publisher