How to Motivate Employees
By Shelley Holmes
Copyright Shelley Holmes 2009-2011
Smashwords Edition
Cover design by http://www.rudyisfat.com
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Table of Contents
The Two Things That Get People Out Of Bed
Hertzberg’s Two-Factory Theory
Create The Environment That Enables People To Feel Inspired
What to do if the work on offer is inherently boring
Every Person Has A Different Motivational Trigger
Help People To Play To Their Strengths
Not Everyone Will Be Inspired By What You Have On Offer
Rewards and Their Impact On Performance
Top Tips For Creating A Motivating Environment
Top Tips for Creating A De-Motivating Environment
Steps To Take To Improve Employee Motivation
Take Action Activities
Which Quadrant Are You Operating From?
Discover What Motivates You Exercise
Get Your Team To Work To Their Strengths
Is Your Job Meaningful To You Exercise
Action Steps To Take To Improve Employee Motivation
Download the PDF with all the activities in this book
Before you read this e-book – you may like to take the:
“How Motivating Is Your Work Environment?” Quiz
Who are the movers and shakers in your organization?
Do you know the one characteristic that sets the real go-getters in your organization apart from everyone else?
The common characteristic of the go-getters … is that these people are passionate!
They are seen as the ‘go to’ person, which differentiates them from almost everyone else.
Fully alive, tuned in, tapped in, turned on, fully present in the moment and thoroughly engaged in what they are doing … these people are absolutely contagious and here’s the exciting part, you can set up the conditions that enable this in your people!
Wouldn’t you like everyone in your team to be like this? Wouldn’t you like to be like this?
If you are tired of pushing people to be motivated and would rather turn your attention to more interesting things then apply the principles and tools you learn here. You will find the job of leading and inspiring your people easier and definitely very rewarding.
You Cannot Motivate Others
How do you motivate someone to be fully engaged and passionate? Well you can’t.
Motivation comes from within.
It is not something that can be externally driven. Sure at times your encouragement, inspiration and support … or your bribes and threats … will get people rolling, however, it won’t keep them rolling for long or keep them coming to work with a spring in their step.
The Two Things That Get People Out Of Bed
If you want to motivate and inspire others to be at their best at work there is a piece of psychology that you need to fully understand. There are only two things that will get people out of bed --- Inspiration and Desperation.
Inspiration is life changing, and comes from within.
Identify compelling reasons (inner callings) why you want something and you’ll find all the inspiration you need to get up and get going.
The desire ‘to contribute’ and ‘do meaningful work’ are examples of inner callings – coming from within the individual – and not a carrot or a stick in sight!
These internal callings are much longer lasting and inspired by passion and interest. They come from a mindset of “I want to do this. I choose to do this. This is my idea. I love this. This is what I want to do”.
Having an internal calling doesn’t mean people won’t want to be rewarded … they certainly will … however, their greatest reward comes from the satisfaction of doing the task at hand … not the money attached to the doing of the job.
The more you can help your people to find those inner callings that inspire them to give of their best the better the vibe in your team.
Rest easy, the clues are coming very shortly on how to help them become internally inspired!
Before that though, just for a moment let’s take a quick peek at the other thing that will get someone out of bed … Desperation.
Desperation is generally temporary and spurred by the “I’ll do this to get that (or get rid of that)” mentality and is mostly driven by external motivators.
Desperation doesn't provide the drive for explosive success ... you simply do enough to get rid of the pressure of feeling “I have to do this”. And that’s the difference from Inspiration. Instead of “I want to do this” people motivated by Desperation are doing this because they feel “I have to do this. If I had my choice I’d be doing xyz”
External Motivators are factors such as money, recognition, status etc. For example, a person may work longer hours to receive an overtime payment. They might do the work competently, but the minute the overtime funds are withdrawn the person will no longer be motivated to work the longer hours.
Being externally motivated means the person anticipates greater pleasure from the reward than from the actual completion of the task/activity.
Contrast this with a person whose motivation is internally driven and operates with a sense of interest and joy in the job they are doing. They will work the longer hours regardless of whether there is money attached to it. They do it because it brings them pleasure.
For long-term passion, sizzle and energy the motivation must come from within the individual.
Using the quadrant below look at how different levels of inspiration and desperation cause people to operate at work. Once you work out which quadrant someone is operating from, you can figure out what you need to do to motivate and inspire him or her.
The individual operating from the Duty Quadrant, does their job ... maybe not with brilliance or inspiration ... but does it sufficiently. Their personal values system (internal motivation) ensures they comply with the requirements of the workplace and the job. Their thinking is something along the lines of "This is what they are paying me to do, so I'll just get the job done."
They possibly go beyond the minimum requirements, but probably don't offer any great brilliance. They more than likely feel obligated by their own inner voice - which can at times be far more demanding than any person on the outside!
The person who operates from the Fear Quadrant feels they have to act ... otherwise bad things will happen. "I have to have a job otherwise I'll end up on the street." Fear people do just enough to keep their job. They comply simply because they want the money and believe they haven't any other options available to them.
They believe they are trapped and can often become resentful toward the organization, their leaders, their work-mates and their circumstances. This shows up in how they do their work and treat those around them.
The person operating from the Respect/Love Quadrant is possibly working hard at their job, yet again not because they want to be there, but because they want to provide the best for themselves and others. If you ask them they may say: "Yes I'd rather be doing ... but this is how I can create the life that I want - I want to be able to put my kids through private education and university, I wan to go on great holidays."