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JumpStart Your Employee Motivation: Ten Motivation Secrets to Empower Your Team
by Ed Sykes One of the important keys to employee motivation is to empower your employees to be successful. An empowered employee leads to the following benefits: Increased creativity Increased productivity Increased teamwork and motivation Increased initiative Increased ownership of work Reduced employee turnover Reduced human resources situations Better work environment Increased results for your organization Increased career opportunities

The following are ten motivation techniques to jumpstarting your employee motivation and empowering your team to outstanding results:

1. Motivate Your Employees to Find Solutions

Encourage your employees to be solution creators instead of problem creators. When employees communicate a problem to you, look at it as an opportunity to empower the employees. Ask the employees how they would solve the problem, express your confidence that they are the person to solve the problems, give them the tools to solve the problem, and follow up with them. You have just empowered those employees to find ways in the future to create solutions and made your team more productive at the same time. Many times during our busy work day, we find it difficult to ask for opinions from our employees. But just the act of asking for their opinions tells your employees that you value their input and motivates them to accomplish more. Just imagine, it may be the first time that an employer has ever asked them for their opinion, and they appreciate it. Learn your employees skill, experience, and motivation levels for performing workplace tasks. Then assign the task and follow-up based on your findings. For example, you may need to follow up more frequently with an employee who is fairly new to the project or organization as opposed to the veteran employee who doesnt need much follow-up. Remember, the most skilled employee may not be the most motivated for performing the task you request. Delegation is one of the most powerful motivation tools for empowering employees in the workplace. The sheer act of your delegating a task shows your employees that you have the confidence in them that they can do the job. Make sure you understand the task to be delegated so that you can clearly and concisely communicate how to do the task and hand off

2. Motivate Your Employees by Soliciting Opinions

3. Motivate Your Employees by Managing to Their Level

4. Motivate Your Employees by Delegating Tasks

ownership of the task to the employees. Delegation is providing your employees with ownership of the task, providing the tools for successfully completing the task, expressing the reward and consequences for completing the task and following up accordingly.

5. Motivate Your Employees by Encouraging Ideas

Ideas are the lifeblood of any organization, department, and team. I always say that every mind is too important to miss that one idea that can increase productivity, reduce expenses, or increase profit. Empower your employees by creating a safe environment for your employees to share their ideas. Remember, the idea that doesnt make sense today might be exactly the solution you are looking for a week from now. Always give your employees credit for the ideas they express. Nothing will decrease employee motivation and dry up the flow of ideas quicker than having managers take credit for their employees ideas. If your employees are coming up with ideas, reward them publicly. You will be amazed how the flow of ideas from motivated employees will increase with each public recognition.

6. Motivate Your Employees by Letting Them Run Your Meetings

One of the best ways to motivate and empower your employees is to involve them in running your meetings. Of course, you will set the agenda; but there are many opportunities for you as a leader to let your employees run portions of or the entire meeting. Take the time to work with the designated employees ahead of time so that they are confident with the assigned meeting tasks. During the meeting, you are there to support them and help with any sections of the meeting that may provide a challenge for them. I suggest that you allow as many opportunities for different employees to lead different meetings as possible. By allowing your employees to play leadership roles in your meeting, you will develop your employees for future opportunities and open additional opportunities for you as a leader.

7. Motivate Your Employees by Embracing Mistakes

Without mistakes, there is no growth. Allowing your employees to make mistakes allows your employees to grow, be creative, and provide a vehicle for empowerment. Create a safe work environment so that when your employees make mistakes, they are not punished. Use the mistakes your employees make as learning experiences. Ask your employees how they would have performed the task differently and allow them to tackle the task again. Your employees will gain a new sense of empowerment and feel confident that you will support them when they try something new. Leadership comes at all levels and doesnt require a title. Take the time to align your employees skills with leadership opportunities. Make sure you provide training in the areas of opportunities for each employee so that they are empowered to step up to new opportunities. Create rewards for employees who take initiative. Publicly recognize employees during meetings, with reward boards, etc., so that other employees are motivated to take initiative.

8. Motivate Your Employees by Assigning Leadership Roles

9. Motivate Your Employees by Rewarding Initiative

10. Motivate Your Employees by Getting Goal Setting Buy-In

Your employees will be far more motivated to achieve your goals if they are allowed to help develop those goals. Involve your employees in the goal setting process and get their input so that it becomes believable for them. Once your employees feel ownership of your goals, they will be motivated to move quickly to help accomplish your goals. Apply these employee motivation tips and you will motivate your team, achieve greater results, and quickly accomplish your goals.

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Motivate Your Team! Eight Quick Tips to Motivate for Success

By Ed Sykes

Motivation is the key ingredient for success in any organization. You can have all the technical skills in the world; however, if you cant motivate your team, you will not achieve success. As a leader, a majority of your job is to motivate others to succeed so that everyones goals are accomplished. The following are eight quick tips to motivate your team: 1. Everyone Has Motivation Your employees are motivated on some level. It is your job to find the level of their motivation and move your employees to the next level. 2. Listen to WIIFM I wake up every morning listening to a very important radio station, WIIFM. I hope you do too. WIIFM stands for Whats In It For Me? To truly be a motivator, you must always be in tune to your employees WIIFM. Find out why it is beneficial for your employees to do a task, etc. Once you find out the employees motives, you find out how to motivate them. 3. Its about Pain or Pleasure Motivate your employees toward pleasure or away from pain. You motivate toward the pleasure by providing recognition, incentives, and rewards for doing a good job. You motivate away from the pain of a corrective action, losing a position, or doing a poor job. The key to this motivation is to be consistent with all your employees at all times. 4. Give Me a Reason Do it because I said so! Well, with our educated workforce these days, that doesnt work anymore. Employees like to know why tasks are being requested of them so that they can feel involved and that the task has

worth. Let your employees know why doing the task is important to you, the organization, and for them. 5. Let Me Understand You Take time to show sincere interest in your employees as people. Understand what your employees are passionate about in their lives. What are their special passions? What are their personal needs? What brings them joy or pain? What are their short-range and long-range goals? Once you understand the answers to these questions, you can move them to a new level of motivation, because you cared enough to ask the questions and show interest in their success. Once you understand your employees needs and goals, they will take more interest in understanding and achieving your goals. 6. Make Me Proud Napoleon Bonaparte once said, A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon. Give your employees the opportunity to be proud of their work. Reward team members publicly for a job well done. Give them an opportunity in a team meeting to explain how they accomplished the job. Have your organizations Director, President, Vice President, etc., give recognition to these employees by personally sending a note, recognizing them in an organizational or team meeting, or creating a Hall or Wall of Fame recognition for employees that really have gone beyond the call of duty. 7. Expect the Best Expect the best and your employees will rise to that level. How do you do this? You do it with the words you use. Are you expressing positive expectations, or are you using words (kind of, sort of, well try, we have to, we havent done that before, and that will never work) that communicate negative expectations? What does your body language say about you? Does it say, Im ready to take on any challenge, and I expect you can also; or does your body language say Please dont give me another problem. I cant handle it. Do our recognitions and rewards move our employees to do their best? Do we consistently communicate our standards and expectations for the best? Do we coach our team to always do better? 8. Walk the Talk Our employees model our behavior. If we are confident about a major change in the organization, our employees will follow our behavior. If we come in late and leave early, guess what will happen? Remember, even when you dont think someone is watchingthey are always watching. Set the example for others to follow. Apply these eight simple rules of team motivation and you, too, will have the skills to motivate your team to be inspired, innovative, self-directed, and highly productive employees.

http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/HR-Administration/Communication/Employee-Motivation-5-KeySteps-to-Improve-Employe/ March 16, 2010 Employee Motivation: 5 Key Steps to Improve Employee Attitude

There are 5 key steps you can take to motivate employees and improve employee attitude. The steps are derived from employee motivation techniques illustrated in a training presentation for supervisors from BLR. A portion of the PowerPoint presentation is available to you as a free download: Motivating EmployeesTips and Tactics for Supervisors
For a Limited Time receive a FREE HR Report on "Critical HR Recordkeeping. This comprehensive HR report covers how employers can take critical document from a daunting task to simple! Download Now

Motivating employees is the greatest challenge for management , according to some compelling research done by the Creative Group published in a recent management survey of marketing executives. The survey of 250 marketers showed that their biggest management challenges are:

Motivating employees (35% of respondents) Finding qualified staff (28%) Training and retraining staff (25%) Resolving staff conflicts (7%)

Step 1Identify What Motivates Employees

Ask your employees what motivates them. If you have trouble determining an employee's motivators, ask what would make him or her more excited about their job. If an employee seems hesitant or unsure, suggest several different motivators and get their reactions. Most employees want:

Good supervision from a leader who can guide and direct their activity. Clear goals and expectations that are mutually understood and agreed upon. Accurate and timely feedback that fairly reflects their performance and helps them improve. Interesting work, or at least the opportunity for interesting assignments from time to time. Challenges that help them learn, grow, and test their talents and stretch their abilities. Responsibility and the chance to take on important tasks and show what they can do. Recognition for their efforts in the form of praise, rewards, and advancement.

Respect Fair treatment

Motivated employees want:

Opportunities for growth Control over their work Participation in decisions To be part of a team, and enjoy the camaraderie and sense of achievement that comes from being part of a successful team.

Step 2Identify and Address Barriers to Employee Motivation Negative Outlook

When you ask what motivates a worker, you make get some negative responses like: If you want to motivate me, give me a raise. Don't ask my opinion if you don't want to hear it. Promotion means more headaches. Who needs it? There are positive ways to counter these negative responses. For example:

If you want to motivate me, give me a raise. Employees often see money as the key to motivation, and sometimes it is. If you cannot grant a raise, you may want to ask the employee if anything else would inspire motivation. You may find that at times employees who want a raise can also be motivated by other means. Don't ask my opinion if you don't want to hear it. Employees who make this or similar statements may be upset because their ideas were not adopted by the group or the organization. Talk with employees openly about their ideas and the ideas of others. Explain that while all the ideas were worthwhile, only some could be pursued at this time. Make sure employees understand that their participation is always valued and will be needed again. Promotion means more headaches. Who needs it? Employees may be frustrated by not advancing or may be intimidated by the idea of advancement or promotion. Respond by talking to these employees about why advancement is important, to their careers and to the organization. Talk about the support that is provided for employees who are promoted, or want to be. Share with them some of the satisfactions or rewards that may make the headaches worth it and make sure they understand that you have confidence in them to make the best of any new roles.

Lack of Knowledge, and Fear

A combination of lack of knowledge and fear are big reasons why employees are not motivated or show poor attitude at work. For example, fear stifles motivation when a new

worker refuses to ask questions lest he or she seem incapable of doing the job. Supervisors can remind new workers again and again that their questions are valued and important and encourage them to ask.
Step 3Develop an Employee Motivation Program

An employee's performance, actions, or attitudes can damage both their careers and the organization. In such cases try first to come to an agreement about acceptable behaviors through informal discussions. If that doesn't work, meet with the employee and develop a formal employee motivation program. Get input from the employee. This is a chance to listen and find out about the employee's concerns. A great motivation program should include the following elements:

Clearly explain what the employee needs to do to meet expectations, and how what the organization will do to provide support or assistance. Correction works best when it is perceived as a partnership. Monitor the employee's progress with care and meet frequently with the employee to review the plan and the employee's conduct. Provide encouragement, praise, and recognition as the employee's work improves. Make it clear that the employee's value in the workplace is increasing. Some employees are motivated by discipline. They don't take their work seriously until they are threatened with some kind of sanction for unacceptable or inadequate performance. But discipline should be used only as a last resort for problem employees who fail to respond to other, positive forms of motivation. Make it clear that resorting to discipline is not punishment by you or the organization but a consequence of the employee's own performance and behavior. Put the responsibility squarely on the employee, where it belongs. Once you have warned an employee or applied necessary discipline, be sure to use other positive motivators as well to encourage improved performance. Discipline alone is rarely enough to turn a problem employee around.

Step 4Add Motivation to Employee Training

Start off with a bang. Get trainees involved right away. Take a few minutes at the beginning of the session to grab their attention and create a little excitement. Encourage participation by having employees take center stage and describe something they already know about the topic, or give them the opportunity to ask a question about the topic they'd like answered during the training session Keep their attention focused. You talking and trainees just listening is probably the least effective way to train. Experts tell us that in most cases hearing only accounts for 10 percent of learning, whereas more than 80 percent comes via the sense of sight. This means safety training activities should be heavily weighted in favor of hands-on practical experience, interactive discussion with the trainees doing most of the talking, question and answer, and activities that have a visual impact.

Make it real . Reality TV is really popular, so why not try some "reality" training? Have a speaker come in to give a short presentation about the topic. For example, you could have an employee who was injured on the job talk about his or her experience and what he or she learned from the accident as it relates to your topic. Send them away all fired up. Although safety training sessions may seem like the end of a long road for you--a process of preparation, presentation, and evaluation--remember that for trainees, it's only the beginning. The rest happens on the job. If they don't apply what they learned in the session to their work, you've wasted a lot of time, effort, and money. So send them back to the job fired up about safety and eager to use what they've just learned. Have a good wrap-up session prepared for the end of training. Make sure trainees leave with a sense of accomplishment to reinforce that they've learned something really important. Also be sure they don't go away empty-handed. Give trainees a handout or booklet to serve as safety reminders and job aids. And be sure to tell them that your door's always open any time they have questions, problems, or suggestions related to the training session. Give rewards as appropriate. Some can be earned and some by chance. An example of an earned reward would be giving each trainee a certificate of completion at the end of a session. A chance award could be placing a gift card under one chair and at some point in the session, ask people to check their chairs. Or you could give out small gifts, such as bite-sized candy bars or a company logo mug, to trainees who participate in the discussion. See several tips to add motivation and inspiration to your training .
Step 5Implement Procedures for Motivating an Aging Workforce

According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), by 2010 middle-aged and older workers will outnumber younger ones. See several useful tips about training and motivating older workers . Motivation is a complex subject. As you try out the techniques we've discussed, you'll find that your understanding of motivation and how to motivate people will gradually change and become more refined.

http://saleshq.monster.com/training/articles/574-seven-steps-to-motivating-people-at-work

Kevin Dwyer 1. Ask Ask people questions. There are two goals of asking questions. To find out what people are passionate about and to make sure that they know you care about what they think.

If you are at a loss as to what motivates people, their passions are a great start. Do not fall into the error of asking, What are you passionate about and taking what they say at face value. Look for body language signs that reinforce their stated passion. In an era of self help by means of television, radio and new age music, almost everyone is convinced they need to be passionate about something and quite often make it up, even to themselves. It is better to have a conversation, asking how things could be done better around here. Respond with further questions to explore. The phrase, Tell me more works well to open up the conversation further. Have several conversations like this and as trust develops you will find out what motivates people without having to ask. Having a conversation with people where you are genuinely interested in their responses builds self esteem for the person to whom the questions are directed. 2. Involve For major and minor changes, go further than asking for advice and opinions; involve people in analysis and design of solutions. It is not necessary to set up quality circles as part of a complete quality management system. Involve people in the definition of the problem and they will own it. Involve them in the analysis to create solutions and they will own the solution alternatives. Involve them in the design of the implementation and they will own the outcome. 3. Communicate When you are anticipating change, let people know what your intentions are. Tell them the goal. Tell them the rationale. Tell them the consequences and timing of what you intend to do. Tell them the consequences and timing of doing nothing. Tell them the process by which things will happen. Tell them how to find out more information. Tell them how to make sure their comments and thoughts are to be included. Listen to what they think. Listen to what they would rather do. Listen to their aspirations. Listen to how changing things impacts them. Do this for good news and bad news. Do this as early as possible, often and by several different mediums. Do this for big events and do it on a small scale for small events, such as responding to a conversation you started by asking, How can we do things better around here. In day-to-day business life communicate the standards to which you expect people to perform. Make them explicit standards, not implicit. Do not ask for a public toilet to be clean. Develop a standard on what clean is. The standard will

include as a minimum, what is to be done, the measure by which it is evaluated and time elements. People are not de-motivated by certainty. They are, however, de-motivated by the uncertainty created by the whirlpool of rumor and denial resulting from a vacuum of information when change is anticipated. They are de-motivated by the duplicity of informal standards when none is formally set. 4. Appreciate Appreciate peoples achievements in public. Even those who shun the limelight will appreciate being commended in a low key way in public. Be specific. Do not say, I just want to commend Jim for the great job he is doing. The assembled group, including Jim, is likely to have two or more views on what behaviors Doing a great job reflects. Say instead, I want to commend Jim for going out of his way to help our customer stay in business. Jim not only came in on Saturday morning when the customer called in a panic, but he personally delivered the part. Jim did not have to do that. In choosing to do so, he has helped us all get a reputation for superior service. Nobody is left in doubt as to what behavior, with what consequences, is being commended. It is this precise behavior which will be reinforced. 5. Reprimand Reprimand in private. People will talk and the fact a reprimand has been given will be known. Embarrassing people in public will de-motivate. Reprimanding in a constructive manner will motivate. Reprimand as soon as possible after the event and be as specific about the behavior which is unacceptable and the rationale as to why it is unacceptable as for appreciating behavior. Be specific about the consequences of repeating the behavior. Ask for advice on what can be done to help the person stop the behavior. Work together to eliminate the unacceptable behavior. If the reprimand does not work, counsel to improve or find employment where the behavior is acceptable. Do not shirk your responsibility to all the other people exhibiting acceptable behaviors, so that a distinction between acceptable and unacceptable behavior is made. 6. Build Build peoples strengths and help them eliminate their weaknesses. Make it unacceptable to continue in a position where a weakness is a liability for the team. However, make it acceptable to have a weakness on which people are

willing to work. Help them help themselves. Allow more skilled team members to help them. Monitor progress and appreciate progress.

Identify, appreciate and build peoples strengths, especially those who have weaknesses they are working on. Use all resources at your disposal you can afford. Not only use coaching and training but ask people to train and coach others. Nothing makes people realize their true strengths and weaknesses more than when they are asked to teach. Nothing builds self esteem like being successful at teaching someone else well and watching their behavior change. 7. Delegate Delegate your responsibilities to people who have the competence to execute some of your tasks. State clearly what is expected, setting a standard which is mutually understood. Delegate the authority. Do not double check them as routine. At the beginning of delegation monitor their output as part of an greed standard of handing over delegation. At an agreed level of execution quality, stop monitoring except for normal quality audit purposes. Make sure the data required to execute the tasks is easily accessible. At work, being responsible, having the competency, authority and tools to be responsible and having the trust of your colleagues, superiors and subordinates is the most powerful motivator of all. Find something, even the smallest thing that an individual can actually be responsible for and you will be on the road to a motivated workforce.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4665361_motivate-employees-ten-steps.html

How to Motivate Your Employees in Ten Steps

By esykes1, eHow User

The following article will describe ten motivation techniques to jump-starting your employee motivation and empowering your team to outstanding results.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions
Things You'll Need

Communication Skills

1.
o

1
Motivate Your Employees to Find Solutions - Encourage your employees to be solution creators instead of problem creators. When employees communicate a problem to you, look at it as an opportunity to empower the employees. Ask the employees how they would solve the problem, express your confidence that they are the person to solve the problems, give them the tools to solve the problem, and follow up with them. You have just empowered those employees to find ways in the future to create solutions and made your team more productive at the same time.

2
Motivate Your Employees by Soliciting Opinions - Many times during our busy work day, we find it difficult to ask for opinions from our employees. But just the act of asking for their opinions tells your employees that you value their input and motivates them to accomplish more. Just imagine, it may be the first time that an employer has ever asked them for their opinion, and they appreciate it.

3
Motivate Your Employees by Managing to Their Level - Learn your employees' skill, experience, and motivation levels for performing workplace tasks. Then assign the task and follow-up based on your findings. For example, you may need to follow up more frequently with an employee who is fairly new to the project or organization as opposed to the "veteran" employee who doesn't need much follow-up. Remember, the most skilled employee may not be the most motivated for performing the task you request.

Motivate Your Employees by Delegating Tasks - Delegation is one of the most powerful motivation tools for empowering employees in the workplace. The sheer act of your delegating a task shows your employees that you have the confidence in them that they can do the job. Make sure you understand the task to be delegated so that you can clearly and concisely communicate how to do the task and hand off "ownership" of the task to the employees. Delegation is providing your employees with ownership of the task, providing the tools for successfully completing the task, expressing the reward and consequences for completing the task and following up

5
Motivate Your Employees by Encouraging Ideas - Ideas are the lifeblood of any organization, department, and team. I always say that every mind is too important to miss that one idea that can increase productivity, reduce expenses, or increase profit. Empower your employees by creating a safe environment for your employees to share their ideas. Remember, the idea that doesn't make sense today might be exactly the solution you are looking for a week from now. Always give your employees credit for the ideas they express. Nothing will decrease employee motivation and dry up the flow of ideas quicker than having managers take credit for their employees' ideas. If your employees are coming up with ideas, reward them publicly. You will be amazed how the flow of ideas from motivated employees will increase with each public recognition.

6
Motivate Your Employees by Letting Them Run Your Meetings - One of the best ways to motivate and empower your employees is to involve them in running your meetings. Of course, you will set the agenda; but there are many opportunities for you as a leader to let your employees run portions of or the entire meeting. Take the time to work with the designated employees ahead of time so that they are confident with the assigned meeting tasks. During the meeting, you are there to support them and help with any sections of the meeting that may provide a challenge for them. I suggest that you allow as many opportunities for different employees to lead different meetings as possible. By allowing your employees to play leadership roles in your meeting, you will develop your employees for future opportunities and open additional opportunities for you as a leader.

7
Motivate Your Employees by Embracing Mistakes - Without mistakes, there is no growth. Allowing your employees to make mistakes allows your employees to grow, be creative, and provide a vehicle for empowerment. Create a safe work environment

so that when your employees make mistakes, they are not punished. Use the mistakes your employees make as learning experiences. Ask your employees how they would have performed the task differently and allow them to tackle the task again. Your employees will gain a new sense of empowerment and feel confident that you will support them when they try something new.

8
Motivate Your Employees by Assigning Leadership Roles - Leadership comes at all levels and doesn't require a title. Take the time to align your employees' skills with leadership opportunities. Make sure you provide training in the areas of opportunities for each employee so that they are empowered to step up to new opportunities.

9
Motivate Your Employees by Rewarding Initiative Create rewards for employees who take initiative. Publicly recognize employees during meetings, with reward boards, etc., so that other employees are motivated to take initiative.

10
Motivate Your Employees by Getting Goal Setting Buy-In - Your employees will be far more motivated to achieve your goals if they are allowed to help develop those goals. Involve your employees in the goal setting process and get their input so that it becomes believable for them. Once your employees feel ownership of your goals, they will be motivated to move quickly to help accomplish your goals.