While more money and better benefits make employees happy, it turns out that these motivate them to show up, but are not as effective at motivating employees to perform well. The only exception is piece rate pay or commissions where people’s pay each day is based on what they produce. Since most of you work in environments where that’s not the case, don’t look to money to motivate your staff.
A famous Gallop poll identified that most people leave their jobs because they don’t get along with their supervisor or feel poorly treated by their supervisor. The majority don’t leave for more money.
The ten keys to motivating your staff is to ensure that they:
Have the right levels of:
- Competence
- Autonomy
- Belonging
And that they feel:
- Respected
- Appreciated
- Treated Fairly
- Empowered
- Connected to the supervisor and team
- Safe
- Comfortably stressed
A. What is the right level of competence, autonomy and belonging?
Competence:
Everyone wants to be competent enough to do their job without worrying about how to do it or making mistakes. Some people want to be more competent so they fully understand the context within which the job takes place and the skills needed for related activities. Be sure you listen closely to determine how high each employee is aiming for. Every one has to reach “good”, but some want to move to “great” and work with them to get them there. For more about helping staff fully develop their skills see:
https://kriegersolutions.com/help-your-staff-fully-develop-their-skills/
Autonomy:
No one likes to be micromanaged. Some want more hand holding until they fully master the job, and even then, a few will want regular reassurance they are doing the job well. Others want to be given initial training and then left alone to do the job and make any needed decisions and adjustments. The key here is to recognize each employee’s preferences and respond to them as needed, and not view either extreme as difficult, just different. If you can give employees the degree of autonomy they wish, they’ll be much more motivated.
Belonging:
There is a wide range here, from people who want to work closely with others and be friendly with people at work… to people who mostly want to be left alone, but not ignored. As a supervisor you may wish to set limits on doing anything social with your staff outside work, but it’s important to connect on a friendly level with staff who want that degree of connection, and to not feel offended by staff who wish to be strictly business and limit interactions.
Those of you familiar with our T.E.A.M. Communication Styles® will recognize many of these differences as related to the preferences of each of the four styles. For more on these styles check out this video.
That covers 3 of our 10 keys to motivation.
B. The other 7 keys are how employees feel at work.
It’s not about how you treat them, it’s how they feel about how you treat them. A motivational leader has to listen closely to his or her staff to get a clear picture of this. And in fact, strategic listening is the best way to promote all 7 of these feelings! (For more on this, see our blog on strategic listening.)
By listening carefully, the other person automatically feels appreciated, respected and connected. Since they are being listened to, they feel: more empowered – they’re doing the talking, safer – they’re being supported, and believe they are more likely to be treated fairly. Being given an opportunity to talk about their concerns can be a way to vent their stress and prevent concerns from building up into a stressful issue. Listening carefully addresses all 7 key motivators!
There is more that you can do to promote these 7 feelings, but listening is a great start!
For more about these seven feelings and leadership, see our blog series beginning with:
https://kriegersolutions.com/seven-keys-to-effective-leadership/