The smile of satisfaction in staff of civil society organisations

Is your Staff Motivated Enough?

“Work is love made visible. And if you can't work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy”. Kahlil Gibran

Workplace motivation is essential for any business to succeed. After all, how can you expect any progress if none of the workers are motivated enough to pursue it?

Motivated and engaged employees make the life of the manager easier. They will not only get a lot of work done, they will also be proactive, resolve issues fast and most importantly help to create a healthy work environment where the team can perform and enjoy their work. Therefore, a manager who manages to create a motivated team is most likely to be a happier and more successful manager. The article below suggests some ways of achieving this goal.

I would like you to take a moment and ponder over these questions:

-Can you motivate people at all?
-If a person is completely demotivated to do a job, is it possible to do something for them to happily perform their duties to satisfactory standards?
-Can monetary incentives or other forms of rewards change attitude towards an activity? Some recent publications have argued that monetary incentives for achieving results eventually turns the organisation’s culture towards a money driven environment where people will always ask what extra earnings they will accrue, before undertaking the new task.
-The best way to motivate people is to not demotivate them! Another phrase to ponder over for a moment.

Let’s start with the assumption that we only hire people who want to perform optimally at their new position. So, there is no point of motivating them further at the beginning.

However, managers must ensure that an environment is created where the initial motivations and ambitions of their staff is not destroyed. If this is achieved, then, getting in the vicious circle of paying incentives for every additional effort and still get a highly performing team can be avoided.

Here are a few tips to maintain high motivation levels in your teams:

1. Share the big picture: Where is the organisation going to? What are current challenges that top management is trying to address? How does the employee’s contribution fit into the big picture? Make them understand that they are part of something bigger this will increase their feeling of importance and belonging.

2. Be open and honest: Even though your team may not be as experienced, they are not stupid. Distrust is deadly for any manager. Don’t give your staff any reason to question your honesty.

3. Truly care for your staff: If the employee understands that you care for them as a person and not just as another resource, they will feel safe to be themselves at work. As a result, they will be able to handle stress better and be more open about the real problems they face at work.

4. Show that you are a human being: Managers often feel the pressure to demonstrate their capabilities to do the job. As a result they try to avoid showing any weaknesses. Share openly some of your personal worries with them. Or even better, let them know past situations where you were afraid of something and then overcame it. This will help your staff to feel safe to work with you.

5. Reward through recognition: As mentioned earlier, money recognition doesn’t work to keep people motivated for a longer time period. Recognition and giving credit for good work is the way to go.

6. Work for their development: One of the intrinsic motivation factors for many people is the ambition to further growth of skills and position in the company. Become a career coach for your staff. Help them to succeed on the career ladder in the organization.

7. Create a good social environment: Work must be enjoyable. And enjoying work with colleagues that we also like in private can be a major driver for commitment and loyalty. Therefore, give enough space for private interaction of your team members.

8. Listen, listen and again listen: Ask your staff for feedback, give them the chance to optimize their own work environment where they can perform the best. They know the best what they need to achieve results. So, don’t underestimate this crucial source of information.

In practice, there are many more ways to help your staff to be happy and perform at work. In all, it is all about understanding what drives them to come to work and perform every day. Remove motivation barriers by talking to them informally about issues as often as you can. Be sensitive to their specific personalities and demonstrate your loyalty and willingness to make them succeed. It’s not about you! It’s about them! If you keep this in mind, you may soon have a team that performs and you also enjoy working with.

For further reading: http://www.zeitgeistmanager.com

*Administrative Officer of WACSI

This blog post is provided for information purposes only. Opinions expressed herein are not in any way intended to inflame passions. The views expressed in this message are solely those of the author in his or her private capacity, except where the author specifically states them to be the views of a named organisation. WACSI and its partners are not liable for any claims which may arise as a result of the contents of this post, and do not accept responsibility for the security of information contained herein.

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