- Traditional employee motivation methods: Traditional tactics such as carrots (incentives) and sticks (penalties) usually lead to surface-level motivation and may not result in high productivity. This method treats employees like robots following orders rather than creative individuals contributing to the company.
- Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation: Extrinsic motivation, including positive incentives like money, can decrease an individual's enjoyment and performance if they are already intrinsically motivated to perform a task. The ideal situation is having an intrinsically motivated employee who enjoys their work and isn't solely motivated by external rewards.
- Inspiring Employees: To effectively motivate employees, leaders should inspire them by connecting their work to higher values and painting a picture of the organization's vision. Leaders, therefore, need to be visionaries and communicators who can clearly articulate their missions and make every employee understand and connect with it.
- Appealing to Higher Values: Individuals resonate with certain principles or values such as beauty, excellence, honesty, justice, order, love, kindness, and fairness. Leaders should tune into these higher values of their employees and align the work with them. By appealing to their "highest self," employees can find intrinsic motivation in their work.
- Reframing traditional sales tactics: Rather than relying on financial rewards for top performers, frame the role in a way that the seller connects with the value of the product, understanding how it positively impacts customers' lives. This ties into appealing to higher values and can increase motivation and engagement.
- Creating a Vision for Your Employees: Make sure your employees buy into the company's mission on a deeper level. They should feel connected to the product or service they are selling, and the product or service should contribute positively to humanity. There's a difference between selling a low-quality product with frequent defects, and selling high-quality, meaningful products like wheelchairs or prosthetic limbs for veterans. High-quality products that contribute positively to society will appeal to employees' higher values.
- Understanding the Impact of Their Work: Ensure your employees understand the positive influence they are having. Regularly share customer feedback so they can see how their work affects people and contributes to the company's mission. For example, if a programmer develops a piece of code that improves a customer's experience and receives an appreciation email, make that feedback visible and link it to each specific piece of work. This will empower employees and make them feel more engaged.
- Building a Cohesive Team: To create a connected and cohesive team, leaders and managers need to connect with their employees, listen to their concerns, offer training, and genuinely care about them. If you treat employees poorly, they will respond accordingly, making motivation harder to achieve. However, treating them like valued human beings will result in a motivated and productive workforce.
- Aligning Employees with Company Values: As a leader, it's your responsibility to clearly articulate company values and make sure employees buy into them. Define what the company or division stands for and ensure all employees are onboard. Research by Jim Collins has shown that organizations with cohesive values among employees are more successful. When everyone is pulling in the same direction, the organization can effectively work toward its goals. Disparities in values can cause employees to pull in different directions, stagnating progress.
- More on Motivation and Team Engagement: The topic of motivation and team engagement is vast. For more specific breakdowns and other ideas about motivation, check out actualized.org.