The Magic of Motivating Employees

By Shawn Doyle
I was facilitating a leadership program in Ohio. A manager in the back row raised his hand and said “I have a question I can’t figure out. How do I motivate my people? They don’t do what I tell them to do. “ I get this question all the time, it is the number one question I get as I travel around the country as a speaker and trainer – how does a leader motivate their team? What is the magic?
Having worked with hundreds of companies, here is what I believe to be the magic of motivating employees:
Thank them for their work. Imagine that. Far too many leaders are very stingy with giving compliments. How much does it cost you to say thank you? Leaders tell me that they don’t give out compliments because “I don’t need them myself.” Most people I meet tell me they feel very underappreciated at work. Take the time to thank people when they exceed expectations, stay late or put in extra effort.
Celebrate success- When people achieve their goals, when people set a sales record, when people do something amazing over and above what is expected of them, when someone is retiring or leaving the company.- have a celebration. People love celebrating success and important milestones. Take the group out to lunch or dinner and tell them you are celebrating someone’s special accomplishment and acknowledge them in public with a celebration. Celebration is the most festive form of appreciation.
Ask them about their goals– Meet with each employee and ask what their career goals are short, mid and long term. Once there is clarity around what it is they want, help them create an individual development plan. Tell them you want to help them get there. When you help people get where they want to go- they will be more motivated and excited.
Have a positive office environment– Be cheerful, upbeat and positive yourself, and have fun at work. Say good morning to people and ask how they are doing. Believe it or not- you can have fun and work hard at the same time. As a surprise, buy breakfast or lunch for the group every now and then and tell them that you appreciate their hard work and effort. Have fun contests in the office and have teams compete to win prizes.
Find out what motivates each person-Ask people on the team what motivates them. What gets them excited and fired up at work? Then try to let them do more of the kind of work and tasks they love and enjoy. What motivates people isn’t really a secret or some sort of magic, all you have to do is ask them. In their history many people have worked for bosses who didn’t ever bother to ask, they only cared about their own self-interest.
Take a real interest in them personally-Ask them about their wife or husband. Ask how their kid did in the soccer tournament, or how their son is doing in his first year of college. Listen. When you care about employees and their lives, it is really motivating. Another part of that is empathy, and really showing it. Showing empathy builds loyalty and trust, and when you care about people they care back. As Pete Hoekstra once said, “Real leadership is leaders recognizing that they serve the people that they lead.”
Re-review this list and ask yourself – how many of these do you do? You will see people really respond when you take these approaches – but it isn’t really magic, it just called being a great leader.
A longer version of this article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.
Shawn Doyle is a certified professional speaker with the CSP designation. “My life passion is to make a positive difference in people’s lives by helping them live to their full potential both at work and at home,“ he says. Shawn Doyle has spent almost three decades in the world of personal and professional development, and from 2000- 2003, co-founded a Corporate University for Comcast where Shawn was Vice President of Learning and Development. Shawn Doyle’s clients include Pfizer, Zippo, Comcast, Lockheed Martin, NBC, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Guidepost, ABC, Disney, Kraft, the U.S. Marines, Charter, The Ladders and IBM.
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