Many people have to drag themselves to work every single day. Sometimes it’s the drudgery of the job, or it could be the fake motivational “hang in there” posters, possibly it is the feeling of being a cog in a great machine. No matter how an employee or a business owner feels, there was a point where your passion and excitement for work got dulled.
Here are five ways one of your employees (or you) may have had their motivation killed – and how to fix them:
1 – Lack of clearly defined goals. Let’s face it, many tasks at work like making copies or answering emails are pure drudgery. But, if there is a purpose for that activity, the drudgery not only turns into a task, it becomes easier to do.
Ask your employees to define their goal for each task they do – and the goal can’t be “to get it done so I can do something more interesting.” They will quickly find that tasks have a reason behind them. Additionally, if a task is being done and there’s no clear reason for it, you might be able to simply automate or eliminate it.
2 – Inadequate rewards. According to a study listed in Entrepreneur magazine, 26% of committed employees would leave their job for a 5% pay increase. So, instead of losing great employees, set up a rewards system. This may be that once a specific financial goal is reached for the company, your business offers 401(K) matching. It could be that you set up a review process each year that offers an increase in pay if the employee has had a good year. It could mean a bonus if a project is completed and gone through testing by the targeted test date. There are many ways to reward your employees.
Be sure to reward yourself too. If you successfully guided your team to an on-time, high quality product release or your business made its financial goals, have a reward waiting for you, too!
3 – Constant distraction. Continuous interruptions make both an employee and a business owner feel as if his or her work is not important. Be sure to build office policies that minimize interruption as much as possible.
4 – Micromanagement. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, 38% of workers would rather do unpleasant activities than sit next to a micromanaging boss. This is not encouragement to make people do unpleasant activities! Instead, set up a system that allows a culture of autonomy. It’s possible that fostering agency will build a creative team that comes up with better ways to do things than even you could think of on your own.
5 – No opportunity for growth. Many businesses have a ceiling. This is understood by most business owners and employees. However, there are more ways to grow than going up the ladder at work. For example, offering opportunities for continuing education, allowing people to go to seminars and conferences, and generally allowing for mental growth can inspire employees to do their job better and make the job more enjoyable.
There are ways to motivate employees (and yourself!) without using inspirational quotes or buckets of money. We hope these ideas will help your business grow!
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