Article Surfing Archive

Motivation is the key ingredient for success in anyorganization. You can have all the technical skills in theworld; however, if you can*t motivate your team, you will notachieve success. As a leader, a majority of your job is tomotivate others to succeed so that everyone's goals areaccomplished.

The following are eight quick tips to motivate your team:

1. Everyone Has Motivation

Your employees are motivated on some level. It is your jobto find the level of their motivation and move youremployees to the next level.

2. Listen to WIIFM

I wake up every morning listening to a very important radiostation, WIIFM. I hope you do too. WIIFM stands forWhat's In It For Me? To truly be a motivator, you mustalways be in tune to your employees* WIIFM. Find out whyit is beneficial for your employees to do a task, etc. Onceyou find out the employees* motives, you find out how tomotivate them.

3. It's about Pain or Pleasure

Motivate your employees toward pleasure or away frompain. You motivate toward the pleasure by providingrecognition, incentives, and rewards for doing a good job.You motivate away from the pain of a corrective action,losing a position, or doing a poor job. The key to thismotivation is to be consistent with all your employees at alltimes.

4. Give Me a Reason

Do it because I said so! Well, with our educated workforcethese days, that doesn*t work anymore. Employees like toknow why tasks are being requested of them so that theycan feel involved and that the task has worth. Let youremployees know why doing the task is important to you, theorganization, and for them.

5. Let Me Understand You

Take time to show sincere interest in your employees aspeople. Understand what your employees are passionateabout in their lives. What are their special passions? Whatare their personal needs? What brings them joy or pain?What are their short-range and long-range goals? Once youunderstand the answers to these questions, you can movethem to a new level of motivation, because you caredenough to ask the questions and show interest in theirsuccess. Once you understand your employee's needs andgoals, they will take more interest in understanding andachieving your goals.

6. Make Me Proud

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, *A soldier will fight long andhard for a bit of colored ribbon.* Give your employees theopportunity to be proud of their work. Reward teammembers publicly for a job well done. Give them anopportunity in a team meeting to explain how theyaccomplished the job. Have your organization's Director,President, Vice President, etc., give recognition to theseemployees by personally sending a note, recognizing them inan organizational or team meeting, or creating a *Hall or Wallof Fame* recognition for employees that really have gonebeyond the call of duty.

7. Expect the Best

Expect the best and your employees will rise to that level.How do you do this? You do it with the words you use. Areyou expressing positive expectations, or are you usingwords (kind of, sort of, we'll try, we have to, we haven*tdone that before, and that will never work) that communicatenegative expectations? What does your body language sayabout you? Does it say, *I*m ready to take on any challenge,and I expect you can also;* or does your body language say*Please don*t give me another problem. I can*t handle it.*

Do our recognitions and rewards move our employees to dotheir best? Do we consistently communicate our standardsand expectations for the best? Do we coach our team toalways do better?

8. Walk the Talk

Our employees model our behavior. If we are confidentabout a major change in the organization, our employees willfollow our behavior. If we come in late and leave early,guess what will happen? Remember, even when you don*tthink someone is watching*they are always watching. Setthe example for others to follow.

Apply these eight simple rules of motivation and you, too,will have the skills to motivate your team to be inspired,innovative, self-directed, and highly productive employees.