Workplace Motivation: How to Motivate Employees
Three years after the recession began, the economy is making its slow and uncertain crawl back to normalcy. As a future business leader, you might be in a field where you’re not only competing with rivals to gain more market share and profit, but also trying to attract and retain talented employees. After all, talent and expertise are an essential part of success for any business. With that in mind, a good strategy is to understand what motivates employees.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
This theory of psychology is often used as a basis for understanding consumers’ motives for action. In the field of business and HR, it’s important for managers to understand employees’ needs. First take care of their lower order needs and then build on that to provide a work environment that stimulates higher needs.
Conflicts
Individuals are motivated internally by past experiences, many of which are not conscious and usually involve a conflict not fully understood in the present. For example, if someone has a father who was very controlling, he/she might become anti-authoritarian in the work place. What leaders should do is try to understand each person individually, accept conflicting behavior, and place the person in the right job.
Positive Reinforcement
People seek pleasure and avoid unpleasant situations. More often than not, positive feedback for specific behavior will lead to repetition of that kind, whereas negative feedback will encourage people to refrain from that action. It’s Psychology 101.
Goal Setting
Individuals embrace specific and measurable goals. In many situations, moderately difficult but acceptable objectives work best because they feel accomplished upon completing the semi-challenging tasks. But don’t forget to give performance feedback and rewards for exceptional work! Above all, like Dale Carnegie said, “There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.” If you want to be a future business leader, get started now by enrolling in our business leadership program here at Fremont University.
