You, as the owner of a business, will find that persuading employees to buy into your vision for the firm and take ownership over their responsibilities is one of the most critical tasks you will have to complete. A lack of motivation among employees is the single most destructive factor that can have an adverse effect on the productivity and financial success of a firm.
When you hire people to be the hands and faces of your company, they are out there representing you every day. They are either proudly showcasing all the wonderful things about your company, or they are bringing it down with poor attitudes or a lack of enthusiasm. It is up to you to make sure that the people you hire to be your company's hands and faces are happy and enthusiastic.
How exactly do you motivate individuals who work with you to achieve their full potential? How can we encourage a sense of belonging, ownership, and a strong morale within the company?
Give Them Complete Freedom to Act According to Their Own Preferences In Everything
Nobody is exactly like anyone else. Each of us approaches the process of problem solving and communication with a distinct set of perspectives and abilities. When you insist that your workers do everything in exactly the same way that you do, you run the risk of stifling their creativity and preventing them from producing their best work. You also prevent them from bringing to the figurative table all of the one-of-a-kind skills and capabilities that they have been hoarding inside of them.
The practice of micromanaging one's workforce is a surefire way to increase employee unhappiness in the workplace. It not only adds more work to what is already a full plate for you, but it also discreetly conveys to the individuals you have hired that you do not trust them to find out how to do an excellent job on their own and that you do not trust them to execute the job well on their own. On the other hand, if you hired your staff and did a thorough job of screening individuals before hiring them, you should be able to trust those employees to perform the tasks for which you employed them. In addition to this, you should be able to freely allow them opportunity to grow in that capacity and the ability to approach their work in the manner that most closely matches their personality and the way they see the world.
If you hired an outgoing and gregarious client manager who enjoys making small talk, you shouldn't force that person to tone it down when communicating with customers. It's possible that you wouldn't spend five minutes chit-chatting with a customer before delving into the specifics of a past-due invoice or setting up their next appointment, but just because you wouldn't do that doesn't imply it's unacceptable for an employee to operate in that manner.
You give someone the power to take ownership of a role when you let them bring their own distinctive voice and perspective to the duties they are responsible for. In addition to this, the likelihood of them remaining with your firm over the long term is significantly increased when they have the sense that they are valued, required, and invested in the business.
Assist them in Learning, and Include Them in Conversations Regarding the Growth of the Company
One of the quickest ways to alienate employees and push them toward becoming disillusioned with your company is to leave them out of conversations, procedure adjustments, and policy changes that directly affect the jobs they were hired to complete. This is one of the most effective ways to alienate employees and push them toward becoming disillusioned with your company. The following is what Forbes says:
“Employees want to have an effect on the world. Let them get their hands dirty and participate in the innovative projects that your firm is working on by giving them the opportunity to do so. It's crucial to come up with new ideas, but giving your employees a chance to be a part of bringing those ideas to reality can be an even more exciting and significant growth opportunity for them, one that will motivate them to do their best work… When provided with the appropriate instruments and resources, the top employees will naturally push themselves to be more innovative in their work, which will result in improved performance on their part. Your top priority should be to provide opportunity for your staff members to increase their unique value while still meeting the requirements of the organization.
There is a mentality that permeates far too many workplaces that goes something like this: “I'm just punching a timecard and then leaving.” If you are given room to grow and the opportunity to develop an ownership perspective in your company, there is a good chance that you will eradicate this mentality.
Demonstrate your gratitude by doing so.
Take the time to acknowledge your staff's efforts and provide rewards for jobs well done if you want to motivate them and give them the impression that they are being seen, respected, and cherished. This might be in the form of performance incentives, employee-of-the-month accolades, quarterly staff appreciation banquets, or any number of other possibilities; the possibilities are truly unlimited. Take into account the specific characteristics of your workforce, and devise a plan to provide benefits in areas where they will find them most useful. Keep in mind that public recognition and praise of employees in front of their coworkers is just as significant as private, individual praise and feedback. In fact, public recognition and applause of employees may be much more meaningful.
“Recognition not only satisfies employees' fundamental needs of esteem and belonging within a group, but it also establishes an emotional connection between the employer and the employee, which is an essential component of employee engagement. The best part is that recognition doesn't cost very much money at all! It can be as easy as sending a heartfelt email (or, even better, a handwritten note) to the members of your team praising the outstanding work that they have done. In light of this, the question that has to be asked is not “why should I recognize my people?” but rather “why wouldn't I recognize my people?”
It is not difficult to motivate your staff to achieve great things; you can get started right away by singling out a few of your colleagues and speaking words of affirmation and blessing over the job that they are doing for your organization when you take the time to do so today. You may take it one step further and put something more substantial on the company calendar. This might be a team lunch or even a morning meeting in which you give snacks and walk around the room celebrating everyone's recent accomplishments.
