How to Motivate Employees in 5 Steps

Leadership comes in many different forms. In a business setting, typically managers and supervisors are looked at to be leaders for their employees. For true leaders, motivating employees and staff is an important part of success and positive moral in the workplace. However, depending on the industry, it can be difficult to keep your staff motivated and excited about working. Here are some ways that great leaders can effectively motivate their employees while earning their respect.

1. Be an example of hard work

There is no easier way to create a hostile work environment then to ask your employees to do tasks that you yourself wouldn't do. Set the standard for hard work by working alongside your employees, helping when needed and help improve and refine their skills in the process. Always be the example when it comes to work ethic, positive attitude, and energy. There is no room for argument if the boss is in the trenches with everyone else, forging the way.

2. Empower your employees retain employees by empowering them to collaborate

One of the best ways to make your employees feel important is to invite them to give their opinion and input on their job and tasks. True leaders have a collaborative mindset that empowers employees to not only share their own ideas on how to improve the workplace but implement their ideas. Try having weekly or monthly meetings with your staff and review workflow process and ask them to participate.

3. Be genuine and communicate

Connecting with your employees and staff is an essential part of earning their respect which can increase their productivity. Be genuine to your employees and take a humble approach to getting to know them on a personal level while still maintaining professional boundaries. Your employees will work harder for you if they know you genuinely care about them and their success. When you get to know your employees beyond what they can accomplish at work, it enables you to understand how they learn and how they react to situations. Equipping yourself with this knowledge allows you to take a personal approach to each employees strengths and weaknesses, helping them maximize their potential to grow and be successful not only at work but as a person.

4. Provide incentives to your staff

Rewarding employees for their work performance is a great way to motivate employees and boost morale. Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals for your staff to reach and offer them something in return like extra paid days off, cash rewards, gift cards, or maybe a get out of work early pass. Giving your employees goals and incentives to work towards helps them reach their goals quicker and with more enthusiasm.

5. Recognition for hard work

More than just providing employees with incentives to work hard, is showing them that you care with recognition of their achievements. A great way to do that is to hold a monthly or yearly recognition meeting and hand out custom awards designed for individuals that excelled in certain areas of their job. These recognition awards are reserved for a select few employees that went above and beyond for the company as well as clients. Recognition awards can make your employees feel appreciated. It allows them to appreciate how leadership not only took the time to set up an awards meeting but also that they went out of their way to recognize them in an individualistic way. Acrylic awards, crystal awards, and corporate awards come in several different sizes and shapes and allow you to engrave your employee's name, along with their achievements or fully customize their award in the shape of your companies logo.

Motivating employees can look different depending on the industry, but it's important to motivate with integrity and true leadership. Regardless of the leadership role, when employees feel important and recognized, they will not only be motivated to work harder, but they will respect you and your passion.