Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM, ACC  

You may assume that motivating employees means doing things for them, such as paying annual bonuses and giving time off.  While these extrinsic rewards may cause a short-term burst of productivity, they can also lead to de-motivation in the long term. 

To truly motivate your people to perform at their best, you must provide a work environment that provides achievement, recognition, meaningful work, advancement and growth.

Here’s this month’s feature ...

Motivation = Empowerment by Chris Musselwhite

Inc.com Leadership Resource Center, August 2007

Highlights from the article:

Motivation in the workplace isn’t about what you do for your employees.  Here’s how to begin to make changes that will create a more stable and motivating work environment:

• Understand the difference between motivation and reward.  Real motivation comes from the work itself, not the rewards given for doing the work.  Providing more money, less time at work and better fringe benefits in the name of motivation only motivates people to expect them and ask for more.  When you want to motivate, ask yourself: How will this contribute to the person’s sense of achievement or recognition?  Will it enable him or her to grow and be prepared to take on more responsibility?  Does it make the work more meaningful to the person?
    

• Recognize that people are natural problem-solvers.  When people have an opportunity to provide input about the work process, they are more likely to own the problems that occur and take on the daily task of finding solutions much more enthusiastically.  People need to understand the desired outcomes and the parameters within which they must work to achieve them.  Then, they must be given latitude to determine how they are going to accomplish these outcomes.
    

• Build Trust: Take time to get to know your people.  When an employee feels that his or her manager is as concerned about their well being on the job as they are about the job itself, they are more likely to feel the sense of trust that is critical among high performing teams and organizations.  Taking time to get to know your people also provides invaluable insight into what motivates them.
    

• Make the transition from problem-solver to coach.  As a manager, your job is to mentor, coach and develop people so they are adequately prepared and supported to do the work on their own.  Instead of always providing answers, ask questions.  Asking questions is a great way to help people learn to problem solve.
    

• Focus on what’s working.  It’s natural to focus on what’s not working.  Managers who intervene only when there’s a problem are often viewed negatively by their people who begin to fear every conversation with them.  Brain chemistry research shows that this fear of criticism actually triggers the fight or flight response, bathing the brain in fear hormones that increase defensive behavior and inhibit learning.  To avoid this all-too-common scenario, you must instead intentionally make time to focus on what is working.
    

• Recognize people through responsibility and advancement.  When people are publicly recognized for a job well done, they experience that sense of achievement all over again, which makes them eager to get back to work and tackle the next challenge even more skillfully.  Using increased responsibility and advancement as recognition is good for the employee, the manager and the whole organization.

  
For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.inc.com/resources/leadership/articles/20070801/musselwhite.html

   
Six Suggestions for Motivating People

You can start to create a work environment that provides achievement, recognition, meaningful work, advancement and growth by trying out the following:

1. First, make sure you understand the difference between motivation and reward.  While the absence of certain basic things like good working conditions and an appropriate salary contribute to job dissatisfaction, they don’t necessarily increase job satisfaction.  In other words, they definitely de-motivate when absent, but don’t necessarily motivate when present.

2. Second, recognize that when people feel ownership of their work, they are more likely to own the problems that occur and take the initiative to find solutions on their own.

3. Third, no matter how busy you are, keep in mind that taking time to get to know your people and what they need at work will pay off big in the long run.

4. Fourth, remember that your job is to coach, mentor and develop your people, not to do their work for them.

5. Fifth, make time each week to focus on what's working.

6. And finally, publicly recognize people frequently on their performance, awarding responsibility and advancing them up in the organization as soon as they've demonstrated that they can do it.

  
Next Month

Great leadership doesn’t start with what you know.  It begins with a fundamental belief - a different motivation.  The very best leaders are driven, or feel a sense of calling, to serve.

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