After working tirelessly on finalising your vision and aligning your business’s goals with it, you set out to find the perfect team. You interviewed a few people and carefully filtered out the final few candidates.
You carefully picked everyone and they all fit their roles perfectly. And just like that your new team, consisting of very capable and intelligent employees started working for you.
The first few months were great and everyone in the team was very enthusiastic and passionate about the business’s goals. Things started to change for the worse after a few months and now it seems like all these highly capable and energetic people have had their switches turned off.
And your search to explore some ideas that can help you motivate your team and raise their spirits has to lead you here. So without wasting any time, let’s dive right in.
Where’s the silver lining of this cloud?
There’s some good news for you. Your problem is entirely fixable. Before you start signing terminations, consider this:
Every person has a set of certain abilities and weaknesses, as a leader, it is YOUR JOB to put your subordinates in the position to succeed. ‘Engagement’ is the magic word here. As an entrepreneur, you may already know how engaging with customers is crucial. Well, the same is true for your employees. What you have right now are employees, what your business needs are engaged employees.
Where can I find engaged employees?
You can’t, sadly. You’ll have to make ‘em. An engaged employee is enthusiastic about his or her projects. Only an engaged-employee can take positive action towards the business’s goals and get a sense of fulfilment from their work.
Now that we know what we need, here are 15 steps you can take to engage your employees in the workplace and build a better relationship with them.
Understand
The first thing you can do is try to understand each employee as an individual. Conduct one-on-ones often and interact with your employees directly. Try to find out about the core values and personal goals of your employees and help them align those goals with the goals of your business.
Recognise
Recognition and appreciation are the integral needs of human beings. We all like to be appreciated for the hard work we do. Recognising the efforts made by your employees and praising good results goes a long way. Visibly appreciating your employees can lift their spirits up and seeing another peer being recognised for efforts will also encourage other employees to perform.
Think Intrinsic
Money is not a great motivator. Instead of doling out huge pay checks to see your employees perform, try supporting them in their values and goals. Instead of focusing on the short-term gains, look farther and encourage and help your employees in becoming what they aspire to be.
Explain why and what
Before assigning any project to any employee, try to explain to them WHY you have chosen them for the project and also explain WHAT can be achieved by completing the project in question.
Help them advance
One big reason for the lack of motivation is feeling stuck in a dead-end job. If your employees don’t see a path of advancement ahead for them, then why will they make any extra effort? What you need to do is to show and offer everyone a clear path for career advancement in your company. Let everyone know what he or she stands to achieve from your business in the long-run as well as short-run.
Ensure a work-friendly environment
A toxic work environment can create a negative impact on the productivity of your employees. Continuous negativity in the workplace environment results in detachment of the employees from work. So, in your situation where your employees aren’t feeling motivated for the work, you should analyse your work environment and see if that is the reason for their non-engagement.
Lead
Expecting employees to get into all the trouble on their own won’t keep them motivated enough to give their 100%. Set examples for them by leading from the front. It will not only give your employees the path to follow but will also help in keeping up their interest in the work.
Trust
It is your employees who are going to execute the work, thus making trust a very important factor in the entire functioning of the organisation. Trust them, and this will give them the courage to do more.
Encourage creativity
Following a monotonous routine can be boring. It can inhibit the flow of new ideas, which can result in a lack of passion and commitment to work, as well. Overcoming boredom is possible through the inclusion of creativity in the work culture, consequently improving the level of motivation of the employees.
Ask for suggestions
Successful communication can never be unidirectional. It has to involve all the parties. Asking for feedback about the overall culture, specific tasks, and particular goals can provide you with better insights about the problems being faced and their expectations. Having a stronger understanding of all these aspects could result in setting up SMART goals that are executable in a better way.
Maintain work-life balance
You’ll have to ensure that your employees are not facing problems in their personal lives because of work commitments. This is a major driving factor that can put your employees off from work.
Image: Unsplash
Be open
We understand that there are times when you, as a leader, would have to make tough decisions. Be open about them with your employees and they’ll understand too. On the contrary, if you believe in keeping the reasons for such decisions hidden from the employees, then your employees have the right to replicate the same by showing disengagement and lack of commitment at work.
Radiate positivity
Positivity is contagious, and so is the negativity. So, you’ll have to decide what you want to spread. Using positive energy to enhance the enthusiasm of your employees is a good strategy.
Provide feedback
Feedback about the performance could be an enhancer of productivity. Feedback, when communicated in the right manner, can boost up the existing morale and give the right direction to the existing efforts.
Be friendly
Bossing around and following the traditional workplace settings is not a thing now. The workplace has evolved. So, if your business is still based on traditional settings, make sure to adjust your workplace according to the new realities to enhance the motivation of employees.
In Summary
The employees of any organisation are its core elements. It is the manager’s job to interact with their team regularly and productively. As a leader, you must make sure that all your team members are motivated and working towards something big.
Visionary leadership is required to be a good leader, what’s more important is to keep sharing your vision with your employees. Everyone likes to know that their work will translate into achievements with time. Without a compelling vision to motivate your employees to get on it and make it happen, you will not be able to successfully to motivate your team for a long period.
Finally, many managers discard employee engagement by saying things like ‘It’s the employee’s job to do, so why should I motivate him/her?” – Humanity and kindness should be fostered in the workplace rather than being stifled.
If you are a manager right now, then you must have worked under someone’s supervision too; remember all the things that your employer did that made you unhappy or drove you crazy? Don’t do those things yourself, you have been given a chance to create an exceptional example. Go do it.
About the Author
Mahro Zaman has a deep interest in the topics ranging from business to the latest marketing techniques. She is actively seeking new knowledge and helping others to achieve their goals.
