Training Your Management Team Motivation Tips

ign="center">An important, yet often overlooked, piece of
There are several management trainingpeople management is employee recognition and
considerations when determining how to motivatethis should be covered in al management training
people.programmes By rewarding employees for
What do you want from them?important outcomes that they create for your
Whether you are trying to motivate someone toorganization, you are reinforcing actions and
do more of something, stop doing something, orbehaviors that you want to see not only that
change something, most motivation is aboutperson, but other people within your organization
behavioral change. This type of change is difficultrepeat multiple times. Employee recognition is not
for all of us.just a way to show your employees that
How much do you want from them?you’re a nice guy – it is a way
Whenever possible, you need to place ato encourage behavior that is advantageous to
measurement on what you want from someone.your company’s success.
This will help you determine and communicateIn addition, employees who feel that their
your expectations. You also give the person theemployers truly care about them and their
opportunity to measure performance while youwell-being will produce better results. In fact,
monitor progress.studies have shown that praise from a supervisor
Understanding your expectations of people in theranks higher than money, benefits, or events in
units of measurement can assist you in gaugingconveying that a company values its employees.
the feasibility of your expectations.Recognizing an employee for work well done is
Measurements of Expectationsalso paramount to retaining that employee.
Time: Will the person have the appropriateEmployee recognition has been shown to improve
amount of time available to meet goals?communication, productivity, and the workplace
Money: If the measurement of success is money,environment. Employees are more motivated to
rather than just setting a monetary goal such as:produce desirable outcomes and their motivation
• Increasing profits by 5%influences their colleagues to do the same. Happier
• Reaching a higher sales volume peremployees also tend to produce happier
month (x amount of dollars)customers. Therefore, recognition of a single
• ...breakdown the total dollar amount intoaction of a single employee can have far-reaching
units.benefits.
Improvement: A warehouse and productionAn effective recognition system will be simple,
manager with one hundred fifty employees underimmediate, and powerful. All employees should be
his supervision had seven employees that wereeligible for recognition.
habitually late to work. These employees were allCommunication should be such that everybody
team members on a production line, and held upunderstands what specific actions are being
production by ten to twenty minutes every day.recognized. This communication could take place
The manager did not like motivating from avia a company newsletter, an email
negative stance, but tried reprimanding theannouncement, or at a staff meeting. Never use
employees. Hs had no results. Then he changeda reward system in which the recipients are
their starting time from six o’clock a.m.chosen by those higher up the ladder. These
to six thirty a.m. The same seven employeessystems end up being viewed as
began showing up at six forty to six fifty a.m.“favoritism” or they become
each day.ineffective because employees believe that
As these seven employees were all above‘everybody will get their turn
average performers, the manager was not readyeventually”.
to terminate them just yet. He decided to crunchRecognition can be accomplished in a multitude of
some numbers, and discovered that the delay inways. Of course, an employee can be verbally
start time with other employees on the clock andsignaled out in front of his or her peers. A letter
idle and lost production time was costing theof recognition may be written and placed in the
company more than seventy thousand dollars peremployee’s file. A manager might write a
year. He discussed this with all seven employeespersonal note and could accompany the note with
individually and posted a notice about the cost ofa gift. Popular choices for employee recognition
tardiness. He then began docking the pay of eachgifts are motivational posters, engraved items,
employee who was late by twice their salaries forgift baskets, organizational logo merchandise, and
every minute behind.gift certificates.
Two of the seven employees immediatelyMost people get out of bed every day, fight
changed their behavior and became punctual.traffic, and report to work because they need
Then after a week, he announced that allmoney. They don’t necessarily like their
employees on any team would be docked forjobs. This is the reason more money is not
any member not present at the start of the shift.always a motivator for many of these people.
Four of the remaining five employees stoppedGetting more money does not change anything,
showing up late. The remaining employee wasthey still have to get out of bed every morning
eventually terminated.and go to work.
So in this case some employees were motivatedThis is why you’ve got to find out what
by money, some by peer pressure, and one wasother factors will motivate your employees. How
not interested.can you get them to perform better? Some
Here is a secret about motivating people: If thepeople are motivated by recognition.
person does not want to change, chances areRecognition – Awards or Rewards?
you will not be able to change them. So the trickThere are almost as many ways to keep
is finding what will motivate someone to want toemployees happy and productive as there are
change their behavior.employees. But recognizing employees and their
While planning for success with each person youefforts will go a long way with most of them.
manage or desire to motivate, you must alsoHow can you recognize employees and show
determine each person’s point of noyour appreciation?
return. This is the point when the person is notWhile some people are satisfied with as little as a
changing and the energy, time, and money are no‘thank you’ or ‘good
longer worth the investment. This was the case injob’ pat on the back, still others respond
the preceding analogy with the final employeeto monetary tokens of appreciation.
being terminated. Implementing any moreRecognizing employee accomplishments and
programs specifically for this last person of thededication in a group setting with a gift card will
group of seven simply was no longer economicallyserve two benefits. The employee will have the
feasible. In addition, the behavior of this employeeacknowledgement of coworkers and the
could have a detrimental effect on otheremployee will have a moment of private
employees. After all, if he was allowed to remainresponsiveness when using the gift card.
employed while ignoring the rules, why maybeSome employers like magazine subscriptions as
there would be no consequences for any ofgifts. This is a great reward. If the magazine is
them.relevant to an interest of the employee, they feel
Unfortunately, many people are motivated onlypersonal recognition as the employer or manager
by the fear of negative consequences. Thisput some thought into the gift. In addition, the
forces a manager to become a disciplinarian.employee will be reminded again of this
Why does this person need motivation?appreciation each month when the magazine
What has worked to motivate this person in thearrives.
past?Be careful not to create only competitive reward
Tools: Make sure people have the tools necessaryprograms. This can actually backfire and cause
for the projects you assign.negative feelings among people who feel left out
Dependency: Is this person going to be dependentand begin a cycle of blame as they attempt to
on the performance of others to meet his or herdismiss their lack of recognition.
goals?Awards can be personally engraved plagues of
In addition, you will be able to better comprehendrecognition for employee of the month,
what you are asking of someone. If the change issalesperson of the month, good attendance,
difficult, you might want to break down yourpunctuality, years of service, effort above and
expectations into units. Your expectations couldbeyond the call of duty, or simply job well done.
be difficult because of time restraints,So there are awards and rewards for appreciating
• What do you want from them?employees in the hopes of motivating them, and
• What position do they hold?there are awards and rewards at the end of
Employee Recognitionsuccessful projects or when goals are reached.