I have seen and managed many employees over the years. And through my experience, I have realized one thing; money is not even the primary factor of motivation for the people who work for you. For some employees, the new healthcare plan might be the perfect motivation boost, while for others the same exact plan might prove to be depressing. No one can find out the perfect formula for motivating everyone, but you can try to implement some practical solutions through which you can motivate majority of your team. Thus, in this blog I will talk about some practical ways to motivate your employees without breaking your bank.
Be positive: No one can make you motivated or demotivated about something. Only your own thoughts can make you happy or sad. In the same manner, no one can make your employees sad or demotivated; their own thoughts make them demotivated. So, when your employees come to you for finding the meaning of the new directive or the new process change, then it’s your duty to give a positive meaning to that new initiative. If you keep positive attitude towards your work, and if you keep yourself motivated at work, then you can create a butterfly effect of positive attitude around you. After all, people feel motivated only when they think motivated thoughts. Thoughts rule, circumstances do not. The closer your relationship to that truth, the better.
Tell the truth: Great leaders are always transparent with their team. They share a common habit of telling the truth to their team, faster than their other counterparts. Though, as managers, we won’t be able to tell every confidential matter to our team, we should at least try to be as transparent as we can. There are some managers who tell their team – “There’s nothing I can do” or “I am helpless and powerless”. It might be partially true in some situations, but you can always do something better. Even if you don’t have answers to your employee’s question, you can always ask someone and get the answer for them, and communicate those to your employees. If you remain transparent to your people and try to involve them in decision making, then you will never have to worry about motivating your team.
Care about the individual: Some managers are more of a project managers than a people manager. They think that there is nothing more important than meeting our team’s objectives. And when we meet our team’s goals, motivation comes inherently since the team recognizes that they have contributed towards this goal. Even though I agree that meeting team’s objectives are very critical for the business, making sure that your team recognizes their contribution in this big picture, is even more important. As a manager, you shouldn’t just concentrate on your business priorities, but you should also try to understand the mindset of each individual in your team. Try to stop by their desk everyday, and if that is not physically possible, then try to IM or Mail them every single day to find out if they need any help. After all, we are all humans, and no matter how far we have come, we still value personal interactions more than anything else.
I hope, my blog can help you motivate your employees. If you know any other ways through which we can motivate our employees without money, then please feel free to share it here. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi
Bhavin Gandhi's Blog 