What works to motivate your staff?

[Graeme]

Self esteem every time. Raising a person's level of self esteem is the most powerful motivator I have ever found (salary increases do that, bonuses do that) See earlier post (cannot remember how this thread business works).

[SAQuotes]

Ensure that your employees work in a comfortable climate, so request quotes for energy efficient air conditioning.

[insulin]

First of do not use incentive, don’t be kind to your work force and Most importantly do not communicate kindness. I can say this with confidence. Here is my reason: My friend works at one of the biggest IT companies in South Africa and he would rather risk a R4000 speeding fine or Prison then facing his boss. His boss has fired people for being late, unable to cope with stress and you will love this one: “not giving their 100% all the time!� He doesn’t even pay them overtime or travailing allowance and sometimes will knowingly skip on paying them back for servicing of his employee’s car. In short this boss puts the fear of god in his workforce and they will do anything! I do mean anything to please him... The CCMA cannot touch him “and he makes it clear on the first day of your interview� And he will push you to breaking point every day. Sad thing is this person is making millions so this works... FACT

[Graeme]

A negative incentive is very powerful in the short term, until the employee finds another job. In the long run, positive incentives win every time. Incentives were my bread and butter for many years,

[john@teambuild.co.za]

This came up in another thread, and I'd like to hear your ideas, so please post away!

Obviously different type of staff are motivated by different things, but how does one manage that effectively to get productive and compliant people? (read compliant as working towards the goals of the company)

In my limited experience, I have delivered many motivational talks and have reached a point where i have realised that motivation cannot really come from another person. What is happening during any form of external motivation is that you are awakening another to find their own cause of motivation. The external motivation (that delivered by another) is very short lived and almost becomes irritating as eventually one gets pissed off with a person who is consistently more motivated than yourself and perpetually tells you how great life is and how they love their image and mirror image! This also came to me when delving into the analogy of a situation of talking to 30 delegates and asking them what would happen if I bouhgt 6 hungry lions into the room. Most said they would get out of the room very quickly which I thought was quite pragmatic, and this would be done without any manager giving an instruction or a mentor counciling the individuals. This selfish act of denying the lions a meal was based on the person being "inspired" to live longer, and for those who stayed behind, it proved that their lack of motivation was due to there not wanting to live any longer (or maybe a desire to wrestle a lion?). Thus motivation is the act, the behaviour the attitudinal impulse that happens as a result of the inspiration one has. So, I believe that our work should be to help people find their inspiration in work, in a relationship, in their family, their community or in their life...the more inspired they are the more "self|" motivation they will have.
Q...what drives Julius motivation?


JOHN INGRAM
john@teambuild.co.za

[BBBEE_CompSpec]

I try and avoid motivating with increases. They get used to living at that level and then don't get paid enough anymore.

[yaritza5555]

Advice

I think as a business leader you must ask them personally about them and their life.

[Fitness freak]

Motivation is a personal thing
Money is not always the best way of motivation

I love motivation and I motivate myself with sport and achievements
Take the story about Riaan Manser that went around Africa on a bicycle and Madagascar on a kayak his words are that he never never never gives up

Motivational speaker can motivate you but after a while that motivation is long gone. You must find a way to motivate yourself (that ticks your clock)

Do fun things and always make the best of everything that you have to do like work, the money comes by itself.

If you like taking photos become an photographer don't do law or finance shoot photos take a course you don't need a degree to be a professional photographer you need talent and practice and will power is the best medicine to every success story.

put your goals up that everyone can see it (don't be shy ) If everyone knows your goal than it more difficult to quit and it will remind you of your goals

Motivate your staff by starting to respect them and others
No staff will be motivated if there boss treads them like dogs even if they are scared of him in a while they will look for new work and the company needs to train someone in there place this will cost a lot of money eventually.

I know a few companies that have that philosophy that Insulin talked about
In the end they applying for new positions and start working for the competition companies and they know that the staff that resigns from company x is good employees with good training and force behind them

[DeborahCarrao]

Hey Dave A and Duncan

Great topic and I must say that I must then be the luckiest employee. Here is what motivates me and all the other employees here at GetSmarter.

- Every month we have a massage (paid for by the company)

- In our brand strategy it is a requirement to "high-five" another employee at least twice a day. Although this may seem strange, it is fantastic. The whole office has this amazing energy, and everyone is joyous and happy.

- Every second month we have either a "pink day" or "green day". This is when we have breakfast with one another and play a game involving the mind. On "green days" we have more of a exercise we do, the last green day we had we all got a drum and learn't how to drum.

- Another great reason to be motivated is that we have a house keeper that cooks for us. We have a full customised menu that we choose from and get meals everyday. We get smoothies and snacks when we want as well.

- Now we also work across a large open field, so work bought us two bicycles and helmets so that we can ride in the field during lunch if we wanted to.

The list can go on and on about the motivation that I receive. But by far, I have the best employer!

And all it took was meaningful gratitude, respect and a positive environment.

Thanks

[Pap_sak]

My staff gets an extra 1 weeks pay if they get 10% above the same month last year. Above that they get 6% of total sales(split between them). They are generally on the lowest paid grade as they are shop staff - I am sure you cannot do it in all industries.

They also get all items they purchase for themselves and gifts at cost, within reason.

I am very flexible with days/ time off and give them more days if they do not abuse sick days (which are a hassle for me). Between 4 of them, one staff member has taken 1 day of sick leave in the last 7 months.

I think the biggest thing is respect. I know, that they know, that they can rip me off anytime they want (within reason), but I trust them not to do so.

It's (generally) worked so far, but I am putting some more checks in place....up and till last week sometimes I didn't even count the cash....

[Pap_sak]

- In our brand strategy it is a requirement to "high-five" another employee at least twice a day. Although this may seem strange, it is fantastic. The whole office has this amazing energy, and everyone is joyous and happy.


This would kill me

[sgafc]

Lets face it, most employees have a mindset that they only there to collect a paycheck. We have to change that.As sme's we lack the resources to create dedicated HR departments. So as owners we have to set the trends. I agree with all the sentiments.

Employees cannot perform in a rigid miltary environment, it might work in the corporates, but not for us.

Employee involvement in major strategies and targets also helps in boosting staff morale.

[SilverNodashi]

Great article. I think this bit applies to every business leader:As for the rest, I can really relate. I absolutely hate interruptions when I'm in creative mode.

This is an important lesson: Learn who your staff is, and what irretates / agrivates them. If you know your creative staff doesn't like to be interrupted when they're on the ball, then try and respect & accomodate them. Maybe suggest they close the offer door, with a "do not disturb" sign and email them if you / someone else need them. You could follow the same with other staff as well, especialy salaries / accounts / debtors / etc.

My next tip is to know every staff member's name, and use it when talking to them. Don't just say "hello", say "Hello {username}". (And for guests visiting, you're just not going to get that personal touch unless you register).

I've heard it said that the sweetest sound for any person is to hear someone else saying their name.

This is also very important, and useful to keep in mind. My one friend's dad does a lot of traveling with his export business, and speaks 7 languages very well. He has mentioned many times that the foreign companies which he greed / address in their own language are normally the ones who very quickly sign the deal. The companies where needed to have a translator normally takes longer to close a deal with.

You set the mood.

Your mood is contagious. If you're down and depressed, it'll infect everyone else. If you're up and chipper, the mood will spread.

Have you ever walked into a room and everyone is feeling down? Notice that pretty soon you're feeling down too?

The other day, both myself & my wife felt a bit down. Interestingly I also picked it up from a few clients too. And we didn't see them face to face, just talked to them over the phone.

Possitive energry breeds possitive energy, same as success breeds success.

Very good point as well. Make the envorinment a happy / pleasant one, where possible. We play radio during the day and have a very relaxed office environment. I also encourage regular breaks during the day, even if it's just a walk around the block, which helps to get the blood flowing again and clears the mind from stresfull issues that may arise.

When something goes wrong, somebody made a mistake, what happens in your organisation?

Quite often there's a witch hunt to find who's to blame.

It is far better to focus on what went wrong rather than who went wrong. For a number of reasons.

The primary goals should be to fix the problem and prevent it happening again.

The "need" to apportion blame is only relevant in preventing the problem from happening again. But it is more important to understand what went wrong in the first place. What you need now is for the folk who might have contributed to the mess to give all the information that they know, not desperately hide the evidence of their part in the fiasco.

This can only happen in a no-blame environment.

I'm not saying ignore who made the mistake completely. Yes, you need to know and track who messed up when, and how often. But do it with cool wisdom, not out of emotional retribution.

It's a pretty good tactic to give people the opportunity to redeem themselves. They know they messed up - they'll try their best to make it right if given the opportunity. You don't even need to use guilt. People can be pretty hard on themselves....

Punishment brings with it a sense of absolution for the guilty party. "I messed up but it's OK now because I was punished". How does that help?

Rather "I messed up but I fixed the problem and more than made up for the mistake". They feel good and the organisation gets the problem solved. You'll probably have an improved employee as well.

well spoken

Try, as far as possible, to address the problem / mistake instead of the person. He, or she, is also a human being who makes mistakes just like you and me. Address the problem and try and solve it together if you can. For example, if it's an accounting issue then give the client some credit (as compensation for his troubles) and sit down with the accountant and fix the problem together.

Sure, in the case of an enginering firm where a while was drilled to big or something like that you may need to replace a whole beam. i.e it may be an expensive fix, but the person responsible will probably learn someting from the experience, and learn to respect & trust you more. And, you may have a happy client as well.

That's the worst "Someone must be blamed and anyone will do". Oh dear.

Whilst I can still cover some broad concepts on this, I think we need to open this up a bit. As in get specific. Everyone has got something that gets them going - and things that definitely don't!

For example, does competition turn you on or turn you off?
Have you been motivated by something different - out of the mainstream?
What definitely demotivates you?

C'mon {username}, what gets you going?

heh, nice trick. For a moment there I thought you were using my name in vain



Some things which motivate people:
- team building. It helps to loosen up people and let staff get to know each other better. It also shows that the boss cares about them and give something back, without the staff doing much for it.
- praise wall. When someone does something well, or a client sends you a letter / email / phone call to say "John did an awesome job, well done!" put it on a praise wall where others can see it and congratulate him.
- performance bonuses. this one is probably obvious but I know many people who don't get a bonus at the end of the year and while you / I as boss feel the salary enough, we don't always know what our staff's financial situation is like back home. If you reward him well financially, he'll reward you well with his work.
- enough rest / vacation time. Don't skimp on this one. Someone who's rested well, works well. Someone who over-works, under-performs. Microsoft has (had?) this policy where the top staff got a 4 week holiday every 3 months. The average person takes 2 weeks to completely switch off from anything, so the next 2 weeks is your actual resting period. And it's often enough so the staff doesn't burn out. And look at how well Microsoft does (forget about your personal issues with Windows for a monent) financially, growth-wise, etc. They grow at a phenominal rate, which means that even though this practice sounds unproductive, it isn't.

[adrianh]

Motivation

The question is: what is it that demotivates them?

I once worked for a company where the management were totally off their heads. The one director was a sociopath and the other followed him around like a dog. The upper management had their own clique and the workers were left. It was so bad that the upper mangement would sit on the one side of an openplan office and the workers on the other. They would laugh and discuss staff and generally carry on. Then one day they got in a consultant to motivate us "The Brand Energizer Program" people were forced to have motivational meetings and to make posters. We had to do the team building thing and we had to write essays about how good it is to work at the company. Of course this lot ended up being a total fiasco and the staff hated the management even more for treating them like children. I quoted the following to the management in one of our energizer meetings one day: "Culture and ethics adhere to gravity, they flow down not up". I was told to shut the F up for not knowing what I am talking about.

So, as far as I am concerned the best way to demotivate people is to come at them with text book motivational crap. Treat them as you would treat your own children, with dignity and respect and with an awareness of who they are and what their needs are. Then further lead by example. And leading by example does not mean that you are the perfect leader never making mistakes, no it is by also being human, failing, getting up and moving on.

I found that the people that I have the highest regard for are humble. I know a billionare who treats everybody with respect. The man will have a chat with the cleaner with the same interest as talking to the CA. I sat next to him on a flight to Windhoek one day and we chatted merrily about this and that. His 2IB is also a self made millionare with a BCOM, LLB, CA & MBA. He walks around in dirty jeans and drives a crappy car. If you saw him in the street you would take no notice of him at all. He has the same character as the big man. People work for him, follow him and trust him because of his wisdom and humility.

[JACQUISMITH69]

you hit then nail on the head. great stuff