How do you keep employees motivated?

Are your employees exhausted and the positive working atmosphere hard to find? Not every entrepreneur is by nature a pacesetter, which is often the expectation others have. But in fact, being a pacemaker is not necessary at all.

With a few simple tips, you too can make your employees feel like doing their daily tasks again. They sometimes need a little more attention. But that extra time can give you a big return. Motivated employees are more productive, work efficiently and have a heart for the business.

Below are some obvious tips that will greatly motivate your staff, but are unfortunately forgotten in most cases.

Get to know your employees

Every employee in your company is equally important. Only when employees work as a team do they fully accomplish the goal. Therefore pay attention to all the team members individually, and not just as a group.

By investing time in personal contact with your employees, they feel more appreciated. Have a genuine interest in what their dreams are, and also for their obstacles. be sure to understand what they expect to achieve within the company.

An employee who dreams of substantial growth opportunities will not be motivated to work if he constantly sees those opportunities pass him by. But if you don’t know about these dreams, how will you ever know about this tool to improve motivation?

Now you don’t have to schedule official meetings with all your employees. Just a simple chat at the coffee machine or a short conversation during a drink after work gives a lot of insights into how your employee is doing.

Voice your appreciation

In many companies, criticism is expressed only when something goes wrong. When something goes well, this is considered normal and overlooked. Nevertheless, it is good to use these moments to express your appreciation to your employees.

Of course, they want to know when they are doing something wrong. But appreciating if something went well is motivation to continue with enthusiasm. Everyone needs recognition, including your employees.

If appreciation is already expressed, this is often to the remarkably well-performing employees. The positive people you want to see in your team. But what about the less striking employees? They work just as hard, maybe even harder. But they don’t blow as high as their colleagues when a project is completed.
They see it as team performance and will not easily win the prize.

Yet it is important to let these people know that you appreciate their efforts. On the other hand, praise the employee who you think is currently performing mediocre or is not as involved as you would like. Showing that you also appreciate his or her commitment ensures that their performance increases.

Give constructive criticism

Sometimes you have to confront an employee about behaviour, or a performance that could be improved. Always avoid criticizing the group. This is particularly annoying for the person being addressed. You want a positive atmosphere. Because in this, people grow.

Therefore, take the employee aside and tell him or her personally what is going on. Make sure that the criticism is constructive. You do not talk with small children but with adult people. Treat them as partners so that they feel involved and empowered to make the needed changes.

It is quite an art to properly criticize. Giving feedback in a good way will encourage your employee to grow, without him or her feeling annoying about your comment. Constructive criticism will improve the behaviour of your employee.

Avoid accusations and personal attacks, this will get you nowhere fast. You want to keep a positive tone and focus on clear and achievable goals. With this, you motivate the employee to get started positively.

Learn to delegate well

Is it always the same employees who get simple routine chores? And do the challenging things always go to a small group of employees who are grade A students?
Learn to delegate well.

Give each employee important assignments. For which they have to do their best and where they can develop their skills. This keeps them clear and involved. They have the feeling that they are contributing, which is motivating.

Of course, simple jobs also have to be done. But by also distributing this fairly among employees, the working atmosphere remains good.
Always be clear what you expect from your employees. That makes it easier to complete an assignment.

With good delegation, you also keep control over the amount of work that every employee receives at his or her desk. This means you have more to do with the workload and you can intervene when you notice that it is becoming too much. Too much work brings stress, if the stress rises too much, burnout lurks. You naturally want to prevent that.

Strengthen your team

Making people work together as a team is not always easy. Everyone has their ideas, wishes and limits. Getting all noses in the same direction can be quite a challenge.

In any case, make sure that you get clear within the team what is expected of each member. What goals they must achieve and how they prefer to do that. Take into account every team member and the opportunity for personal growth within the team.

If all team members work together in an equal manner, employees will have a higher motivation than if a few team members take on all the nice jobs.

Good collaboration can be motivated by team-building outings. Or use the huddle/ scrum method, which is widely used in software production.

Trust your employees

A great deal of confidence in your employees increases their self-confidence. You show that you entrust this responsibility to them. The sense of responsibility is growing and with it the motivation to show that they can deliver.

If you do not show confidence in your employees, the motivation will also disappear. If they no longer like the work, they will soon be looking for another job. Especially the higher educated. Positively stimulating your staff makes all the difference.

Rewarding an employee with bonuses, compliments and promotion give more confidence.
But punishing every mistake, only the very best advantages and setting unrealistic goals is not productive. With this, you lose the confidence of your employees.

When there is trust between the management, supervisors, team leaders and employees, the employees are up to 9 times as enthusiastic about their work and involved in the organization than when the trust is lacking.

Learn to conduct difficult conversations

They occur in every company, the difficult conversations. As a manager, you may prefer to walk away from it, but you too can have a difficult conversation.
Most important is that you are honest. Both to yourself and others.

Don’t be afraid of resistance. As long as you stick with the truth and explain honestly, you will build trust and respect. Therefore do not turn the message around. The main purpose of the conversation is to convey the message. It would not be the first time that an employee did not know after the interview whether he had been promoted or was fired.

With a difficult conversation, it is often unavoidable that emotions play a role. Show understanding for this. You have already been able to prepare the interview, not your employee. Give the emotions space. Because if you deal effectively with the emotions during the conversation, this will limit the ‘damage’ afterwards.

The final purpose of your conversation is that your conversation partner has accepted the news. The recipient must understand that the message is final and non-negotiable.
If you learn the art of having a difficult conversation, this will earn you respect from your employees. An honest and clear communicating leader will grow a team.

Become the best boss

Managing an entire team, some people have been left behind so to speak. Certainly, if you also have the necessary tasks to take care of, you don’t always take the same amount of time to manage your team.

Yet it is important to make clear what you expect from your team. Assume that people will misunderstand you. They often hear what they want to hear. So deliver your message as simple as possible. Repeat regularly and be consistent.

Also, be clear about the possibilities for promotions and bonuses. This can additionally motivate employees to perform their work as well as possible.
The clearer you are about the required result per assignment, the better the employees will implement this.

7 characteristics for you to become a better boss:

1. Think positively, you will get more done. It makes you happier and becomes contagious, which benefits a better working atmosphere.
2. Delegating, you cannot do everything yourself. Employing your employees well, having them do what they are good at and managing this is a strong characteristic.
3. Appreciate, give appreciation to the one who deserves it. Has someone from the team done exceptionally well? Don’t let that it go unnoticed.
4. Praising and criticizing, you are not afraid to criticize when necessary but do so in a positive way. But also see when you can praise someone for his or her work. When you praise someone, do this in public, on the other hand, give criticism in private.
5. Being honest is one of the most important qualities. Someone honest and sincere deserves respect. If you don’t know something, you can safely say admit it. This does not detract from your credibility, it reinforces it!
6. Stimulate growth, you not only want to grow in turnover but also as a team. Because only then can future assignments be completed successfully. Encourage your team to grow and participate in it yourself.
7. Focus on the good, everything that gets attention grows. Therefore focus primarily on the good things within your team. You will never succeed in eliminating the bad, but as long as the good prevails, that will ensure motivation and productivity. Encourage your employees to learn, but do not forget exercise and relaxation. Set the right example yourself!

“You will never succeed in eliminating the bad, but as long as the good prevails, that will ensure motivation and productivity”

Clear communication

Communication is one of the biggest problems in many companies. Without good communication, there is a tense atmosphere. Employees are not sure what is expected of them. This brings unnecessary tension. And employees who experience too much stress will perform less well.

Therefore, communicate too much, than too little. Communication is not just about talking but also listening. You have two ears and one mouth, that’s no coincidence. Therefore, listen twice as much as you talk. Employees often have valuable information to share. Too bad if you miss that!
By listening carefully you will find out what is going on within your team and you can respond to that.

Besides, clear communication also ensures better execution of tasks. Because employees who know what to do will work more effectively than when they have to figure out what needs to be done.

Clear and timely communication would alleviate much of the frustrations between colleagues, companies and customers. Communicate before things go wrong. Intervening when things are likely to go wrong. It saves unnecessary work, annoyances and stress.

Earn respect

You don’t have to be friends with your employees. Respect is much more important. You can try to become a popular manager. But it is more sustainable to gain the trust of your employees. You can build on that.

A team that respects you will work with much more motivation and will gladly roll up your sleeves for you.

By treating your employees justly and fairly, you earn their respect. Often something is communicated by managers or supervisors in a learning manner. Often without good substantiation and based on observations of others. With this, you undermine your authority.

Criticizing it in the wrong way can disrupt the relationship. An employee who feels bad about a message can just stay sick at home.
Avoiding criticism altogether is also not an option. Appealing to your employees contributes to respect and authority.

A good manager makes a continuous process of assessing, complimenting and addressing. Because this is how you grow all employees within your team, on a professional level.

Motivated employees are worth gold

A good working atmosphere is priceless. Employees who work in a demobilized manner perform under their abilities. If they are offered a better opportunity elsewhere, they are gone. You don’t want that!

Many aspects are responsible for demotivated employees. But various studies have shown that certain things increase employee motivation.

6 insights, briefly listed:

• Seeing results
  When employees see results of their hard work, this is enormously motivating. They will improve their performance even further, to see such a good result again. This makes them more productive and will often include colleagues in their enthusiasm.
• Appreciation
  As stated, appreciation of work is a very important pillar. When people feel that their work is undervalued, they will often want more salary for the same work. So don’t ignore good work, but show your appreciation.
• Join their pride
  When employees have completed a difficult or complex project, they are very proud of it. They have put effort into this and appreciate their work. If you want to give feedback, it is important to know that this employee expects others to value this success as much as they do. Take this into account.
• Help others
  Helping others is motivating. It gives a good feeling, which unconsciously influences performance. So, in particular, encourage colleagues to help each other.
• Help others with your work
  Doing work that helps others appears to be super motivating. So make it clear in the next project how well this service or product will help others.
• Positive feedback
  Many managers believe that giving storage helps employees to perform better. Nothing turns out to be less true. Giving compliments ensures that people have more confidence in their capacities. As a result, they will perform better and work motivated with a difficult task.