Page 14 - How to Motivate Every Employee

itive results when it comes to uncovering your worker’s intrinsic
motivators.
Here’s what works and doesn’t work in positively influencing
employee motivation:
Fear and manipulation don’t work very well: When workers are
motivated by fear and manipulation, they are not so much trying to
achieve something as they are looking to avoid losing their jobs. This
approach often leads to resentment of managers by employees,
which then undermines communication and cooperation. The
results of trying to scare employees to perform also typically won’t
last and eventually will almost always backfire on the organization
and its managers.
The carrot on a stick seldom works well: Also known as incentive
motivation—this technique can also eventually undermine perform-
ance. Sure, people will temporarily work harder to get the reward, but
what happens afterwards? You will have to keep coming up with new
and better rewards—sweeter carrots—because your employees will
expect more and more to go beyond the minimum work required.

Set up an approach that promotes personal growth and purpose:
What you want to do is help employees appreciate that they have
something to contribute and you want to help them do that. When
you emphasize personal growth and development as a way to influ-
ence employee motivation, not only do you help employees maxi-
mize their contribution, you also are improving the productivity of
the company. It’s a win for everyone.

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be
what we know we can be.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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