Page 17 - How to Motivate Every Employee

Make employees feel like
subordinates
Make employees feel

like partners

If you want your employees to be motivated to do their best, and if
you want them to be the most valuable asset on your balance sheet,
then let them feel and experience ownership in the organization.
The best managers make every employee feel like a business part-
ner. Why? Because when people feel ownership of something, they
look out for it, protect it, and pour themselves into it.
One way world-class organizations and their managers help create
workplaces alive with entrepreneurial thinking and a sense of owner-
ship (aside from the usual profit-sharing and stock options) is to reti-
tle their employees’ positions. For example: Starbucks and
TDIndustries refer to their employees as partners. Guidant, famous
maker of pacemakers, uses the term employee-owners. And LensCrafters,
Marriott, W.L. Gore, Publix Super Markets, and Capital One all call
their people associates.
Making everyone feel like a partner in the business is one way
managers empower their people. Here are some other ways you can
do the same:

Encourage entrepreneurial thinking: This goes beyond profit shar-
ing and stock options. It’s about the attitude instilled in others by
you, the manager. Instilling an entrepreneurial mindset requires
employees to think like business owners, not employees. The term
also conveys a sense of feeling joint ownership and caring about the

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