Page 56 - How to Motivate Every Employee

can to show your appreciation for the contributions an employee
makes and by being a leader who promotes and facilitates teamwork.
Lead from the heart: The word “encouragement” has as its root the
Latin word cor, which means “heart.” When you encourage employees,
you actually give them heart. You lead them with feeling. When
Barbara Walters interviewed General Norman Schwarzkopf following
the Gulf War, she asked him how he would most like to be remem-
bered. His answer was from the heart: That he loved his family. That he
loved his troops. And that they loved him. Motivating leadership is an affair
of the heart and such leaders care about their employes and their
organizations. Employees will naturally and positively respond to this.
Encourage team spirit: Smart managers know that team spirit uni-
fies. Transforming a group of individuals into a team provides unifi-
cation and a common sense of interest and direction. Keep in mind
that as the manager, you are setting the tone. Your actions and atti-
tudes directly affect the environment in which your team must per-
form. Here are some suggestions for encouraging team spirit:
Give teams a clearly defined goal and purpose.
Let the team make its own rules.
Encourage fun and a sense of humor on the job.
Give employees the authority to make decisions and act on them.
Be supportive. Do what you promise to do.
Let the team find solutions to its problems without intervening.
Allow team members to make financial decisions and create their
own budgets.
Expect ups and downs. Some phases of a project will run more
smoothly than others.
Let the team set up a reward system.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is
progress; working together is success.”
—Henry Ford

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