As a business owner or manager, it is part of your responsibility to stoke the fires in the bellies of your employees and get them all pulling the same direction. It’s no secret that people who are able to do this are more likely to bring success to the business they operate in, but it’s also true that more motivated employees will get more job satisfaction from their role.

Having said that, it’s not always as easy as it looks to galvanize the people that work for you and so many managers will struggle to have an impact on them or, worse still, make no attempt to fire them up.

With this in mind, here are some great ways to empower them to be as productive as possible.

One of the main reasons why someone could become disillusioned with their job role is because they no longer feel challenged by the things they do on a daily basis. Doing something easy may be fine for a while but after that it gets very repetitive, requires little brain power and people tend to go into autopilot. The challenge needed will be different depending on the employee and so there’s a need to judge the situation. For some people it will be the responsibility of managing a project, whereas for others it will simply be learning a new skill.

Address Them Individually –

Team meetings are a great way to make sure everybody is on the same page and understands what they need to do, but this doesn’t mean they are going to be motivated to do it. As well as gathering everyone together from time to time, there is a need to speak to individuals separately regarding their workload. In big teams, quieter and less outspoken members can go unnoticed and before you know it they have lost their drive and will to succeed. Having one on one meetings will ensure you don’t miss anything like this and can re-motivate them before it’s too late and they begin to look for a career move.

Show An Understanding That Life Exists Outside Of The Office –

The nose to the grindstone approach may seem like a good way to get your employees working hard, but the standard of work (and the enjoyment they get out of it) is more likely to improve if you take the opposite tact. If you show an understanding that there is more to life than work and encourage your employees to take time off when they deserve it then they are more likely to stay late and put the hard work in when it is needed.

Introduce An Element Of Light Competition –

I’m not suggesting that you offer a pay-rise to the person that completes the most sales in a set month as this is likely to breed resentment among your team members, but an element of light competition can be really motivational. An example could be that the person who brings in the most leads that week gets a free drink in the bar everyone goes to on a Friday evening, or is allowed to choose the music on the office radio for the next week. Little things such as this will not cause any outrage to those who don’t win and will add a healthy competitive edge to your workforce.

Show Them Where Their Hard Work Goes –

When you have been doing a certain job for a while it can be easy to be become demotivated by the fact that you only ever see the work you do from your own point of view. A great way to motivate your staff is to show them the end product of all the effort they have put in during a project. For example, if they spend their days behind a computer working for a certain client; why not take them to the client’s premises so they can see what they’ve helped to achieve. Similarly, if they have been working hard on a product then it will really energise them to see it in action and being used in the ‘real world’.

Chris Mayhew has managed teams of staff in the past and realises the importance of motivation in any business environment. He would urge any business owners looking for more great tips, advice and news to visit the New Business website.