One thing about running a business is keeping yourself motivated but just as important is to do the same with your employees. They are your assets. Happy and productive employees will share the energy with everyone around them, creating a better working environment and thus enstrengthening others to carry on. It is important that your workers want to work for you. A true leader is a source of motivation, among other sources.

Your employees are human beings just like you with strengths and weaknesses, sometimes motivating them can be quite challenging. As the boss you are the one who is expected to set a good example. There is a saying: „Don’t make decisions when you’re angry, don’t make promises when you’re happy.” Everyone can have their bad days, do not let yours control you, act as rationally as possible. Pay attention to your employees and if they seem a bit off, try to help them overcome their problems. Not being the mean, strict boss and showing them that you actually care, can make it easier for them to get up each morning and come to work. Having a good relationship with your employees helps to create an environment in which they feel comfortable, something they want to be a part of. Motivation is a topic which is actively discussed by a significant part of the population. People on wikiHow have brought out what the work environment they would enjoy being a part of could be like. Still, keep in mind that a great, friendly setting does not automatically result in better performance. It is important that your employees find the desire to be productive at work, another topic that wikiHow users have discussed. If it seems to you that they are lost, try talking to them to find the source of distress and help to get back on track.

One thing is how entrepreneurs are managing their employees right now, the other is how, according to science, they should. An Article by Beth Kuhel called „What Science Teaches Us About Motivation at Work” brings out points about what really drives employees. Scientists have discovered that the carrot and stick method does not work. Penalizing and rewarding can be ineffective and actually lead to poorer performance. The secret to high performance is the intrinsic drive to do something for their own sake.

There are three keywords which are important to your employees to be kept in mind when managing them. Those are autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy stands for the need to direct our own lives, mastery for the desire to get better and more experienced and purpose for doing something larger, not only for ourselves. Implementing these can increase productivity, worker engagement and worker satisfaction. There are businesses where employees have no schedules. They do not even have to be in the office all the time. All that matters is that they get their work done. They do it because they feel autonomous. But like with everything else, also this has risks. I will assess those in the next week’s article.

By Joosep K. Kuljus

Sources:

Kuhel, B. 2014. AllBusiness Experts. What Science Really Teaches Us About Motivation at Work. URL http://experts.allbusiness.com/science-teaches-us-motivation-work/14017/#.UyWBBfmSwe0

WikiHow article. How to Motivate Staff. URL http://www.wikihow.com/Motivate-Staff

WikiHow article. How to Motivate Your Employees. URL http://www.wikihow.com/Motivate-Your-Employees