Sometimes businesses struggle in the motivation department. Employee retention and engagement is a growing challenge in todays workforce. Keeping employees happy and motivated to work are two key factors in having a successful business. In any company, the goal should be to create an environment that encompasses trust, transparency, accountability, freedom, and flexibility. There are many different ways to ensure employees are happy and are coming back to work every day.
One of the main ways to have employees utterly despise you is by instilling fear in order to “motivate”. Some leaders believe the only way to ensure results is watching employees like a hawk. This does not work! Accountability does not mean micromanaging everything. When employees feel like everything they do is being scrutinized regardless of the quality of work they do, it produces fear and an inefficient employee. People will be getting work done, but the motivation to do so will be gone. People are simply working in order to keep you happy and nothing else. The goal is to have employees inspired to work and be engaged within the company. Yes, fear does motivate, but it will never inspire.
We have established that fear is not the correct motivator. So, what is ? Trust is the epicenter of accountability and a healthy company. The ability to trust your employees immediately eliminates the fear and creates a self-motivated and engaged environment. Productivity stems from creativity and motivation. Having trust in you employees gives them the freedom and flexibility to grow within your company. As employees grow within the company their expectations change too. As a leader, you have to trust your employees are doing good work but you must also set clear expectations on what you want from them too. As projects and responsibilities shift, having clear expectations on what your goals are will give employees direction and continues motivation. Without goals, staff members can get frustrated quickly and the decision to becomes more of a reality.
Work relationships require an adequate amount of communication. Conversations about performance are necessary to keep accountability with staff. People do know when they are not putting enough effort into their work. As a leader it is your job to bring these shortcomings to light. Instead of focusing only on the negative things, you must use positive reinforcement in order to show support and spark the fire once again with an employee. Only focusing on what they are not doing pushes people away and takes away any motivation to work. Having conversations with employees when they are doing well is just as important as when they are not. Acknowledging achievements and hard work entices others to do the same.
Ultimately, your business can get the results it desires without using sticks to prod people into action. It just takes the right kind of accountability. By giving and receiving regular feedback in a world that values trust and accountability, people will easily show up more engaged, empowered, and driven to do their best.