Understanding what motivates employees is important for any manager, understanding ways to motivate people is essential for any entrepreneur. In a previous post I addressed the management theories on how to motivate employees, this post looks at 16 ways you can put these theories into action.

1. Recognition – when someone does something well, praise them, where possible praise them in public. Always criticise in private.
2. Training – offer your employees the training they need to excel at their jobs.
3. Working environment – create the right working environment for them to be productive. Create a pleasant workplace and don’t kill their enthusiasm with pointless rules and procedures.
4. Team spirit – People like working as part of a team and will often work harder to ensure their team “wins” than they would otherwise.
5. Feedback – Give feedback as soon as possible.
6. Increase employee responsibility through delegation – if they are responsible for a task a person is more likely to ensure that it gets done and done well, even more so if the task contributes to a team effort and they can expect to recieve recognition for their contribution.
7. Don’t Micro Manage – If you’re constantly looking over your employees shoulders they will not feel trusted and won’t take responsibility for the task.
8. Communicate – Tell your employees what’s going on and make sure they communicate with each other.
9. Reduce distractions – modern organisations are far too good at creating ways to distract their employees from actually working. If as a manager you can deflect some of these distractions your team will be more productive and more motivated.
10. Goal setting – it’s easier to work towards a goal than it is to work without goals. Team goals that members of the team are responsible for are especially good.
11. Involve your employees in the decision making process – let them know their expertise and opinions matter.
12. Criticize behaviour, not people – this should be obvious, non of us like being told we’re wrong.
13. Listen to and deal effectively with employee complaints – show them that you value their contribution to the business and respect their feelings.
14. Establish a climate of trust and open communication – make sure employees feel able to come to you with problems. To make this work you have to have given them responsibility and be willing to accept mistakes. You should only penalise them for making the same mistake repeatedly.
15. Show that you have confidence in your employees – by giving them the chance to take responsibility and to demonstrate their best work.
16. Money – Pay them a fair wage. Bonuses can be used to reward achievement of goals.

Don’t forget there are other ways to motivate your team at work, but these 16 should get you started.

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