Motivate your employees

It should be no surprise - Most workplace problems are actually management issues. You will at times have an employee that is impossible to motivate - If that is the case, its best to get rid of them. Most people will work an work hard if:

-their work is appreciated, recognized, and challenging;
-they’re compensated appropriately;
-their management is competent, hard working, and doesn’t have its hand in the cookie jar, more or less.

As a manager, its seriously up to you to make sure that this is happening. Here are some tips to motivating your people:

- Exhibit flawless work ethic. Lead by example. If you screw around, they’ll emulate you. Likewise, if you’re seriously hard-working, they’ll seek your approval by doing the same.

-Indoctrinate them with the big picture. Everybody wants to be a part of something useful. Make the work important to them by telling them why it’s important to others.

-Set goals and hold them accountable. Goal setting in most companies is ineffective. It’s either too top down, too bottom up, or there’s little or no follow-up. Strike a balance somewhere in the middle. Where is different for each situation.

-Provide genuine, real-time feedback, good and bad, no BS. Ask for the same from them. This is one of the hardest things for any manager to do, especially the negative stuff.

-Promote their accomplishments and take the heat for their failures. They need to know you’ve got their back.

-Provide the tools they need to be effective; keep management off their backs; otherwise, get out of the way.

-Give them as much responsibility as they can handle, no more, no less. That’s sort of tricky if you have a big group because it’s really an individual thing.

-Communicate what’s going on as openly as you can within reason and without unduly burdening them with confidential information they don’t need to know.

-Give them personal time to get important things done. We’re not talking about running errands, but important stuff that’s got to be done 9 to 5 like doctor’s appointments.

-Have some empathy, humility, and a sense of humor. It’ll go a long way. Mostly, be yourself. No jokes about sociopaths; they probably don’t read management blogs anyway.