How do I motivate my employees? #5

 

As opposed to looking at what leaders need to do to motivate employees, let's look at what they must not do because it demotivates people. What demotivates good people? Mediocrity. If I work hard and achieve results, but the guy next to me who just cruises gets the same pay and bonus as I do, I will question why am I going above and beyond. Good work must be recognised. Poor work must be penalised. It takes conscious effort to make sure these are done. 

Motivation is not about endlessly creating new incentives. It is just establishing a fair and merit-based culture. 

How do I motivate my employees? #4

Being leaders, one challenge we often think about is how to motivate our people to do good work. Here is one important angle on employee motivation shared by Jim Collins in the book Good to Great - Don't motivate your people. If your people need to be constantly motivated, you are doing it wrong. You should not have recruited them in the first place. 

Bring the right people on board, and put them in the right roles. You want people who motivate themselves and want to do well. You want people who enjoy and take pride in their work. Not people who need babysitting and constant pushing.