Dear Leader:
What motivates the people who work in your organization?
Challenging work, followed by your appreciation and recognition when they succeed.
These ingredients can easily be turned into an employee motivation recipe, or two.
Employee Motivation Recipe One
The first recipe was formulated by IT managers during a workshop. I asked them to recall a time when they were highly motivated at work.
Challenging work, was the most common ingredient in their employee motivation recipe.
What’s challenging?
Using a skill, doing something the person does well, while simultaneously stretching and growing that skill. The second layer of the challenge is “meaningfulness”.
What’s meaningful?
For most people “meaningful” involves contributing to something larger than oneself. The IT managers’ employee motivation recipe includes helping others, making life easier or better, or contributing to the company’s or customers’ success.
What rewards do employees value most?
Recognition from managers, peers, and executives is at the top of the list. Simply hearing a senior leader acknowledge them by name, makes most employees feel valued and rewarded for their efforts. It also means the next time they’re called on to do something difficult or seemingly impossible, they will belly up to the bar with motivation and commitment.
Here’s a short video on employee motivation, intrinsically speaking.
Employee Motivation Recipe Two – Gratitude Cake
Ingredients
1 thank you note with matching envelope
1 pen
1 stamp
1 cup of gratitude
1 bowl of appreciative expressions
2-3 tablespoons words to describe the actions that led you to bake gratitude cake
Pour the cup of gratitude into a bowl of appreciative expressions. Mix well. Sprinkle the action deeds (event that led to your gratitude) into the mixture. Let stand until words form. Using a pen, place the words onto a card in the correct order. When the words are dry (2 minutes) fold the card, place it in the envelope and write recipient’s address on the front. Put a stamp on the upper right corner and deliver your creation to the post office. Rumor has it, snails will carry it to the intended recipient.
ENJOY the taste of Thank You.
Note: The other day a client turned the tables and sent me some gratitude in the mail. Ironically, he was thanking me for helping him thank others, something that is making a difference in his relationship with employees. I am amazed at how much it means in this day of instant communication via email, text message, voice mail, twitter, face book, e-cards etc. when someone takes the time to write and send a note on the back of a snail.