Managers and team leaders have been trying to motivate employees since the first business was organized thousands of years ago. Even today, many company owners turn to small business consulting in PA to discover new ways to motivate their employees for lasting results.
Recent Studies Refute Reward-Based Systems
Recent business surveys and psychological studies have determined that most employees who are motivated and enthusiastic about their work don’t respond well to the promise of rewards such as salary increases, more time off, awards or other concrete motivators. So dangling that type of carrot in front of your employees is no longer the way to go.
What Does Motivate Today’s Employees?
We’ve been doing small business consulting in PA for years and have found that intrinsic rewards which can be internalized by each individual are much more successful in motivating employees. What matters is how each employee feels about himself or herself as well as how they feel about the importance of their contributions. In short, they are more motivated when they feel better about themselves. Some of the most successful motivators we’ve used when doing small business consulting in PA include:
- Interesting Work – Make sure employees have enough interesting tasks to engage them mentally.
- Challenges – The more individual employees are challenged, the more motivated they are to overcome obstacles and prove themselves to their managers.
- Increased Responsibility – Individuals who are given new or greater responsibilities will consistently perform well in order to prove that the trust given them isn’t misplaced.
- The Trust of Superiors – This really goes hand-in-hand with increased responsibility. When we do small business consulting in PA, we stress that managers’ trust in their employees is critical to motivating them to perform better.
Achieving Because You Want To, Not Because You Have To
Fostering an environment where individuals can flourish means providing an environment in which teamwork is stressed but individual contributions are also seen as critical to success. By striking a balance between these two, managers and team leaders can ensure that every employee is truly motivated and will continue to stay motivated without the need for concrete – and fleeting – rewards. You’ll soon discover what we’ve seen countless times when doing small business consulting in PA: employees are happiest when their motivation is tied to their own sense of worth. Contact us at Makarios Consulting for more information.
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