Motivated employees and performance management are an integral part of any business. Employees with higher motivation are able to perform closer to their full capacity, reach goals, and find meaning in doing so. Obviously, you want your employees to be happy. Employees help represent your business, and making sure they’re happy and motivated creates a better image for you and more satisfied customers. This sounds simple enough, but motivation and good performance don’t usually just happen on their own. It’s up to you to “lay down the tracks” of motivation and do some performance management.
Lessons from the Little Engine That Could
The “Little Engine That Could” had as much self-efficacy as anyone, but he still needed tracks to lay the path for his goals and motivation. As a manager, laying that track is a simple task that can greatly improve the performance of employees. There are many tools and techniques you can use to do this, but here are a few tips from Chalofsky and Krishna’s article in case you need them…
- Seek out opportunities for employees to use their skills and abilities. Just like a little child showing off how fast they can run to their parents, opportunities to shine are a great motivational force.
- Increase relationships between employees and supervisors. Create a path for employees to interact, learn, and see possible opportunities to grow their careers.
- Show employees how their work is meaningful and how it affects the business. The knowledge that they make an impact in the business drives positive reinforcement.
- Make sure employees are engaged in well-suited positions. When you accomplish this, your employees will go above and beyond to succeed in their roles.
Applying Those Lessons
So, go get your team motivated. Talk to your employees, find out what drives them, and use that to build your tracks. Create goals, get your team engaged, and grow your business one step at a time. If you need a hint at what’s working and what’s not, TimeForge has a feature that tracks shift satisfaction. Finding the motivation and laying the tracks for your business should be a fun and growing experience.
We strive to create relevant, helpful, and sometimes entertaining content for our readers. Tommy, our graphic designer, found two great articles while writing this blog post about motivation in the workplace. They are Self-Efficacy in the Workplace: Implications for Motivation and Performance by Fred C. Lunenburg, and Meaningfulness, Commitment, and Engagement:The Intersection of a Deeper Level of Intrinsic Motivation by Neal Chalofsky and Vijay Krishna. Check both of these out when you have a chance, they’re fantastic resources and give more details about some of the things mentioned in this blog post.
