29 Mar Keeping Employees Motivated: A Complete Guide
Motivation has taken on new meaning since COVID-19 imposed various constraints on Calgary business and social life.
Most businesses reacted quickly, shifting to work from home. Yet, with Pew Research Center reporting that almost a third of remote workers have struggled to keep motivated, it is clear that keeping employees motivated is a new challenge that many managers now have to face.
But is keeping employees motivated an impossible task in the face of a pandemic? Not at all.
Let me show you my top tips on how to keep employees engaged and motivated. We’ll also see how you can apply them to family businesses during these uncertain times.
3 Keys in Keeping Employees Motivated
Team motivation can be broken down into three easy steps.
1. Understand each person’s values. People only ever do things for their own reasons. Employees’ motivations are linked to their personal values. These can be leveraged and are an excellent foundation to build motivation on. When you, as a leader, connect work and performance to personal values, you create alignment for the employee, unleashing commitment and effort.
2. Learn about their obstacles. Next, you should aim to learn about your employee’s competing priorities and the challenges they face at home. It is common for most leaders to shy away from asking personal questions. However, cultivating a space to listen to their concerns helps them grow and strengthens your relationship. You can do this by welcoming their questions and inviting input on new strategies. Dare to be fearless by questioning what works and doesn’t work for them.
3. Provide resources. Lastly, providing resources to be successful is a key responsibility of leaders. Most likely, this looks different for each employee. The key is to be willing to explore beyond traditional resources.
Family Business Leaders: A Unique Motivational Challenge
If you are the leader of a family business, then you face several extra challenges.
For this reason, those taking the lead in a family business need to identify, build, and sharpen their leadership brand. They can do this by isolating creative ways to engage employees even if they are family members.
How Family Business Leaders Can Motivate and Stay Motivated
To succeed in a family business, all stakeholders must have a professional mindset. Try to shift your perspective from family members to colleagues, especially in management decision-making. It may be necessary to remind yourself that business relationships can and should be different from family ones. This can be vital to your business’s success.
It is also crucial for family members to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. If the lines of roles and responsibilities aren’t blurred, responsible family members can be freed up to provide motivation and support, keeping employees motivated in the process.
This formalizing of governance may be difficult to apply; however, it is vital to engage, motivate and unify all involved in the business.
Lastly, have clear systems in place to manage family, business, and ownership dynamics. Doing so is useful in keeping employees motivated as well as yourself.
Don’t shy away from having structured family meetings for issues that are within the family bubble. For the business side, include strategic planning, weekly leadership meetings, and performance reviews.
Among owners, keep regular and consistent formal meetings. Here, you can spend time reviewing financials, planning, principles for the business operation.
A Challenge That Leads to Opportunity
Due to this unprecedented pandemic, leaders have been presented with a unique opportunity. Be among those who choose to stand up and develop their reputation and qualities to lead and engage. These are all vital aspects in keeping employees motivated.
By strengthening these skills in this new business reality, you will become a manager that people want to work for now and long into the future.
If you want to take your motivational skills to the next level, let me help you via a consultation today!
No Comments