Why should you even care about motivating employees? After all, they are typically compensated with both paychecks and benefits, right? Yes, employees are compensated for their work. However, while compensation definitely matters, motivating employees is not nearly that simple. With jobs involving 40 hours a work or more, there is more to the equation. Less quantifiable motivating factors like aligned values, purpose, work-life balance, professional development and creating a positive societal or environmental impact may inspire today’s employees more than money.
In the online Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management program from Fitchburg State University, you’ll learn to effectively motivate employees to perform, furthering both the goals you outline and the employees’ individual goals. Skilled managers understand that motivated employees feel deeper job satisfaction and engage more with their work. Motivated employees can work well both independently and collaboratively, creating a more productive environment. Plus, engaged, motivated employees tend to stay put, staving off the rampant turnover challenges of the post-pandemic era.
Manage Approaches to Motivation
When you are responsible for a team, it is important to understand how and when to motivate, when to step in with advice and when to encourage individual and team responsibility.
How can you work to motivate your employees? Motivating employees begins with modeling a positive attitude — the type of attitude that fosters a healthy workplace. Also, you may need to vary your approach to suit the person you want to motivate, including the factors of self-motivation you encourage in employees.
You can encourage employees to adopt approaches to self-motivation such as the following:
- Focus on self-development
- Show persistence
- Be a self-starter
- Become accountable
- Set goals
- Commit to achieving results
- Endeavor to be helpful
- Challenge yourself
- Think positively
- Prioritize a healthy lifestyle
The “It Factor”
Fortunate is the manager with self-motivated employees who are ready to perform well from the get-go. These ideal employees have the so called “it factor” — the combination of confidence, connection, creativity, persistence and positivity that drives performance and innovation. The real key is to know how to effectively inspire all employees under your leadership, fostering the qualities that comprise the “it factor.” This type of leadership takes knowledge and skill, plus a commitment to value each employee as a unique human, not a robot.
Keys to Motivating Employees
Great beginnings need continuity of direction and an effective manager to keep the momentum alive. The Fitchburg State University online MBA in Management provides advanced training and approaches to help you identify and apply results-focused tactics for your team. Success — your team’s and therefore your’s — may depend on how well you inspire.
Compensation Is Not the Only Factor That Motivates Employees
Great intentions are just that — intentions. You need real, practical approaches with impact. The day-to-day feeling of being valued, trusted, challenged and supported in one’s work motivates employees. Job satisfaction, productivity, creativity, collaboration, innovation and employee loyalty are the result.
Poor work environments, on the other hand, contribute to employee turnover, which hampers productivity, hurts morale, causes frustration and costs money. There is a better way, and you can learn about it.
As a management leader, tuning in to what is important to your employees can provide not only value for them but also success for the projects at hand. At Fitchburg State University, the online MBA in Management program covers employee motivation and helps you learn ways to motivate different personality types.
Promoting Efforts with Alignment
Alignment with company culture, purpose and values is a driving factor behind employee motivation. Great leaders strive to inspire and motivate employees, but a manager can’t simply force employee alignment with organizational goals. However, managers can nurture culture, goal and value alignment through encouraging transparency and critical thinking. Ask your employees to consider three simple questions:
- What? What does your organization do? What are your organization’s values, mission and goals? What does the organization want to accomplish?
- How? How does your organization plan to accomplish its goals? How will your organization’s operations help it achieve its mission? How do the organization’s actions and culture reflect and demonstrate organizational values?
- Why? Why does your organization do what it does? Why are the organization’s values, mission and culture important? Why should you as the employee support the organizational goals, mission and values? Why do you want to be a part of the organizational culture?
Clearly defining the organization’s vision and mission, outlining goals, encouraging a positive culture, listening actively and helping employees reflect and think critically about these factors inspires open dialogue, trust and investment. These are the building blocks of a motivated, engaged workforce.
Knowing how to motivate employees can lead to individual and team success. Through coursework in Fitchburg State’s online MBA in Management, you can learn effective approaches for motivating and managing employees.
Learn more about the Fitchburg State online MBA in Management program.
