If you are a business owner or manager, then you know how important it is to get your employees to hustle. No, we’re not talking about hustling around and acting busy, we mean getting employees motivated.
When you have employees who are engaged, they will hustle and produce. The secret to motivating your employees is inspiring them. Here are three tips to help your employees hustle by bringing out the best in them.
Set up opportunities for success
Everybody has a desire deep down to succeed, to accomplish something, and to be able to say they have done a job well. It’s human nature to feel exuberant when a goal is achieved or a challenge is overcome. Just think of the last time you tackled some difficult project, completed it, AND you did a great job. You probably felt fantastic! This feeling is a key to motivation. As a business manager, you can create opportunities to set your employees up for success. Put them in positions where they will succeed, and then let them take a step higher up the ladder. Give them responsibilities that you know they will do well in. Their success will motivate them for higher heights and greater depths.
Praise and reward
Managers must take notice of employees’ successes. When they reach certain milestones, there needs to be some type of reward or acknowledgment that they have achieved the goal. Internal rewards are good to some extent but when they have the praise and rewards coming from their superior, it will have a much greater impact. The rewards don’t need to be elaborate or expensive, you can get creative with what type of rewards you give out. Sometimes the reward will be that they move to the next level in their career. Other times, you may simply acknowledge them and thank them for the outstanding work they are doing.
Create a sense of ownership
People tend to be more motivated to perform when they feel they have a stake in the business —this can be literally or figuratively. For example, a company I knew gave its workers points through performing a job and bonus points if they did an outstanding job. After you got to a certain number of points, they were awarded a certificate. The certificate stated that they now owned 100 shares in the company. You could continue to earn shares as you continued to accumulate more points. It was only worth anything IF the company ever sold. However, this feeling of ownership translated into a dedication to the job. People felt a connection to the company.
Business managers can create a sense of ownership in any number of ways. Entrust an employee with a project that is important to you or one that will make the company a better place. When employees begin to look at the company as not just a place to work but as a partnership, they will be more inclined to commit to it.
Motivation is a key factor in gaining the best from your employees. As employees find success, are rewarded, and feel an emotional connection to their work, they will be internally motivated to perform.
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