Managing motivation
April 28, 2006
We’ve all experienced it. The loss of motivation at work. Sometimes it comes in waves. Sometimes in perpetuity. But why? What are the factors that influence motivation?
This is the question posed (and answered) by this article by David Sirota, recently reprinted in HBS’s Working Knowledge. It’s often said that employees leave jobs because of their managers, but that’s just at the end of the line. Managers also have a tremendous impact on motivation levels. Regardless of whether organization wide policies are healthy or not, individual managers can, all by themselves, motivate or demotivate people.
But there’s lots that can be done to make sure things stay positive. According to the article, there are three separate and equally important spheres of influence for motivation – Equity (the need to be respected and compensated fairly), Achievement (to be proud of the job, one’s achievements and company) and Camaraderie (good relationships with coworkers).
The article goes on to outline 8 tactics for maintaining and enthusiastic workforce. They’re worth both reading and doing.
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So much has been written about employee motivation, talent retention, and the overall employee-manager-employer relationship identifying issues like those in the HBR article linked to this post.
It is with out a doubt that when managers behave in a way that supports these most obvious employee or human needs..that retention, producivity and a host of other positives come to all parties.
The challenge is getting employers and their leaders and managers trained, selected and rewarded for demonstrating these behaviors.
When an employer does the above mentioned, the possibilites of turning knowledge to action, and then seeing results is possible.