There are several management training considerations when determining how to motivate people.

What do you want from them?

Whether you are trying to motivate someone to do more of something, stop doing something, or change something, most motivation is about behavioral change. This type of change is difficult for all of us.

How much do you want from them?

Whenever possible, you need to place a measurement on what you want from someone. This will help you determine and communicate your expectations. You also give the person the opportunity to measure performance while you monitor progress.

Understanding your expectations of people in the units of measurement can assist you in gauging the feasibility of your expectations.

Measurements of Expectations

Time:

Will the person have the appropriate amount of time available to meet goals?

Money:

If the measurement of success is money, rather than just setting a monetary goal such as:

Increasing profits by 5%

Reaching a higher sales volume per month

(x amount of dollars)

…breakdown the total dollar amount into units.

Improvement:

A warehouse and production manager with one hundred fifty employees under his supervision had seven employees that were habitually late to work. These employees were all team members on a production line, and held up production by ten to twenty minutes every day.

The manager did not like motivating from a negative stance, but tried reprimanding the employees.  Hs had no results. Then he changed their starting time from six o’clock a.m. to six thirty a.m.  The same seven employees began showing up at six forty to six fifty a.m. each day.

As these seven employees were all above average performers, the manager was not ready to terminate them just yet. He decided to crunch some numbers, and discovered that the delay in start time with other employees on the clock and idle and lost production time was costing the company more than seventy thousand dollars per years. He discussed this with all seven employees individually and posted a notice about the cost of tardiness.  He then began docking the pay of each employee who was late by twice their salaries for every minute behind.

Two of the seven employees immediately changed their behavior and became punctual.

Then after a week, he announced that all employees on any team would be docked for any member not present at the start of the shift.

Four of the remaining five employees stopped showing up late. The remaining employee was eventually terminated.

So in this case some employees were motivated by money, some by peer pressure, and one was not interested.

Here is a secret about motivating people: If the person does not want to change, chances are you will not be able to change them. So the trick is finding what will motivate someone to want to change their behavior.

While planning for success with each person you manage or desire to motivate, you must also determine each person’s point of no return. This is the point when the person is not changing and the energy, time, and money are no longer worth the investment. This was the case in the preceding analogy with the final employee being terminated.  Implementing any more programs specifically for this last person of the group of seven simply was no longer economically feasible. In addition, the behavior of this employee could have a detrimental effect on other employees. After all, if he was allowed to remain employed while ignoring the rules, why maybe there would be no consequences for any of them.

Unfortunately, many people are motivated only by the fear of negative consequences.  This forces a manager to become a disciplinarian.

Why does this person need motivation?

What has worked to motivate this person in the past?

Tools:

Make sure people have the tools necessary for the projects you assign.

Dependency:

Is this person going to be dependent on the performance of others to meet his or her goals?

In addition, you will be able to better comprehend what you are asking of someone. If the change is difficult, you might want to break down your expectations into units. Your expectations could be difficult because of time restraints,

What do you want from them?

What position do they hold?

Employee Recognition

An important, yet often overlooked, piece of people management is employee recognition and this should be covered in al management training programmes  By rewarding employees for important outcomes that they create for your organization, you are reinforcing actions and behaviors that you want to see not only that person, but other people within your organization repeat multiple times.  Employee recognition is not just a way to show your employees that you’re a nice guy – it is a way to encourage behavior that is advantageous to your company’s success.

In addition, employees who feel that their employers truly care about them and their well-being will produce better results.  In fact, studies have shown that praise from a supervisor ranks higher than money, benefits, or events in conveying that a company values its employees.  Recognizing an employee for work well done is also paramount to retaining that employee.

Employee recognition has been shown to improve communication, productivity, and the workplace environment.  Employees are more motivated to produce desirable outcomes and their motivation influences their colleagues to do the same.  Happier employees also tend to produce happier customers.  Therefore, recognition of a single action of a single employee can have far-reaching benefits.

An effective recognition system will be simple, immediate, and powerful.  All employees should be eligible for recognition.  Communication should be such that everybody understands what specific actions are being recognized.  This communication could take place via a company newsletter, an email announcement, or at a staff meeting.  Never use a reward system in which the recipients are chosen by those higher up the ladder.  These systems end up being viewed as “favoritism” or they become ineffective because employees believe that ‘everybody will get their turn eventually”.

Recognition can be accomplished in a multitude of ways.  Of course, an employee can be verbally signaled out in front of his or her peers.  A letter of recognition may be written and placed in the employee’s file.  A manager might write a personal note and could accompany the note with a gift.  Popular choices for employee recognition gifts are motivational posters, engraved items, gift baskets, organizational logo merchandise, and gift certificates.

Most people get out of bed every day, fight traffic, and report to work because they need money. They don’t necessarily like their jobs. This is the reason more money is not always a motivator for many of these people. Getting more money does not change anything, they still have to get out of bed every morning and go to work.

This is why you’ve got to find out what other factors will motivate your employees. How can you get them to perform better? Some people are motivated by recognition.

Recognition – Awards or Rewards?

There are almost as many ways to keep employees happy and productive as there are employees. But recognizing employees and their efforts will go a long way with most of them. How can you recognize employees and show your appreciation?

While some people are satisfied with as little as a ‘thank you’ or ‘good job’ pat on the back, still others respond to monetary tokens of appreciation.

Recognizing employee accomplishments and dedication in a group setting with a gift card will serve two benefits. The employee will have the acknowledgement of coworkers and the employee will have a moment of private responsiveness when using the gift card.  Some employers like magazine subscriptions as gifts. This is a great reward. If the magazine is relevant to an interest of the employee, they feel personal recognition as the employer or manager put some thought into the gift.  In addition, the employee will be reminded again of this appreciation each month when the magazine arrives.

Be careful not to create only competitive reward programs. This can actually backfire and cause negative feelings among people who feel left out and begin a cycle of blame as they attempt to dismiss their lack of recognition.

Awards can be personally engraved plagues of recognition for employee of the month, salesperson of the month, good attendance, punctuality, years of service, effort above and beyond the call of duty, or simply job well done.

So there are awards and rewards for appreciating employees in the hopes of motivating them, and there are awards and rewards at the end of successful projects or when goals are reached.

If you are announcing an award or reward as a carrot to encourage performance, make sure the criteria is clear and the goal attainable.