Assignment:
As a manager, motivating employees is one of the most important things you do for your company.
Where to start? First, you need to know what you're working with. Develop a baseline understanding of how engaged your team members are. Many companies do that with an annual engagement survey asking employees to report their own satisfaction levels. But, the results don't give you objective data on how engaged people actually are. Instead, you can use people analytics to understand what drives your employees, perhaps even better than employees understand themselves.
Then, consider whom your're trying to engage. Of course, one size does not fit all when your're coming up with an engagement strategy and what you do should depend on the specific group your're working with, whether the your're older workers or younger ones, your star performers or your b-players. And some people can be tougher to motivate than others. Take government workers or middle managers. Or people who have a lot of other opportunities available to them, like data scientists. Or consider the very real challenge of trying to motivate someone you don't like. Tailor your approach to meet each team member needs.
Next, keep in mind what works and what doesn't Here are some of the things that have been shown to motivate people:
The freedom to choose when, where, and how they work.
The ability to perform at the highest levels, even beyond their own expectations.
Feeling connected to others.
A well-designed workspace.
Aspirational, but achievable, goals.
And here are a few that have the opposite effect, demotivating people:
Having to pretend they aren't someone they aren't not.
Working for a micromanaging boss.
Managers who are truly good at motivating are few and far between. This is partly because it isn't something you can learn overnight. Rather, research shows that the most engaging leaders have had early stretch experiences that shaped them and have deeply-held beliefs about what it means to be a leader. You can't go back and change your past but you can focus on doing some very basic things that make a big difference, such as listening, showing respect, and remembering that happiness matters, even at work.
What do you think? Have you ever experienced this at work? Do you think these technics would work in your organization? Why or why not?