The value of motivation we all know is very high and it has a direct impact on business. But do you know to measure it? Some may say yes, but have you ever measured it? You have heard the phrase “what gets measured - gets done”. The time has come to start measuring this aspect critically as a potential solution to overcome the never ending challenges and competitive pressures.
There are many reasons for employees to be de-motivated; Business or market related issues mainly at the middle and senior level, organizational culture, work conditions or policy issues, personal factors or leadership gaps covering all levels.
Whatever, theory may say - Leaders cannot motivate people but can create the conditions to motivate people. As a leader, how ever hard you try to prevent your staff from being de-motivated, you will not always succeed. Causes for some de-motivating factors are external and theoretically your business cannot provide solutions to those. It’s not possible for leaders to be behind each and every employee every time there is an issue.
Effective leaders
In the real world, your role should be to create conditions where people motivate themselves. The most effective leaders create conditions for high performance through high support and challenge.
Assess the reasons for de-motivation before considering any action. This is no easy management task. Expert HR support is necessary to ascertain this and analyzed for potential action.
Strategy can be bought, but not execution; hence motivation is critical. If you wish, strategy can be purchased from external consultants. It’s merely a matter of paying the price. There is no argument that your strategy provides competitive advantage but execution is equally or more important. The level of execution is determined by the level of motivation of your people. And it’s intrinsic; meaning internal, so the change has to happen within the individuals. All you can do as a leader is to provide the right conditions for employees to be self motivated and as leaders to support that process with focused regular communication.
Make the workplace the best sanctuary to help deal with external factors. Factors outside the workplace can lead to de-motivation. Remember though, that it’s always a good thing to deal with it positively. If it’s a work reason, you can get to the bottom of it and solve it together.
If it’s outside work, you can make the work place the best sanctuary for them. May be signposting them to specialist help and finally demonstrating that you care about them. Either way, a de-motivated employee can be like a wounded animal. He could sometimes be wild, emotionally driven, out of focus and most times direct energy towards unproductive activities. Cost of de-motivation, in short, is huge.
Support and challenge for results. The effective leader uses support and challenge with team members. One without the other is ineffective. Dealing with people’s motivation is not about being a counselor or tyrant. The most inspirational leaders offer high support and high Challenge to become a role model leader.
So seek expert support on this issue externally if the expertise is not available internally. You may be surprised with results thus the opportunity for improvement. Single differentiator when knowledge and skills are at the same level would be the level of motivation. Level of motivation dictates the rate of execution success. You know what it means to a business.