By Harrish Sairaman

As an entrepreneur or a leader and a manager, you have an inherent desire to do your best for your business and excel at work. You correct your mistakes, look for opportunities, and manage your business toward success. Unfortunately, your people are different from you. According to recent surveys, about 30% of employees don’t give their best for the company they work for and there could be many reasons for it. One of them is also the lack of motivation which also can have many reasons!

This article will arm you with various techniques that you can use to motivate your people. There are hundreds of ways to motivate and this article highlights some ways to do that –

1. Assign Achievable Goals (Or present it in that way)

For a person with a winner’s attitude, be it an entrepreneur or a leader your Goals are quanta, for self, business, and the organization! However, this might be daunting for some who yet are not at that level of thinking or the attitude.

It would be best to divide your overall objectives into tasks that are easy to achieve. Chunking it down and presenting it in a way that looks achievable is one of the keys for motivation. The goals need to look, sound and feel achievable as this is critical. If the goal looks ‘impossible’ then the fuel called motivation may not even get triggered. So, chunk it down, and show it is achievable.

2. Be Open

Share relevant information with your people. This approach allows employees to stay updated, voice their opinions, and ask questions. The reason for this is obvious: your people will be more motivated to do their best if they feel that they play an important role in the business. Being open also builds trust and most importantly creates an environment where people can share!! Allow people to also express, no matter what, of course, the discussing then needs to lead towards possibilities but do not create an environment where people cannot share, as emotions than can be suppressed and the performance can get affected.

3. Talk to Each Person

You want your employees to work towards a common objective, but it is likely that each one has his own understanding of that objective. If you want to succeed, it is necessary to talk to each person and make sure that he understands his goals and tasks. Of course when you have a huge team size this may not be possible but talking and listening helps understand people and creates a perception in their mind of being ‘understood’. This creates a powerful environment.

4. Stay Positive

Energy and enthusiasm are contagious. By displaying these characteristics in the office, you will encourage your employees to do the same. Obviously, it is hard to stay bored if your leader exudes positive energy. Remember, being and staying positive requires us to focus on the positive side. There is always a positive and negative side for everything, to stay positive you have to focus on the positive and then make others focus on the same.

5. Know your Employees

It is likely that you will work with your employees for a long time. Thus, you should know their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what makes your people tick can help you become an effective leader. Knowing what motivates them, what encourages them, what triggers them the negative and positive side will help you influence them effectively.

6. Use Games and Rewards

You may issue points or badges to people who achieve certain goals. After some time, you may tally the points/badges and give prizes to people with the most score.

This technique is particularly effective when used on young employees.

7. Trust Your People

Positive thinking often leads to self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, trusting your people that they can do their best can generate outstanding results for your business. Keep in mind, however, that your employees should feel that you trust them.
The key is ‘Trust and is trustworthy’.

8. Consider the Balance between Life and Work

Humans have a natural need for rest. In addition, your people have a family to take care of. It is wrong to expect your employees to choose your company over their personal life. In fact, letting your people strike a perfect balance between life and work can work wonders for your bottom line. Many may not be able to get the balance and get stressed because of the same reason! If as a leader and a manager if you can help them find a balance you will create true followers!!!

9. Recognize the Top Performers

Formal recognition events can be a powerful motivational tool. This type of recognition encourages the best performers to continue what they are doing. In addition, it drives other employees to improve their performance.
It’s not that hard to motivate others, particularly your employees. With the help of the tips above, you will be able to sustain their motivation and maximize its benefits to both your company and to them.