An employee at work safaricom] [Photo/static.pulse.ng]
The ability to motivate workers remains one of the most critical skills an employer must have.
While monetary compensation can offer some motivation for employees, research shows that some top performers have a lot more desires than money to motivate them.
In fact, through an experiment that found incentivizing students with money to solve puzzles actually made them less interested in working on them after being paid.
Another group of students who had not been offered any money worked on the puzzles longer and with more interest.
This groundbreaking research shows one thing: that there is a significant difference between extrinsic motivation such as money and the motivation that comes from one’s self.
This calls for business leaders and entrepreneurs to creatively look for other ways to motivate their employees other than cash, or to create a working environment that feeds intrinsic motivation.
People like to feel like they are in control of their own work.
They like to develop and create their own ideas.
Instead of being a dictator, an official police officer, try giving your employees a bit more freedom to make decisions.
A person’s potential will rise to the occasion once a situation demands it.
Giving your employees additional roles and responsibilities give them autonomy creating space for them to exercise inner talents and skills you may not have been aware even existed.
If you are worried about your employees creating a big mess, you can begin with smaller responsibilities and build its way up while you gain more confidence in them.
Growing and perfecting skills are self-fulfilling and motivating. Provide opportunities for you to show how your employees have progressed.
Give your employees some praise, constructive feedback, and provide performance metrics and create individual development plans.
Connecting your employees to a vision that is larger than them serves as a powerful motivator.