I remember my colleagues being much more motivated 30 years ago, when I started my first job. Perhaps, that was just an illusion fed by my inexperience at the time, or simply my good luck, but I remember seeing the spark in their eyes!
Sadly, at least in my experience, it all went downhill from there, gradually but noticeably.
I have worked closely with many medium-sized and large companies, been a managing director of my own small business – motivating others for 15 years – and, for six long years, an employee in a large multinational company – being motivated by top-class managers myself.
My conclusion
Unless you are the owner, or under special circumstances, it is no easy feat to find and maintain one’s own motivation in a workplace… beyond the obvious economical one, of course (on the assumption that your employer pays you a wage that you’re proud of, lucky you!). That being said, what about boosting the motivation of others, can this be helped at all?
Having made a lot of mistakes as a manager over the years, I think so!
My list of 5
Whatever the benefit you seek from improved employee motivation – creativity, productivity, innovation, engagement, belonging etc – creating a workplace distinguished by the following 5 easily-measurable characteristics, really helps:
- employees know that their individual contribution will be noticed and appreciated,
- employees see that their work is important and meaningful,
- employees know that their individual contribution is necessary for the successful completion of the project,
- employees know that the work of your organization is important and appreciated, internally and externally,
- employees feel that the workplace is a place of warm, friendly and meaningful relations between them.
We are here to help
Having followed up our first-hand practical insights with academic studies in Group Facilitation, we have launched Positive Ripples Limited. It is with the last and the least straightforward item in the list above, improving social well-being through strengthening positive and meaningful relationships among colleagues, that our employee training sessions can help with. We tailor our workshops and games to help organisations of any size, so do not hesitate to get in touch to find out more!