Motivating with Compassion
Managers often struggle with keeping employees engaged and motivated, especially when employees are working either remotely or in hybrid work situations. Yet, motivation is critical for employee engagement and retention. Dissatisfied employees often leave.
In recognition of Boss’ Day, Thursday, October 16, here are some tips for managers to consider for motivating and retaining employees. But managers can only do so much, so we’ve included tips for the organization that will support managers and employees alike.
The Individual Manager’s Role
When universal human needs are recognized and met, people will thrive at work. Those needs and tips for managers are:
Respect: Ask employees their opinions and seriously listen to their responses.
Recognition: Thank employees for their work and acknowledge the value of their contributions.
Belonging: Through team building, create opportunities for your employees to feel connected. Encourage employees’ creative ideas.
Autonomy: Give employees flexibility to do their jobs, including flexibility of where they work and when they work as appropriate. Allow a degree of control over working conditions and processes.
Personal growth: Share your knowledge and experience with your team, and make resources such as YouTube videos, Ted Talks, blogs, podcasts, book and articles, available.
Meaning: Make people feel proud of their work and your organization. Assign projects that have an impact and make a difference
Progress: Provide frequent feedback, follow up on learning activities, and assign new projects that lead to growth.
The Organization’s Role
The organization’s culture must support the manager’s ability to provide these needs with initiatives such as:
Affirming its values. At beginning the of the employment process and during onboarding, and throughout, review the organization’s mission and strategic plan, letting each employee know where their role fits. Share stories of employees demonstrating your values in action, reward employees observed living a value, and live and demonstrate values through leadership behavior.
Building inclusive cultures. Inclusion isn’t a program. It’s how people are heard, supported and engaged every day. It supports flexibility and creativity. Inclusive cultures have systems that support frequent and on-going feedback as well as employee acknowledgement and participation.
Developing its employees. This starts by ensuring the organization fosters a learning culture where employees are encouraged to be life-long learners, add to their knowledge and skill set, and perform at their highest possible level.
When universal needs are met, people perceive they are being supported, and connections develop. Organizational programs contribute to and support the cultivation of these universal needs. When employees develop connections, they will want to nurture those relationships in an organization, dramatically increasing the chances of keeping valued team members.
Of course, we have many more tips for managers in our books, The Decisive Manager, Essentials of Employee Engagement, and The Manager’s Answer Book