Motivating Employees
... their work and the people who actually make decisions about improvements in their work should be recognized for it. When an employee makes a thoughtful decision, you should never punish it. You can coach and provide training and information following the decisions but I feel that it is wrong to damage the employee’s confidence and trust that you are truly supportive of their involvement. Trust is the second guideline that I find to be extremely important when trying to encourage self-motivation. Trust is the basis for much of the climate that you want to create in the work place. Trust is the necessary foundation for, feeling able to rely upon a person, cooperating with and experiencing teamwork with a group, taking thoughtful risks and experiencing believable communication. The third guideline I learned in my research and believe to be a must for motivation is Self-Esteem. People who have high self-esteem are more likely to continuously improve the work environment. They are willing to take intelligent risks because they have confidence in their ideas and competence. This sounds great but what about the employees that do not have high self-esteem. Well this is where it is the job of the Manager to create a motivating work environment to enhance staff self-esteem. I read that people feel that they are more competent, more capable, more appreciated and more contributing in this type of environment. So how does the manager enhance staff self-esteem? First, the manager should act as if they have high self-esteem. The managers behaviors, beliefs, attitudes and example are a powerful role model for staff members. A concept called the Pygmalion Effect emphasizes that the positive and high expectations of the supervisor help mold the expectations individuals hold for their own high performance. A second concept, called the Galatea Effect states that even more important than the manager’s expectations, the expectations an individual has for his or her own performance will dominate that performance. I have chosen to go into more depth on this guideline because I feel that it is ver...