Monthly Archive for February, 2009

  • How Can I Motivate Offsite Employees?

  • Offsite workers have to feel as if you care as much for them as for those on site. Toward that, you need to interact in person whenever you can. Without personal contact, misunderstandings are more frequent. If you can’t meet in person regularly, schedule regular telephone calls with each offsite employee. Set up an agenda [...]

  • How Can I Encourage Employees to Use Their Initiative?

  • When staff members bring you a problem, don’t solve it. Instead, ask what they think should be done. Don’t accept "I don’t know." If time allows, ask them to think about it and come back with suggested solutions. Hold staff meetings for the purpose of identifying problems and reaching solutions. Ask your staff what they [...]

  • How Should I Respond When an Employee Says to me, "That’s not my job"?

  • Since you know from past experience that you will get a negative reaction, present the assignment in as positive a manner as you can. Let the employee know that you have confidence in his or her abilities, that he or she is the best-qualified person for the assignment. Get the employee to suggest ideas about [...]

  • How do I Create an Atmosphere of Openness and Trust in my Staff?

  • Openness and trust take time to develop. You can’t make it happen by edict or one or two acts. Start by having an informal discussion with your employees. Ask them what you can do together to change the climate from what it is to what they need and you would like it to be. Then [...]

  • How do You Keep an Employee Who Was Passed Over for a Promotion Motivated?

  • Find out why the employee was passed over. Often the reason is easily explained and understood. For instance, a promotion in a warehouse might demand a knowledge of computers, which your excellent worker may lack. Assure him or her that these skills can be acquired and then proceed to set up a training and development [...]

  • How Can I Motivate Part-Time Workers and Temps?

  • It’s hard to motivate contingency workers but it is possible. To begin with, you shouldn’t overload them with grunt tasks. It’s a temptation to assign all low-level work to part-time and temp employees. Don’t. Find out what specialized skills they have and take advantage of them. Avoid confusion about their work assignments, too. For instance, [...]

  • How Can You Motivate an Employee Who Has Reached the Top of Her Salary Range and is not Qualified for Promotion?

  • Some companies raise the maximum salaries in their ranges periodically to keep up with the cost of living. They can then give raises to people who have reached the previous ceiling. Other companies respond on a case-by-case basis, raising some individuals’ salaries by special permission rather than a change in classification. Besides an increase in [...]

  • How Can I Counteract the Negativity of a Few Employees?

  • If you can do so, get rid of overly negative employees. See if you can transfer them to another department that will provide a more positive environment for them. If this can’t be done, and you can restructure the work to allow this possibility, isolate them so they have as little contact as possible with [...]

  • How do I Keep Plateaued Employees Motivated?

  • Plateauing is basically what happens when an employee reaches the highest level he or she can go in the company. There are no more opportunities for advancement—no chances to grow or to be challenged. Plateaued employees feel completely frustrated by this apparent lack of control over their careers; they frequently don’t put in the same [...]

  • How do I Keep Enthusiasm High During Tough Economic Times?

  • During tough economic times, employees will worry about their job security. If you know members of your team will be laid off, let them know as soon as possible. Employees should not leave the office uncertain about their position unless it is absolutely necessary. When decisions about layoffs take too long, and employees aren’t given [...]

  • Is There a Good Balance Between Micromanagement and a Hands-Off Approach to Motivate Employees?

  • Taken to the extreme, hands-off management is an abdication of your responsibility and accountability to get the work done. On the other hand, micromanagement, the process of controlling every detail and decision associated with getting a job done, can take away an employee’s pride of ownership in his or her work and can rob the [...]

  • How Important is it for Me to Help Employees Find the Work "Fun"?

  • Actually, workers list having fun as one of the requirements for a satisfying job. What do they mean by "fun"? Not goofing off. According to studies on what it takes to make jobs fun, the greatest factor cited is teamwork. Employees say that they enjoy coming together as a team in the pursuit of common [...]

  • How do I Create a Culture of Empowerment?

  • As the background for your empowerment effort, you want to create a culture of support. To that end consider the following: Listen to employees. Demonstrate your trust. Keep employees informed. Help employees balance work and personal lives. Offer opportunities for lifetime learning. Foster open communication. Give bad news straight. Encourage reasonable risk. Foster autonomy. Praise [...]

  • How Can I Instill Ownership to Motivate Employees?

  • You will get the most out of your employees if you, first, create a positive work environment and, second, give employees ownership of their work. Make your employees feel as if they are responsible fully for the outcome and their motivation and efforts will soar. Empowerment is the giving of power, and it’s a win/win/win [...]

  • How Wise is it to Use Competition Among Employees to Motivate and Encourage Increased Productivity?

  • Over the short term, competition among employees and teams may stimulate increased performance. Over the long term, however, it can lower productivity by destroying the desire to collaborate. And most work demands some level of cooperation—in very few instances can work be done in isolation. The necessary collaboration is not limited to teams within the [...]

  • How Can I Adapt my Employees’ Jobs to Make the Work Itself Motivating?

  • Because certain job features are intrinsically satisfying, redesigning jobs can be a way to motivate employees. It is, after all, easier to change jobs in an organization than it is to change the jobholders. There are three ways to redesign jobs: Job rotation. Moving employees through a variety of jobs, departments, or functions is a [...]

  • How Important are the Physical Surroundings in Motivating my Employees?

  • Employees want to work in a well-lit environment that has modern furniture and the latest equipment. Some people still want traditional offices. They don’t want to work in a cubicle, no matter its size. They want offices with doors they can close when they need privacy to concentrate or make a personal phone call. Other [...]

  • What Can I do to Motivate my Average or Mediocre Performers?

  • Recognition and rewards can encourage performance improvement from these non-superstars. If you wait for a significant improvement in their performance, you may never get a chance to recognize them, yet without reinforcement of some small improvement they are unlikely to sustain the behavior change long enough to make a major improvement in their work behavior. [...]

  • How Can I Help my High Achievers to Feel Uniquely Valuable?

  • High achievers can be challenged with increased responsibility, access to new assignments, new training, and job rotation. Look at a high achiever’s position and the associated tasks. How can they be changed to make the position an opportunity for growth? Redesigning the work may satisfy the needs not only of the high achiever but also [...]

  • How Can I Best Deliver a Sincere Compliment when Praising Employees?

  • To begin with, the praise offered must be sincere. You can avoid appearing phony by using it only when it is deserved—when the employee is doing excellent work. Praise also works best when it is very specific and immediately follows the event. Exceptional performance should be followed up with not only praise, but rewards as [...]

  • What Non-Financial Rewards and Recognition Can I Use to Motivate my Employees?

  • The list below isn’t complete but it may give you some ideas about how to recognize your employees for outstanding performance: Allow employees to take a long lunch or have a short workday. Offer a round of applause from the team. Distribute movie tickets. Hold a celebration. Offer interesting projects. Bring in food for the [...]

  • How are Employees Demotivated?

  • Research in the 1950s identified several things that demotivate employees. The following is based primarily on the work of Herzberg and is a list of motivation don’ts: Never personally attack someone. Never embarrass an employee. Don’t govern by fear. Don’t shoulder all the responsibility. Tell Me More Never personally attack someone. By all means, give [...]

  • How do I Identify Employees’ Needs to Motivate Them Better?

  • By understanding what pressing, unfulfilled needs people have, managers can motivate them. So the key to motivating employees becomes accurately identifying a person’s needs, then using that information to inspire him or her to do the best possible job. All motivation comes from within, but managers can identify the rewards and recognition that will influence [...]

  • How Can I Ask Questions to Get the Information I Need to do my Job?

  • Your job demands questions to accomplish the following: Questions for inquiry or fact-finding: getting the facts to solve problems or make decisions. Questions for confirmation: confirm facts previously gathered or conclusions made. Rhetorical questions: evoke introspection and contemplation. Each purpose demands a different set of questions: For the purpose of inquiry, start by asking open-ended [...]

  • How Can I Improve my Writing Style?

  • If clarity of communication is a problem, then the secret to improving your communication may be to spend more time planning what you will say before putting words to paper. Before beginning to write, if you don’t do so already, you should jot down a few words, phrases, or other notes to help organize your [...]

  • How Can I Improve the Quality of Reports I Write? I do Project Progress Reports, Variance Reports, and Proposals.

  • The best reports are accurate, brief, and clear. If the report is for a specific person, always take into consideration what that person finds useful. Some people want details, others prefer highlights and will ask for more information only if it is needed. Some reports will be read by several people, each with his or [...]

  • How Can I Manage the E-mail I Receive?

  • It’s very easy to get caught up in your e-mail, checking almost every few minutes to see if you have another e-mail message. But that is a terrible waste of time. Better to check your e-mail only twice a day, more often only if you receive time-sensitive information. If you aren’t able to check your [...]

  • How Can I Better Manage E-mail Messages I Send?

  • Here are some rules to sending effective e-mail messages: Keep messages clear but concise. To help recipients prioritize e-mail, highlight at the top of the message whether your e-mail requires any type of action—for instance, "Action required." Make certain that your information is accurate. Because e-mail can be printed, archived, forwarded, and even broadcast, it [...]