“People don’t change jobs, they change bosses”, this is actually true when it comes to the real world. You cannot overburden, pressurize, and tame your employees to make them deliver high productivity. Even if this strategy becomes successful, the former statement goes true. Moreover, in the world of millennials, it is not possible for you to boss them around just because you pay them salary.
They would simply walk off your office telling you ,”you pay me but that doesn’t mean you own me”. Thus, building a team can be a real challenge in today’s world, especially when you are focused on simply generating profits and not motivating your team.
Motivating your employees is the key ingredient behind creating a highly productive team. You will have to value your employees and motivate them at every little step. If they don’t feel their career and growth is being valued, they won’t give you another chance.
This is a common scenario in most organizations and the managers don’t even realize it till the situation goes worse. They continue to ignore the talent, demands and even the most basic requirements of their team members until they discover that the employees start quitting.
How you are killing your team’s motivation –
The following points will give you a brief idea about how you might be killing your team’s motivation without even knowing and what you can do to fix it –
1. Giving Inadequate Rewards
Let’s take a situation. You are an employee who reaches office in time, performs all tasks, meet the deadlines, delivers projects on time and is able to maintain a good attendance record. Now, at the end of the year, all you would expect from your company is to provide you a decent salary hike. Isn’t it? That’s what makes every employee happy and motivates him to continue working with the same organization. For instance: At the year end, your company gives you only an increase of 5% in salary and they aren’t even open to negotiations. Would this be a great motivating factor for you? Or, you would simply upload your resume on job searching sites?
I hope the answer has already come up in your mind.
Now put your team members in your place in the above scenario. Do you still think they have a reason to survive back in your team?
Inadequate rewards is the biggest demotivating factor for an employee who has been working with full sincerity. When companies follow such cheap tactics, most of the employees simply quit.
How to Fix It?
The answer is simple. Give them a salary reward which they really deserve and which they are worth for. This will be a good enough reason to hold them back.
2. Zero Focus on Personal Development
Let’s take another situation. Your boss talks to you only in terms of projects, finances, profits etc. He never spares a single moment for you to focus on your personal development. Also, your company doesn’t invest in training sessions or extracurricular activities. For how long would you be able to survive in such an environment?
Before you reach to a conclusion just read this, “Google allows its employees to spend 20% of their time on their personal projects”. And not just Google, there are many startups as well who encourage employees to pursue their personal interests at workplace. Still you think surviving at a place where your manager isn’t bothered about your talents and goals would be worth it?
It is a sheer motivation killer. Again coming to the point of millennial generation, they crave for new stuff every now and then. If you don’t give them that space, you are actually killing them.
How to Fix It?
Adventure camps, fun training, or simply giving them some free time to invest in themselves. As a manager, it is your very duty to interact with your team members to know them beyond their roles in office. Encourage personal development workshops and make sure everyone participates in it.
3. Poor Collaboration and Communication
An ideal team is the one in which every member has an equal say and that is valued too. Let’s get you into another situation. You joined a company as a fresher and took up your role with great responsibility and excitement. Since you are in the learning mode now, you get every information through mails or from your seniors. This would work fine for the next couple of months. But soon you would start feeling the dominance prevailing over you. You would want to get involved in decision making, client handling etc.
In this scenario, if your team lead or manager turns a blind eye to your ideas and suggestions,you would definitely start feeling suffocated.
Now, if you don’t create opportunities to collaborate and communicate with your team they are bound to feel suffocated. This is again demotivating your employees and giving them a reason to reconsider working with you.
How to Fix It?
Effective team collaboration is the way to build highly motivated and productive teams. Use a online collaboration tool like ProofHub, which serves as a platform for all your team members where they can track project progress, discuss ideas, involve in chats, and work on the same page with their coworkers.
4. Not Appreciating their Achievements
Another big motivation killer for your employees is your ignorant attitude towards their achievements. For instance you did pretty well in a particular quarter and achieved all the targets. Now imagine your boss telling you to do better next time without even acknowledging your achievement. It’s almost like killing you right away. Is it?
But this is what actually happens with most of the professionals out there. Forget about giving a bonus or celebrating their achievements. Managers don’t even congratulate or send out an email to such high-performing employees. As human beings, we always look for appreciation for our efforts and achievements. And if it’s missing in a such a competitive scenario then it can be really demotivating for anyone.
How to Fix It?
Don’t forget to make noise when your employees achieve their targets. Make celebrations and feasts a part of your company’s culture. Let everyone working their feel valued and appreciated. In fact, this is a secret to retain employees. If you value your employees they are less likely to leave you even if you pay them less.
The above-mentioned are some of the most prominent practices that kill the productivity of a team. Empowering your employees, appreciating them and effectively collaboration with them will always keep problems at bay. This would eventually help you build highly-motivated workforce at your workplace.
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