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Money is not the solution to all of your business woes, especially when it comes to your people. You may use cash as a motivator, but there are downsides that you need to know about.

Do you know how to motivate teams to do more?

Many managers will claim that a little bit of money goes a long way in motivating their teams. And there’s no denying that money helps motivation.

The problem comes when you start to see money as the only way to prop up motivation in the workplace. You start ignoring all of the staff motivation tools at your disposal and instead rely on cash to solve your problems.

But that doesn’t help with engagement. In fact, there are plenty of studies that demonstrate just how low money falls on the list of key motivators for staff.

A study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior looked at the issue in more detail. A complex meta-analysis of ways to motivate staff showed that money doesn’t have the power that you may think. The study pulled together 120 years of research that looked at over 15,000 people.

And it found something remarkable.

It discovered that pay level correlated with job satisfaction levels in less than 2% of cases. Plus, the results were consistent no matter where you are in the world.

Other studies have examined the effect of money on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In particular, offering monetary incentives for work lowers intrinsic motivation by over 30%.

On the other hand, you’re not exactly going to get people to work for free. Money has to play some role when it comes to ways to motivate staff.

It just may not be as large a role as you think.

In this article, Great Managers deep dive into the subject. We’ll look at the good & bad of using money as a motivator. Then we’ll look at other key motivators and some fun ideas to motivate teams that don’t require money.

All of this in an effort to answer the big question.

Does money motivate employees?

The Pros and Cons of Using Money as a Motivator

Before looking at the pros and cons of using money as one of your ways to motivate staff, let’s look at the various ways that you can do it.

Salary is the most obvious. A raise is often seen as a reward for hard work and almost comes as standard as part of a promotion. But there are plenty of other ways that you may use money to motivate teams.

You may have incentive schemes that offer cash bonuses based on performance. Or, you may offer your people stock options or operate a profit sharing scheme.

All of these things can and will motivate your people…to an extent.

The Pros

Unfortunately, money is not a perfect solution. There’s both good and bad in using money to motivate teams.

Let’s look at the pros first.

Pro #1 – It’s Straightforward

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

This is perhaps the chief reason why managers use money to try to motivate people. There’s no challenge in giving somebody a raise or a cash bonus. As long as you have the budget for it, you can just throw money at somebody and that’s it.

There’s no need for personalisation and you don’t have to know much about the person. That simplicity makes money a favoured method for highlighting individual achievement too. A monetary incentive scheme can reward people for good work and provide employees something to aim for.

Pro #2 – You Get Short-Term Productivity Gains

Using money can help you motivate employees to work harder in the short term.

For example, let’s say that you have a difficult project with a tight deadline. In such cases, you may not be able to use many staff motivation tools. Time is too short and you can’t spend it on any of the methods that this article covers below.

The use of monetary incentives can give your people the short-term motivational boost needed to push through such a project. Something like a bonus scheme can raise productivity beyond normal levels until the project concludes.

Pro #3 – It Offers an Element of Control

The right monetary incentive scheme can offer your people a sense of control over their financial situation.

Bonus schemes and commission structures both offer good examples of this. An employee may see these as ways to top up their salary to help them achieve something in their personal lives. They know that if they work harder or complete certain tasks, they’ll be able to boost their income.

This level of control leaves the decisions in the hands of your people. They can make work decisions based on the financial incentives on offer.

The Cons

Ease of implementation and short-term productivity gains make money an attractive choice.

But there are plenty of downsides to using money as a motivator. These are some of the cons.

Con #1 – It’s Addictive

When you rely on money as one of your chief ways to motivate staff, you set a precedent.

Your people start to expect monetary rewards in return for hard work. In essence, they become addicted to your incentive schemes. If you take away the monetary reward, you’ll often find that your people stop giving their all. They’ve become accustomed to your use of money as a motivator and can no longer motivate themselves when money isn’t on offer.

This can prove disastrous for your business. Your organisation will have to budget specifically for the monetary incentives needed to keep your people going. And you can’t take those incentives away and expect to get the same returns.

This “addiction” works both ways too. Many managers become glued to the idea of using money to spur motivation in the workplace. They either have no other ideas or think that nothing else will work as well as cash.

In all cases, this costs organisations money and drastically alters the working environment.

Con #2 – Monetary Incentives Discourage Innovation

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

Most managers will tell you that they want their people to be innovative and creative. After all, new ideas help organisations to avoid stagnation.

Using money as a motivator does not spur on this innovation. Instead, it encourages your people to comply with whatever it is they need to do to earn the money.

Think of it like this.

Let’s say you have a sales team and you’re providing a monetary incentive to anybody who hits a set sales target. Your team will put all of its focus into hitting that target. But in doing so, they’re not coming up with any fresh ideas that could benefit the organisation. They’re just complying with a target.

If you extend such schemes throughout the entire organisation, the problem deepens. Innovation and new ideas don’t have the same tangible rewards as hitting targets. Of course, that means people won’t put any thought into those aspects of their work.

Con #3 – Money Doesn’t Solve Culture Issues

Money may give your people a short-term boost to deal with immediate problems.

But when it comes to how to inspire a team, money is almost a non-factor. People expect to receive payment for their work. But they also want to work in an environment that makes them feel happy to do the job. They need their work to have purpose and they want to work with great colleagues.

Perhaps most importantly, they need a leader who knows what it takes to be a Great Manager.

All of these key motivators have one thing in common:

Money doesn’t affect them.

It doesn’t matter how much money an organisation makes. If people hate working for it, motivation levels will always fall. And a monetary motivator will only offer a short-term boost before the same issues with culture and purpose rise up again.

Money doesn’t deal with the emotional wellbeing of your people. It doesn’t help you to motivate them based on their personal and career ambitions.

Relying on it for every motivational issue that occurs means you’re ignoring the root causes. Your people take notice and become less productive because they know that money is the only thing that seems to matter.

How the Big Players Do It

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

The above covers some of the good and bad of using money to motivate people.

In short, money is one of the short-term ways to motivate staff. But you can’t rely on it to deal with your organisation’s cultural issues.

Yet it’s these cultural issues that often have a larger effect on motivation.

Some of the world’s largest organisations, such as Disney and Facebook, recognise this too. And they’ve come up with plenty of staff motivation tools that don’t rely on monetary incentives. Let’s look at a few examples of how the big players confront motivational issues.

Disney’s Shock and Awe

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

For now, let’s look at a story from way back when Walt Disney was still making movies.

One day, Walt told one of his employees, Mike Vance, about an issue that he had. His brother would no longer finance Walt’s films, so he needed to figure out how to get more money from Disneyland.

Mike got to work. He pulled together a team containing seven people and they started by looking at the park schedule. At the time, Disneyland only stayed open for five days per week – Wednesday to Sunday.

Naturally, the first idea was to open the park on the two days during which it was usually closed. But the team didn’t think that would work. Nobody would want to come.

That’s when they came up with a great idea – The Magic Kingdom Club. This club would comprise solely of corporate members. It also allowed these members to give discounted Disneyland tickets to employees for Mondays and Tuesdays.

The plan worked to perfection. In fact, it generated so much money that Walt Disney sent Mickey Mouse himself to the doors of each team member on Christmas day.

Mickey presented each with $25,000 and a note from Walt that said the following:

“It’s fantastic. You’re fantastic. Do it again.”

All seven of the team’s members went to the office that very afternoon to come up with more ideas.

Now, you’re probably looking at the money that Disney gave to his people. There’s no doubt that it was a nice surprise.

But that surprise is actually the key point. Nobody on the team expected a reward of any kind for just doing their job. But they received one. And it came with a handwritten note of congratulations and gratitude from Walt Disney himself.

It’s a shock and awe tactic. The money is only secondary in this story. It’s the gesture of gratitude that’s the most important thing to take away from the tale.

Show your people that you really care about them in order to motivate them. Sure, an unexpected monetary bonus can help. But so can other gestures, such as a thank-you or extra holiday time.

Google’s Workplace Culture

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

The above story combines monetary incentives with shock and awe motivational tactics.

But it’s also only a short-term solution. You’ll need more long-term staff motivation tools to keep your employees happy. And that’s where it’s a good idea to look to one of the largest organisations in the world – Google.

Google is widely-renowned for focusing on creating a great workplace experience for its people.

Monetary compensation is certainly a part of the package. But it’s the overall culture that the company creates that has a much larger effect on its people. Let’s look at two staff motivation tools that Google uses that show it doesn’t try to rely on money to motivate its people.

Tool #1 – Personalised Perks

Google goes to greater lengths than any other organisation when it comes to employee perks.

For example, Google offers financial support to its employees if they want to adopt children. It also offers 18 weeks’ worth of full pay to those who go on maternity leave. The company even covers the cost of $500 worth of take-out meals for the first three months of the baby’s life.

That’s not all. The company offers an array of services, such as dry cleaning, a car wash, and on-site fitness facilities. Plus, meals are all free in the organisation’s cafeterias.

All of these may seem like monetary incentives at first. But look a little bit deeper and you’ll see the difference.

Google isn’t just offering a bit of cash in return for hard work. It’s providing an array of services that allow its people to deal with the many personal issues that they face. This, in turn, improves motivation in the workplace.

Google recognises the importance of spending time with a newborn child. It also knows its people may struggle to complete some tasks during the day, so it offers relevant services on-site.

Google constantly demonstrates that it cares about its people. That’s why it’s often rated as one of the best organisations to work for by its employees.

Tool #2 – Constant Transparency

A Center for Generational Kinetics survey unveiled some interesting information on workplace transparency.

Only 55% of people think their managers are fully transparent. The rest think important information gets hidden from them. And that means they distrust their managers, which affects motivation in the workplace.

Google goes to great lengths to use its transparency as one of its key staff motivation tools.

Every quarter, the company’s board holds a meeting to discuss future strategy. Just a couple of weeks after that meeting, these same materials get shared with all of the company’s employees.

This means that everyone knows what Google wants to work on and where it intends to go.

It’s a simple act that allows Google’s people to engage with the organisation’s vision.

Google goes a step further with its annual employee feedback surveys. The organisation releases the results – anonymously, of course – for all to see. Then, it takes action on the feedback and shares the results.

All of this builds trust within the team, which leads to better results.

Facebook’s Flexibility

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

Another of the world’s tech giants, Facebook also places a great focus on ways to motivate teams.

One of its most creative ways to motivate employees lies in the flexibility that it provides.

It all starts with mobility. Most organisations provide desktop computers and assign office space to their people. Facebook does the same with office space. But it instead provides laptops that allow its people to move wherever they want to work.

If the office gets too loud, people have the freedom to unplug and move to the cafeteria or find a small nook away from the hustle and bustle.

There are also libraries and meeting rooms in Facebook’s buildings that employees can use.

Here’s the point. Facebook doesn’t punish its people for not working at their desks. It understands that people work in a variety of ways. By accounting for this, it keeps its people happy and boosts motivation in the workplace.

But the flexibility doesn’t end there. Facebook also accounts for its people’s personal needs.

For example, it doesn’t enforce rigid office hours. Again, this shows a great understanding of the differences between people. Some prefer getting in bright and early, whereas others are night-owls who work best during the evening. Facebook uses flexible working hours as one of its key ways to motivate staff.

On top of that, employees have the option to work from home whenever needed.

Facebook offers all of this within reason. People who take advantage of Facebook’s flexible staff motivation tools may run into issues. But the fact that Facebook offers such flexibility is a massive motivator that doesn’t require money.

A Few More Examples

Those are some stories and creative ways to motivate employees from three major organisations. But plenty of other large businesses have their own ways to motivate staff.

For example, Airbnb allows its people to bring their pets to work. That’s a massive plus for anybody who’s afraid of leaving an animal at home for hours at a time. In fact, this little perk makes keeping a pet with a lot of needs possible for its employees.

Mindcandy looks towards more fun ideas to motivate employees. The entertainment group uses a huge red slide to connect its office’s top and bottom floors. There’s even a treehouse for its people to explore. Plus, it holds a “Beer O’ Clock” hour every Friday.

So, what can you take from all of this?

All of these companies have different ideas when it comes to motivating staff. But all of these ideas have to common threads:

  1. They focus on creating an enjoyable and productive workplace.
  2. They demonstrate an understanding of the personal needs of employees.

It’s through taking care of your people that you will keep them motivated. Money is just one of many staff motivation tools. Moreover, it’s perhaps the most ineffectual, at least when it comes to long-term productivity.

These techniques focus on the long-term goals of creating a great workplace and keeping employees engaged. Unsurprisingly, all of the organisations mentioned above have also achieved great success.

Ways to Motivate Teams Without Using Money

By now, you’re getting a good idea of how to be a motivational leader. You know it’s not all about money. Instead, it’s about the culture that you create and the staff motivation tools that you put in place.

The world’s largest organisations offer some interesting ideas. But many of them may be out of reach for you.

That’s okay.

There are plenty of creative ways to motivate teams that don’t require you to rebuild the office. Here are ten examples to get you started.

Technique #1 – Celebrate Your Wins

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

Every time your team achieves a goal or reaches a milestone is a cause for celebration. However, many managers just ignore these achievements entirely.

This means they’re not showing any gratitude to their staff.

Failing to celebrate is particularly damaging when your people have gone above and beyond. If you don’t acknowledge the success, you’re not inspiring them to push hard with the next project. Instead, you’re telling them that what they’ve just achieved doesn’t matter.

That’s not how to inspire a team.

So, celebrate the wins, no matter how small they may seem. Something like Mindcandy’s Friday happy hour works well here. But there are many other ways to celebrate. A small office party at the end of the week or a pizza at lunchtime shows that you care. Better yet, these small celebrations bring your people together and strengthen the bonds they have with one another.

Technique #2 – Avoid Boring Routines

Imagine the scene.

You come into work and you have a list of tasks to complete. This is the same list that you had for the previous day. And it’s the same list you’ll have for every day after today.

You’re stuck in a routine and the monotony threatens to destroy any motivation you once had.

It doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?

Yet so many managers allow their people to fall into boring routines. But this only encourages your people to achieve the bare minimum.

Occasional breaks in the routine can have a massive effect on employee motivation. Give people unique tasks that challenge their skills. Allow them to explore their creativity.

Sure, the routine stuff still needs to get done. But if that’s all your employees do, they’ll soon disengage.

Technique #3 – Encourage Mindfulness

Embracing mindfulness is one of the more creative ways to motivate employees. It’s also something that you may not have considered because it seems like it would have a negative effect on productivity.

Mindfulness is a simple concept. It’s the act of taking a step back and appreciating what’s going on around you.

And it can have huge benefits when it comes to your employees’ stress levels. That’s important because stress has huge effects on motivation levels. In fact, it costs the Australian economy about $10 billion annually.

Mindfulness allows people to unplug from whatever’s causing them stress so they can take a few moments for themselves. That makes it one of the most unexpected ways to motivate teams.

Technique #4 – Use Intrinsic Rewards

Debates still rage about the varying values of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Money is an extrinsic motivator because it provides a direct reward for an action. But with intrinsic motivation, the reward comes from the action itself.

That’s the sort of motivation that you need to encourage.

Intrinsic motivation comes from working on things that you care about and having great belief in an organisation’s goals.

That means that your organisation’s values, culture, and vision all affect it. If your people don’t believe in what they’re doing, there’s a limit to how hard they’ll work.

It’s not enough to have a vision. You need to ingrain it into every aspect of your culture. Make it clear and act upon it all times. This helps your people to care about the vision, which turns it into an intrinsic motivator.

Technique #5 – Embrace Creativity

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

Facebook’s flexibility doesn’t just provide for the personal needs of its people. It also allows them to express themselves creatively.

Here’s the key thing to remember. Everybody works in different ways. Some prefer to be part of a team environment at all times. Others may appreciate the opportunity to sequester themselves away to put some thought into new ideas.

The most important thing is that your organisation embraces creativity. Give people the opportunities that they need to explore new ideas. As importantly, take those ideas on board and implement the best of them. Demonstrating that you put new ideas into practice is one of the best ways to foster motivation in the workplace. Plus, it helps your business to avoid stagnation.

Technique #6 – Make Changes to the Scenery

You may not want to build a huge red slide like Mindcandy did. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make some changes to the workplace scenery.

Even something as simple as rearranging the office or using brighter colours can improve motivation levels.

Natural light exposure is also a surprisingly big motivator. A study entitled Impact of Workplace Daylight Exposure on Sleep, Physical Activity, and Quality of Life took a closer look at this. It found that people who work in offices that have windows enjoy 46 minutes of extra sleep per night. More sleep means less stress, which means higher motivation levels.

Your office may not have windows. As such, taking your people outside for a little bit is one of the more creative ways to motivate teams. That little change of scenery, and addition of natural light, can have a huge effect.

Technique #7 – Always Explain the Why

Motivation in the workplace,motivate teams

Let’s imagine you have a task for your team to complete.

Many managers keep things as simple as possible when assigning this task. They just tell their people what to do and leave it at that.

But that’s not how to inspire a team. Your people will have no idea about the purpose behind the task, which makes them less likely to put their full effort into it.

Whenever you assign a task, take a few moments to explain the purpose behind it. Talk about how it will help the organisation to achieve a certain goal or what it will do for your people.

This plays into Google’s efforts with transparency. You’re helping your people see what you want to achieve, which motivates them because you’re being honest with them.

Technique #8 – Provide Regular Feedback

Did you know that 69% of people would feel motivated to work harder if they felt they received some recognition for their efforts?

Despite this, only 58% of managers believe they offer enough feedback to their people. And many of them may not offer as much as they think they do.

This needs to change. How you communicate with your people has an effect on motivation in the workplace. People want to know how they’re progressing and what they can do to improve. If you’re not offering feedback, you’re giving them nothing to focus on.

Try to hold weekly or monthly feedback sessions with your people. Use them to focus on what they’re doing well and provide some guidance where needed.

Technique #9 – Encourage Autonomy

In My Way or the Highway, Harry Chambers covered the topic of micromanagement. He says that 79% of people have felt micromanaged at some point during their careers. Of those people, 85% said that micromanagement damaged their morale.

The message is clear. Micromanagement has a negative impact on your people’s productivity.

Those who have what it takes to be a Great Manager recognise one simple thing. They need to trust the people that they hire.

Micromanagers don’t have that trust, which is why they’re constantly looking over their employees’ shoulders. Their people pick up on this and feel disheartened.

When you give somebody a task, trust that they have the skills to do it. They’ll feel much happier, which boosts motivation.

Technique #10 – Act According to the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is a simple one that all managers must remember:

“Do to others what you would have them do to you.”

Never forget that you’re an employee too. Even if you’re at the head of your organisation, you’re still just as much a part of it as even your newest hire.

There cannot be one rule for you and another for everybody else.

Holding everybody accountable to the same set of rules is one of the better ways to motivate staff. But the Golden Rule extends further than that. Treat people with respect and encourage them to perform to the best of their abilities. You’ll motivate your people because they’ll see that you consider them your equals.

Keeping Yourself Motivated

The Golden Rule brings up an interesting point.

You are often one of the best staff motivation tools that you have at your disposal. Your people take their cues from you. If you treat them poorly or act by a different set of rules, they’ll grow to resent you.

But there’s more to it than that. Your people also look at the way that you carry yourself and how you approach your tasks. A negative attitude reflects onto your people, who carry that attitude into their work. But if you’re positive and motivated yourself, you’ll inspire the same feelings in others.

This may be one of the biggest aspects of how to be a motivational leader. And again, using your attitude to affect motivation levels requires no money at all.

But it does raise an issue:

How do you keep yourself motivated enough to motivate your people?

Here are a few tips from some of the world’s top leaders.

Oprah Winfrey – Be Ambitious With Your Vision

You may know Oprah Winfrey as a leading American television personality. But she’s also an entrepreneur who’s made innovative strides in broadcast and web technology.

She offers the following slice of motivational wisdom: “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.”

Winfrey makes a simple point. If you don’t believe in yourself and what you’re doing, you’ll never feel motivated. For that, you need a grand vision to inspire you.

But how do you apply this to your work?

Try to think of every task in terms of how it helps you to take a step closer to achieving your vision. If you can figure out where the task slots into that plan, you’ll feel more motivated to complete it.

Steve Jobs – Know When to Make a Change

Routine can destroy your passion and motivation in the same way that it can negatively affect your people. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs knew this, which is why he always asked himself the same question every morning:

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

Jobs pointed towards his own mortality as a huge motivator. But he makes a brighter point here. Jobs’ question allows you to look closer at what you’re doing with your professional life.

He added: “…Whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Your lack of motivation may stem from stagnation. Ask Jobs’ question of yourself every day and you’ll find out if you need to change something.

Steven Spielberg – Never Make Money Your Goal

Acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg has created some of the finest silver screen extravaganzas of the modern age.

And he agrees with the opinion that money is not the motivator that many people think it is.

“I’m not really interested in making money. That’s always come as the result of success,” he says. “But it’s not been my goal, and I’ve had a tough time proving that to people.”

Spielberg would likely say “no” if you asked himdoes money motivate teams?”

Your reason for doing what you’re doing is your most important motivator. Whenever you start to feel unmotivated, remind yourself of that reason. Use it to give yourself the drive to keep pushing forward.

If money is your only driving force, you’ll often end up in bad situations. You’ll take on projects that you have no passion for just because they’re high earners. Again, your people see this lack of motivation and respond in kind.

The Final Word

We come back to the original question:

Does money motivate employees?

It can, to an extent. When used sparingly, monetary incentives can be a good way of achieving short-term goals.

But it doesn’t allow you to create long-term motivation in the workplace. For that, you’ll need more effective staff motivation tools.

Always remember that money is not the main motivator for most of your people. They have other goals, both personal and professional. They need to feel like their work has purpose and that you appreciate everything that they do. Your people want to innovate and create.

Help them to reach their goals and understand their purpose. That’s how you motivate teams without money.

Moreover, don’t forget that some of the world’s most successful people aren’t motivated by money. They find other ways to motivate themselves and success follows.

Are you struggling to motivate your people? If so, you’re not alone. After all, 65% of employees claim they’d prefer a new manager over a pay raise.

Don’t be one of those managers that your people want to replace.

Register for the next Great Managers webinar to learn even more about motivating your people.

Did you know that you have a huge effect on motivation in the workplace? An uninspired leader creates teams that produce uninspired results. Discover the habits of the most motivational leaders…

It may seem like the most motivational leaders have an innate ability to get more from their teams. They know what it takes to be a great manager and how to inspire a team.

Figuring out new ways to motivate staff seems to come easily to them.

But what if we told you that motivational leaders aren’t just born that way? Most of them work hard to embody the qualities that can inspire others to success. They develop key habits that lead others to feel motivated just by being around them.

Simply put, becoming a motivational leader is something that you can train for.

It all starts with your own habits. After all, your people take their cues from you. If they see you exhibiting motivational habits, they’re more likely to feel motivated to work for you. These are the 10 habits that you most commonly see in motivational leaders.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #1 – They Listen to Employees

Every person wants to feel as though their manager cares about their opinions. They want to feel comfortable in communicating their ideas and feel confident that some action gets taken for those ideas. Even if the idea doesn’t get used, their manager still listens to what they have to say.

Despite this, a shocking number of managers don’t listen to their employees. They may ask questions and get answers, but they’re not really hearing what their people have to say. Instead, they’re so set on their own ideas that they don’t listen to other people’s thoughts.

That’s a fast way of dropping motivation in the workplace. If your people don’t feel like they have voices, they’ll stop talking. They’ll just keep their heads down and do what’s asked of them. All of the while, they’re coming up with ideas that they never share with their managers.

Motivational leaders listen to their employees. They want to learn as much as possible about their people. This creates stronger relationships that lead to innovation and great results.

motivational leaders

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #2 – They Communicate Often

Feedback is crucial to your people’s motivation levels. Your people want to know what they’re doing well and what they could improve on. They need recognition while also getting a sense of what they should do in order to progress.

Yet 69% of managers don’t feel comfortable when talking to their people.

There’s a disconnect that causes them to struggle in providing feedback. This leads to them avoiding opportunities for communication. Much like with not listening, failing to communicate leads to employees disengaging. They feel like you don’t care, which means they don’t care either.

Motivational leaders go in the opposite direction. They communicate often and with confidence. They articulate clearly, which helps their people to understand the direction they need to go in. Offering direction is one of the most important staff motivation tools at your disposal. Use your feedback sessions to ensure your people know what you need from them.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #3 – They Study Problems

Every organisation has its problems. But it’s how you deal with these challenges that separates you from leaders who can’t inspire their people.

You’ll often find that inspirational leaders have a habit of sitting back and studying problems. To some, this may seem like they’re taking a passive approach. But this is actually an important technique.

Studying a problem allows you to understand its root causes. As a result, you don’t react to the immediate issue that manifests. Instead, you look deeper into that problem to come up with a solution that has much wider implications.

Your people will see that you actually put time into solving issues and they’ll follow your example. They’ll feel motivated to apply the same levels of diligence to the problems that they encounter. On the whole, this leads to a healthier and more productive organisation.

When you understand the problem, your people have more trust and belief in the solution that you create.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #4 – They Promote Purpose

A survey from Imperative highlighted some important statistics about purpose in the workplace. It found that 48% of those classed as “baby boomers” prioritise having a purpose over their pay cheques.

That number does decrease as respondents get younger. But even 30% of millennials believe that having a purpose is a better motivator than a big paycheque.

What can you take from this?

It’s simple. The best motivators understand that they need to give their people a reason to work. The pay you offer only gets you so far. Your people will just do what’s needed to earn that pay if that’s all you offer. But an employee with a purpose has a reason to push harder and achieve better results.

Great motivators understand this. That’s why they have purpose-centric habits, such as having clear visions and providing defined goals for employees.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #5 – They Create Optimism

Everybody has days when they don’t feel entirely positive about what they’re doing. You may have a bunch of menial tasks to compete. Or, the project that you’re working on doesn’t inspire you.

For managers, this can lead to them showing a lack of optimism for their work. And as we’ve established, your people take their cues from you. If you’re not optimistic, your people won’t be either.

A motivational leader has the ability to feel optimistic in all that they do. This is easy enough when you’re working on something for which you have great passion. But it’s a bigger challenge when you’re working on a task that may not interest you.

The key is to think about what that task offers in the long term. How does it affect the organisation and its people? What will completing it open the door to?

Define a purpose for the task and it’s much easier to feel optimistic about it. From there, you’ll inspire optimism in your people.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #6 – They Challenge the Status Quo

Any manager can fall in line with the status quo. An organisation may have a set way of doing things. You may see a better way, but don’t implement it because doing so would rock the boat.

Those aren’t the actions of a motivational leader. People who know what it takes to be a great manager know that you need to shake things up occasionally. If something isn’t working well, you take the steps needed to correct it.

That’s a massive motivational force for your people. If they see that you want to bring about change, they’ll feel compelled to share their ideas with you. Moreover, they’ll benefit directly from the changes that you do bring about. As a result, they’re more likely to offer their support when you instigate change.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #7 – They Tailor Incentives

Every person in your organisation has different motivations. Failing to understand those individual motivations leads to your people disengaging. They want to feel like they’re working towards what really matters to them. That means they need managers who understand their goals and facilitate the achievement of them.

That’s what inspirational leaders do. They learn about their people and what really drives them. This allows them to tailor incentives to the individual, rather than the collective.

That’s not to say that collective incentives don’t have a motivational effect. But if something will benefit an individual directly, they’re more likely to work towards it. A motivational leader understands this and thus makes it a habit to create tailored incentive plans.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #8 – They’re Transparent

A shocking 58% of people say they would trust a stranger more than they trust their boss.

Now, think about how you react to people that you don’t trust. It’s unlikely that you’re willing to give your all to help them. You may even go out of your way to do as little as possible for them.

That’s how your people will act if they don’t trust you. As a result, offering transparency is one of the most important habits of a motivational leader.

Such leaders talk openly with their people and don’t try to hide important information from them. They don’t play people against each other and they’re always quick to inform people about what’s going on with the organisation.

motivational leaders

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #9 – They Set High Standards

The standards that you set for yourself are also one of your biggest staff motivation tools. If you don’t work to the best of your abilities, you’re showing your people what you expect from them. They’ll only work as hard as they need to because they know that you have low standards.

That’s why a motivational leader will always push themselves to achieve more. They’ve gotten to where they are on the back of their hard work. Once they’re in management roles, they don’t rest on their laurels. Instead, they keep pushing to raise the standards expected from the organisation.

This simple act inspires others to do the same. Their people follow their lead, which creates highly motivated and productive teams.

Motivational Leaders’ Habit #10 – They Confront Productivity Obstacles

Think about all of the obstacles that may hold you back from achieving something. Fear is often a big one. Self-doubt ranks up there, as does lacking the resources needed.

These obstacles may feel insurmountable to employees. Fearing what might happen if you push yourself and fail is a feeling that you’re likely familiar with. So is feeling like you don’t have the tools needed to get the job done.

Inspirational leaders have a simple habit for such obstacles. They confront them and break through them. They help those who fear consequences push past that fear. They reinforce the confidence of those who may doubt themselves. Moreover, great leaders provide the tools that their people need to become more productive.

Adopt the Habits of Motivational Leaders

Unmotivated people produce poor results. You can see this in the engagement statistics. A lack of engagement costs businesses an estimated $300 billion per year. Moreover, engaged teams offer 38% more productivity.

You need to become a motivational leader to get the most out of your people. That means developing key habits, such as:

  • Learn how to communicate properly with your people.
  • Become a problem-solver.
  • Create a positive and optimistic workplace culture.
  • Set the standards that you expect your people to follow.
  • Remove productivity obstacles.

Remember, a Great Manager can DOUBLE the capacity of their people.

Register for our next free webinar to learn more about the habits that motivational leaders use to get better results.

As a manager, you need to know how to inspire your team. You want to build motivation in the workplace to get results. Take inspiration from the actions of established leaders, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

If you can’t inspire your team, you can’t achieve results. A Great Manager always looks for new ways to motivate staff. But you may find that some of the techniques that you try don’t work out as you intended.

Look towards those who’ve already achieved success to find the answers. Entrepreneurs, such as Mark Zuckerberg, must constantly inspire huge teams. They’re constantly working on ways to inspire a team. That’s why their organisations achieve the successes that they do.

You can use their examples to help you to inspire your team. This article examines seven methods that come from the world’s leading entrepreneurs.

But first, here’s an example of how a client inspired their people with Great Managers

Case Study – Inspiring People

Great Managers worked with a not-for-profit organisation to help develop their leaders. They had a problem that’s common among many organisations. They’d used traditional training methods in an attempt to create an inspiring workplace.

This meant small, half-day management seminars, coupled with multi-day training trips. The organisation’s team didn’t learn what it needed. Moreover, its people didn’t work together on the materials.

They’d attend a session and leave no more inspired than they were before.

Our Great Managers Academy introduced new techniques, such as blended learning, to the organisation.

With Great Managers, the organisation took control of its training. Its people could fit their education around their work. Moreover, they developed a community around their training efforts.

The Great Managers Academy introduced an ongoing learning model. This became part of their culture and replaced the fractured training sessions of the past.

The benefits of this became apparent when the organisation had to roll out changes. Its people no longer resisted such change. Instead, they felt inspired to take charge and lead that change.

Inspiring your team helps you to usher in positive organisational change.

Here’s how some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs inspire their people.

Mark Zuckerberg – Hire Talented People

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most prominent people in the technology industry. You could argue that he’s the person responsible for creating the social media age.

He’s built Facebook into a multi-billion dollar company. Importantly, he knows that he hasn’t done it alone.

“No one does it alone,” he says.

“When you look at most big things that get done in the world, they’re not done by one person.”

He continues with an important point. “You’re going to need people that have complementary skills.”

inspire your team

 

How does this help you to inspire your team?

It’s simple. When you create teams with complementary skills, you ensure that everybody has a purpose.

That’s a crucial motivator. When each member knows the role that they play, they also know they’re contributing to the team’s goals.

If you pack a team full of people who have the same skills, you create two problems.

Firstly, there will always be somebody in the team who can’t work on what they’re best at.

Secondly, such people usually end up taking on tasks that they’re unsuited for.

That causes dips in motivation in the workplace. Surround your team members with talented people who have different skills to inspire them to achieve more.

Rand Fishkin and Henry Ford – Build Relationships

A web guru, Rand Fishkin founded Moz in 2004. Since then, he’s built a search engine optimisation (SEO) empire that’s valued at over US$120 million (AU$160 million).

As an SEO entrepreneur, Fishkin knows a lot about building links. But he reveals something interesting when talking about the connections that people make with one another.

“Don’t build links,” he says. “Build relationships.”

It’s such a simple quote, but it holds a lot of power.

You create instant links when you bring a team together. But if they don’t build their relationships with one another, they’ll struggle to achieve results.

Your people must care about the people that they work with to feel truly inspired.

Focus on helping your people to connect in a deeper way. Having them work together isn’t enough.

Encourage conversation and hold events that bring your people together. Over time, you’ll help your people to build the relationships that inspire them to work harder.

Henry Ford expresses the same idea in a different way.

He says: “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

He says that bringing people together isn’t enough to inspire your team. Keeping them together and fostering the bonds that they build is the key.

 

Simon Sinek – Engage Emotions

inspire your team

Simon Sinek shot to viral fame when discussing millennial workers during an interview. He’s also the founder of Start With Why, which aims to inspire people to do remarkable things.

He points out that emotion is a key motivator for most people.

“When people are financially invested, they want a return,” he says.

“When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”

Sinek may talk more about investors here than organisations. But there’s an important point about how to inspire a team buried in this quote.

Money isn’t the key motivator when it comes to any project. As Sinek says, those who focus on money can only focus on the returns that a project generates.

That’s not what you’re looking for with your team. You want people who care about the outcome, rather than the returns that it generates.

For that, you have to engage your people on an emotional level. This means aligning your organisation’s values with those of your people. Moreover, it means giving them a reason to care about what the project will achieve upon completion.

If you get your people to invest emotionally, you can push them to achieve better results.

Barbara Corcoran and Elizabeth Debicki – Use Failures to Inspire Your Team

Barbara Corcoran is a true example of the “rags to riches” story that inspires so many people. She started her organisation with a $1,000 loan in the 1970s. Since then, she’s built the Corcoran Group into a multi-billion dollar organisation.

She also points to the importance of not getting bogged down in failures. “All of my best successes came on the heels of a failure,” she says. “So, I’ve learned to look at each belly-flop as the beginning of something good.”

How can you use this advice to inspire your team?

It all relates to how you react in the aftermath of a failure.

Unfortunately, you can’t guarantee that everything will go the way that your team planned it. When things go wrong, it’s easy for your team to fall into a slump. This can lead to other projects going wrong, which further demotivates your people.

Corcoran says that a failure offers you the chance to reflect. Sit down with your team to discuss the issue when something goes wrong. Gather opinions and ensure everybody contributes to the discussion. Don’t focus on the failure. Instead, focus on how you can use the failure as a learning experience. This gives your team a valuable incentive in the aftermath of something going wrong.

Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki offers up a similar viewpoint.  

inspire your team

Elizabeth Debicki Image: Gage Skidmore

She says: “I’m grateful for every time I’ve slipped up so far. Not immediately. I don’t think anybody’s immediately grateful. When you fail, that’s when you learn things.”

Scott Belsky – Turn Ideas Into Action

The founder of Behance, Scott Belsky has forged a strong career in the technology industry. The platform that he created now hosts content from thousands of contributors. He’s also leveraged his early successes into a key role with the Adobe software group.

Belsky says that ideas aren’t enough to inspire your team.

“It’s not about ideas,” he says. “It’s about making ideas happen.”

Here’s what Belsky means. Your people will contribute ideas for projects. But if they don’t see you taking action on those ideas, they’ll feel demotivated. They’ll think that you’re not listening, or that you don’t think that they can contribute to the team.

If an employee shares a good idea, don’t just tell them it’s good. Take action on the idea. Implement whatever they suggest into the project.

Of course, even the best ideas can fail when put into action. But the fact that you’re willing to try creates motivation in the workplace.

It shows your people that they can actively contribute to the work process.

Sam Walton – Show Appreciation

The founder of Walmart, Sam Walton believed that appreciation breeds inspiration. He was keen to point to his people as being the reason for his success. Because of this, he inspired his people to achieve more.

“Appreciate everything your associates do for the business,” he says.

“Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.”

Walton makes a crucial point with this quote. Money isn’t the only motivator that your people have. It’s also not enough to inspire them to come up with new ideas.

Praise, on the other hand, shows that you care about what your people contribute to the organisation.

A small pat on the back can boost somebody’s spirits and show them that what they do matters.

If your people know that they’re making a difference, they’ll work even harder to keep making that difference.

Don’t reserve your praise for the big accomplishments. Every small milestone that an employee reaches is a cause for praise. After all, every small step takes them closer to what they want to achieve.

Show that you appreciate their hard work and you’ll inspire them to keep pushing.

Steve Jobs and Richard Branson – Bring in Passionate People to Inspire Your Team

Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are two of the most prominent names in entrepreneurship. Both became brands unto themselves, as well as leading their organisations to great success. Both also believe that passion is the key to inspiring a team.

inspire your team

 

Jobs keeps it simple when he says: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Branson expands on this when he says: “The first thing that has to be recognised is that one cannot train someone to be passionate. It’s either in their DNA or it’s not.”

Passionate people push each other to achieve success.

This starts with you. If you have no passion for what you do, you can’t expect to inspire other people.

But you also need passionate people in your team.

Your people must love what they do, as well as having the skills to do it.

As Branson says, you can’t train somebody to have passion. They either do or they don’t.

Use your hiring processes to pick out the people who genuinely care about the work.

Remember, you can help them to develop their skills. But you can’t make them more passionate than they are.

The Final Word

Don’t just look at money when figuring out how to inspire a team. There’s so much more that goes into building motivation than the money you throw at people.

Your people need to have the following:

  • A passion for the work that you do to complement the skills they bring to the table.
  • Emotional engagement with the project.
  • Deep bonds with you and the people in your team.
  • The ability to build up from failures.

A Great Manager can inspire their people to achieve more. But a bad manager can completely demotivate their staff. After all, there’s a reason why 65% of people would take a new manager over a pay rise.

Don’t be part of that 65%. Register for our next free webinar to learn what great managers do differently to inspire their teams to higher performance levels.

How do you build motivation in the workplace? Many rely on monetary incentives to raise motivation and thus get results. But that’s not always an effective strategy. 

motivation,ways to motivateA leader who can’t motivate their people will not achieve great results. You need some ways to motivate staff to keep them engaged with your organisation.

But money isn’t the solution to your problem. In fact, 65% of employees say they’d take a new manager over a pay rise. This tells you that your people look for more than money to keep them motivated. They’re looking for Great Managers to build a motivational culture.

Here’s how we helped a recent client do just that.

Case Study

Our client had an interesting dilemma. They operate a not-for-profit organisation. But they also realised that such an organisation benefits from good management.

They had tried various methods to introduce a motivational culture into the workplace. They sent their management team on several training seminars. These gave them the basics, but the information they picked up wasn’t always relevant to their situation. However, it also meant the client had to send managers away from the organisation for days at a time to learn.

That left the organisation without management, which sapped motivation.

Great Managers offered a different model.

Our Academy allows learners to divide a lot of training into smaller, more manageable chunks. Learners can structure their education around their work. Plus, they always have access to the materials if they need a refresher.

This motivated the organisation’s managers because it gave them control over their learning. Moreover, they learned about the importance of taking action in the workplace.

Talking about creating a transparent and motivational culture in the workplace is one thing.

Actively working to create it is quite another.

Via our Academy, the client learned about the techniques needed to motivate its people. Best of all, these techniques didn’t require them to resort to money.

Here are 10 ways to motivate staff that don’t require salary increases:

Technique #1 – Praise Your People

Regular feedback is a crucial component of a great company culture. But it’s not just offering words of wisdom that keeps staff motivated. Your feedback must always have a positive slant if you’re to keep getting results.

Praise is one of the simplest motivational tools that you have available to you.

It takes a matter of seconds to say “thank you” or “good work”. Yet many managers don’t praise their people enough.

They overlook the little improvements and small tasks that staff complete on a day-to-day basis. Instead, they reserve their praise for the big moments.

That won’t keep staff motivated during projects that require a lot of grinding. Praising people for the little things is one of the best ways to motivate staff in such situations.

Start by holding feedback sessions in which you praise individuals for their efforts in a one-on-one setting.

From there, move on to praising people in front of their peers. Most importantly, ensure you offer specific praise for good work, rather than general praise with no purpose.

For example, fill in the blanks with specifics:  

“Thank you for __________”

“Great work on this project! I really liked how you _________ and ___________. It showed great initiative”

Technique #2 – Establish AMP

Offering AMP is one of the best ways to motivate staff. But what does it mean?

AMP stands for “Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose”. It relates both to how people want to do their jobs and what they want to get from their work.

Autonomy relates to how your people want to take charge when it comes to their work. A manager who constantly hovers over employees shows that they don’t trust their people. That’s damaging to anybody’s motivation levels. Allow employees to make decisions and use their expertise.

Mastery relates to everybody’s desire to get better at what they do. You can help in this process in a variety of ways. The training opportunities that you present obviously help. But so too does offering feedback on the progress that your people make. Give your people the opportunities needed to master their crafts.

Purpose is a self-explanatory concept. Everybody needs a reason beyond money to work for you. In fact, having purpose drives motivation in the workplace more than most other factors. Learn about each individual’s values and show them how their work aligns with their beliefs.

With AMP, you give your staff control over their working lives and a purpose for what they do.

ways to motivate staff

Technique #3 – Ask for Opinions

How many managers just tell their staff what they want without inviting discussion?

It’s likely that you’ve encountered this yourself during your career. And you likely had the same feeling that most others have. You felt dictated to and perhaps felt like your opinion didn’t matter.

Following this philosophy is not how to be a motivational leader.

Instead of dictating, invite your people into the conversation. Don’t say “I think we should do X.” Instead, ask “What do you think about trying X?”

It’s a subtle difference, but it has a huge impact on motivation levels. Your staff feel like they’re contributing, which engages them.

Technique #4 – Create a Workplace Community

In searching for clues on how to inspire a team, you may forget that your team members can inspire each other. Being a motivational leader involves more than your own interactions with your team. It also involves how each member interacts with each other.

You can help with this. Find ways to turn your team into a small community of people who work together to achieve common goals. Something as simple as encouraging your people to eat lunch together can help.

Encourage them to find out as much as possible about each other. Extend this beyond the professional setting too. Allow them to learn about each other as people, rather than employees.

The not-for-profit client I mentioned in our case study earlier, benefitted from this.

Great Managers allowed them to train their people together. Instead, of sending a couple of people away on a course at a time, our client saw their people group together to tackle the materials as a cohort.

This created a camaraderie between the participants. It also allows for the creation of peer relationships that may not have occurred using other methods. Through our training, the organisation developed an internal community.

This achieves something very simple. It creates deeper staff bonds that ensure your people look forward to coming into work. They like the people they work with, which means they’re happy in their working environment.

A happy employee has the motivation needed to get results. Better yet, you didn’t have to spend any money!

Technique #5 – Avoid Direct Criticism When Finding Ways to Motivate Staff

There’s no quicker way to demotivate an employee than to scream and shout at them when something goes wrong. You can’t foster motivation in the workplace if you’re seen as an ogre who only speaks up to talk about the negatives.

But corrective feedback is an essential part of working life. So, how do you give it and use it as one of the ways to motivate staff?

It’s all in your delivery. Simply telling somebody that they did something wrong isn’t a motivator. It gives them nothing actionable to work from. Instead, ask questions about the situation. Ask the employee if they feel like they took the right course of action. If not, why not?

The key here is that you’re working together to come up with a solution. You’re offering a criticism, but you’re doing it in a corrective way that doesn’t make the employee feel bad. Instead, you’re showing them that you trust in their ability to learn from their mistakes. Plus, you’re demonstrating a nurturing side that shows that you want them to learn.

Technique #6 – Don’t Be Afraid to Ask For Ways to Motivate Staff

Perhaps you have no idea about what motivates a team member. How do you find ways to motivate staff when you don’t know anything about what drives them?

There’s a simple solution. Ask the question.

Talk to your staff about the reasons why they work with you. Find out about what incentives would work best for them. Your staff is the best source of information when it comes to methods of motivation. Don’t be afraid to ask a few questions to figure out what they want.

You don’t have to approach this in a direct manner either. You could hold brainstorming sessions in which your staff talk about what motivates them. Or, you could create a suggestions box for reward and incentive ideas.

The key is that you’re learning about ways to motivate staff from your people.

ways to motivate staff

Technique #7 – Remember the Work/Life Balance

Everybody has responsibilities and commitments outside of the workplace. If your people can’t keep up with those, they bring their problems to work.

Personal issues cause stress, which drives motivation down.

A little extra money isn’t going to solve a personal problem that requires time, rather than cash.

A little flexibility goes a long way in such situations. Offer your people some choice in their work schedule.

An employee may need an extra hour to get the kids to school in the morning. Or, they may need to head out for an hour during work to pick them up and get them back home.

Offer them that opportunity and you help them to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Your people will feel happier at work because they’re not stressing about how they’re going to solve personal issues.

Technique #8 – Take a Break for Fun

Sharing in some fun together is one of the better ways to motivate staff. This is especially important during long projects. It’s possible that motivation levels will dip when you’re all grinding to get to a result. After a couple of weeks of monotony, anybody would start to struggle.

Offer the occasional break from that monotony. Have the team take an hour out to chat about anything but work. Or, create a game to play to inject some fun into the proceedings. This can give your people a lift at a vital time, which helps them to push through.

Here are 100 fun office games that can make work awesome.

Of course, there is a caveat to this technique. Focusing too much on fun means you’re not focusing on work.

Create the occasional break, rather than making fun the key theme of the workday.

Technique #9 – Volunteer With Your Team

A United Health Group survey revealed some interesting statistics about volunteering. It found that 94% of those who volunteer experience an improvement in their mood.

Simply put, volunteering makes you happier.

Managers can use this fact to the benefit of their teams.

Organise volunteering trips for your team. Importantly, make sure you play an active role and join in with the activity.

Volunteering shows that your organisation has a community focus, which can be a huge motivator. Plus, it helps your employees feel happier in themselves.

This translates into results in the workplace.

ways to motivate staff

Technique #10 – Allow Some Personal Flair

An organised workplace is an efficient workplace. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no room for some personal flair. Remember that each of your team members has individual tastes. Allow them to express those tastes in small ways in the office.

This could be as simple as allowing employees to place pictures of their family on their desks. The key is that the employee makes their workspace feel more comfortable.

Nobody likes to work in an organisation that feels sterile and soulless.

Allow your employees to showcase some personality at work and you’ll reap the motivational benefits.

The Final Word

Does money motivate employees?

It certainly plays a large role. But it’s not the only thing that keeps an employee motivated. Most people look to their managers, their teammates, and their organisation to provide extra motivation.

You can do that without spending a cent on higher wages. This article offers some useful techniques to help you along. But there’s so much more to learn. That’s where the Great Managers Academy can help.

A Great Manager can DOUBLE the capability of their people.

Register for our next free webinar to learn what great managers do to motivate their teams and improve results.