The question of how to motivate staff has vexed the owners of small businesses for years.

There are three big approaches used by most:

  • Treat your staff as friends and lean on that friendship to get things done
  • Offer incentives to perform
  • Use threats or punishments to induce a bit of fear

(These last two together are the carrot and stick approach)

Watch the video if you’d like to know the real secret to motivated employees.  It’s a completely different way to think about motivation.  It takes more work initially, but gets far better results in the long term.

How you can motivate your staff…

Now think hard about how you manage your team and answer the following questions about your business…

Have you got a long-term vision that excites your staff?  Or is it just about survival, or maybe making you personally rich?

Do you encourage your employees to learn and master their subject, or just drive them to do today’s work?

Do you micro-manage your team, making them feel powerless, with no sense of control over their own activities?

A good place to start is to create a vision that excites, engages and motivates you and your team.  Give them a bigger reason to succeed.

And if you’d like help, get in touch.