There is no simple recipe for effective leadership, however all successful leaders and managers agree, knowing WHY employees behave is the secret to improving productivity.
- How well do you know your employees?
- Do you know, what motivates them?
Research has shown that more money is not a catch-all motivator and it may be as simple as offering more responsibility – and that doesn’t necessarily cost a lot.
In a recent survey it was established 22% of workers want more responsibility and 9% want to be given charge of a special projects. For others, it may be more professional development, or perhaps more recognition for doing a good job.
This speaks to two key points,
- The importance of leaders in motivating and engaging their team and individuals; and
- That motivation is different for every individual – everyone is motivated not necessarily by different things but different things in different situations.
It’s naive for a leader or an organisation to assume that employees are all motivated by the same thing!
However, money still talks with research showing 67% of workers expect more money if promoted or given extra duties. But with remuneration budgets tight, is it possible to offer further duties without increasing the organisations remunerating bottom line? Yes, but leaders must be open with employees and understand what their individual motivators are, for example present additional duties as a necessary step for future promotion
Sometimes the most valuable employees are the most difficult to deal with therefore, when challenging employees to take on additional responsibilities, leaders must understand what drives individuals to perform. Each employee has a certain level of ‘discretionary effort’ in how they approach their work, and motivated employees are more likely to go the extra mile. Objectively assessing rather than guessing what motivates each employee enables leaders to tailor their approach to get the best out of each employee – remember as a leader we can’t change a person’s behaviour, however by changing our behaviour towards them the outcome can change.
Research shows that the secret to high performance isn’t biological drive or reward-&-punishment motivators; methods many leaders consider a natural part of being a team leader. We now know that their effectiveness is only a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances, meaning the ‘one-size-fits-all’ methodology doesn’t always work. Therefore if we are going to bring our businesses into sync with these truths, we need to unlearn old practices, and begin looking at different approaches.
To further support this claim, in business today, the general emphasis is not on behaviours but on strategies, projects and time lines. Behavioural elements are often ignored. Yet employee’s behaviours, not strategies, processes and structures are what make or break organisational performance. Business requires good management of team and individual behaviours. In other words we need to understand the behaviour of our employees and more importantly ourselves – self-awareness. So how well do you know your employees and do you know, what motivates them?
Top five tips for effective leadership:
- Don’t assume employees are all motived by the same things; learn methods to understand individual behaviour and what specifically motivates each individual
- By understanding behaviour you can provide responsibilities and challenges that suit employees to continually develop their capabilities
- Make sure recognition of hard work is given in a way that is most receptive to the employee and their behaviour – do they want a song and dance at team meeting or a quiet pat on the back?
- Involve all employees in learning how knowing each other’s values and behaviours can improve communication processes
- Provide a team environment where employee values and behaviour is in sync with their role
