Learn more about your employees
One of the best ways to motivate your employees/partners is to find ways they can take pride in their skills and knowledge. When you do this, you quickly find that people stop being passive followers of the company and start to share their insights and ideas. Instead of being loyal to a paycheck, they become loyal to the company. When motivating your workforce, always acknowledge and praise their worthwhile contributions. Find out more about their interests, backgrounds, and skills. This information will give you the insight into their motivation, which can be far more powerful than money.
Jay Cipriani, Owner
Cipriani Remodeling Solutions, Woodbury, NJ
Explain how change impacts the company
We are very transparent with our employees. We explain the reason why the process or action needs to change. This includes showing them how the change will affect the numbers to bring the company to optimal performance and enable us to offer greater safety, job security, and benefits. We provide tools employees need to do their job well and resources to grow personally. They realize that we have an interest in seeing them succeed through bonuses and salary structure; as a result, they share the vision of bringing about the changes we feel are necessary.
Joe Smith, President,
LeafGuard of Central Iowa, Granger, IA
Show employees how to win
Provide very clear performance agreements for every employee, give real-time reports of performance metrics, put incentive dollars behind those achievements, and then get out of the way. Heroes love to win. Show them the goal posts, how to win, the scoreboard, and then celebrate success.
Scott Mosby, President
Mosby Building Arts, St. Louis, MO
Continue to challenge people
With the change in market conditions we are now experiencing, it’s almost like a breath of fresh air for our team. Leads, design sales, and build sales are more predictable, which allows for more long term forecasting. As a result, we are busier. As much as we provide opportunity for our people to take on additional duties, it’s our responsibility as managers to walk that fine line of challenging our people but not burying them. Our challenge will be to do everything we can to prevent employee burnout, while keeping the pedal pressed to the floor.
Bill Simone, President
Custom Design & Construction, El Segundo, CA