Tag: Employee Morale

How To Lead With Validation and Become A Better Leader

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On the final episode of her TV show, Oprah declared: “I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common. They all wanted validation.”

All humans share this innate need and intense desire. When we look at Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, three out of five components are related to validation: safety, love and belonging and esteem.

Related: 5 Rock-Solid Leadership Strategies That Drive Success

But, what is validation really?

Validation is allowing and acknowledging someone’s unique emotional experience, thoughts, values, dreams, beliefs, concerns and contributions.

Allowing: This happens through practicing silence and providing space for full expression.

Acknowledging: This means expressing that you recognize that what was shared is accurate, valid and important.

Validation is the feedback that sends the clear message: “You are seen, safe and supported.”

Related: Your Employees Are Probably Feeling Triggered at Work

Why does validation matter?

Validation helps build stronger relationships because it helps people feel valued. Validation is essential to create a deep connection with another human being and is a necessary skill for leaders.

When we validate others, their needs of safety, love, belonging and esteem are met. These are the requirements for self-actualization. When someone feels invalidated, they cannot fulfill their potential — it may even stunt their growth.

Validation is so much more than rewarding extraordinary work with money, perks or verbal praise. It requires genuine care and an appreciation of the whole person — not just their accomplishments and efforts.

Even top performers stop growing when they don’t feel validated or feel invalidated. Invalidation is the unspoken barrier to vulnerability, authenticity and belonging.

Related: The Pursuit of Happiness: Self-Actualization and Maslow’s Mistake

Validation is the prerequisite for vulnerability

In recent years, we’ve all heard about the power of vulnerability and the need for authenticity in every aspect of our lives. I believe everyone understands the value of being vulnerable. And most of us want to be vulnerable. For many of us, it’s a deep desire.

However, many of us are constantly invalidated, making us cautious or even close to attempting to be vulnerable again. We guard ourselves against people who invalidate our experiences.

For people to be vulnerable and authentic, they need a safe place. They need a safe person.

Validation is the prerequisite for vulnerability. When someone validates our experience after we’ve shared something vulnerable, we are likely to be vulnerable again with them. However, we become hesitant or resistant to open up when we are invalidated.

Related: The Benefits of Practicing Vulnerability in the Office

What is invalidation?

Many of us think of invalidation as saying something mean to another person when in reality, many of our invalidating responses actually come from a good place.

Invalidation can happen by denying, dismissing, or diminishing someone’s experience.

Denying is overt invalidation. When you tell someone that what they perceive as true didn’t happen or is not happening, it is evident that they will feel unseen, unsafe and unsupported. However, dismissing and diminishing is a more covert message often disguised as motivation. I call this “motivational shame.”

Most leaders have been trained to motivate their teams. But motivation is not enough. Motivation can be detrimental when it invalidates someone, no matter how great your intentions might be. Invalidation happens when someone expresses concern, and you reply: “You’ll be fine” or “You’ve got this!”

Invalidation looks like someone sharing an experience they consider painful and receiving the reply: “It’s not such a big deal” or “It could be worse.” Many people would go as far as to share those worst cases with them.

Even sharing solutions like a mantra or positive affirmation can be an invalidating experience because when people share their feelings, they are not necessarily seeking solutions. They are just seeking confirmation that they are not wrong or fundamentally flawed for feeling them.

Essentially, being invalidated is getting the message that we are not being rational in our feelings and that we shouldn’t feel that way. This leaves us feeling worse and leads us to shut down, affecting our state, health and performance.

Validation helps create a safe culture where your psychological safety is a possible reality.

Fostering an inclusive environment

It’s a great step to encourage your employees to be transparent, but saying phrases like “be your true self” or “bring your whole self to work” is not enough. Authenticity still feels daring and must be validated for that person to remain authentic.

Without validation, you cannot have a genuinely inclusive environment because inclusion is not a policy.

We feel included when we can be authentic and don’t have to strive to fit in. When we are validated, we feel that we belong, just as we are.

Related: 4 Ways to Cultivate Inclusion and Compassion In the Workplace

How to validate those you lead

Validating is a critical leadership skill, even in self-leadership. I’m sharing some examples of validation in the workplace to illustrate how simple it can be:

Experience: “Wow, being a woman of color in this company sounds difficult.”

Thoughts: “I really appreciate your willingness to share your ideas!”

Values: “Wow… I can see why that’s important to you.”

Dreams: “You sound so excited about this new goal, and with your work ethic, I’m sure you can do it!”

Beliefs: “Can you tell me more about that?”

Concerns: “I can understand why you feel that way. I’d be worried too!”

Contribution: “You’ve put so much into this project. I’m so happy for you. What an amazing accomplishment!”

Validating is an effective way to connect with those you lead because it communicates that you care about them. To make a difference in the people you lead, you must create an environment where they feel valued. I encourage you to think about how you might replace motivation with validation. As you do this, you can genuinely be the impactful leader you want to be.

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Elayna Fernandez

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December 7, 2022
How to Engage Employees Through Core Values
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Whether you run a start-up that focuses on a single market or own a large business that operates worldwide, defining the company’s mission and values is the fundamental thing needed to communicate its reason for existence, connect to customers and organize the group of people who will work toward a common business goal.

This is what the “First Who, Then What” concept presented by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great refers to. It also encourages entrepreneurs at the helm of building successful organizations to “get right people on the bus” — in the key seats — and only then decide where to steer the bus. My company quickly became convinced of this idea’s veracity, and I am willing to share how we ensure no “random passengers” on board.

Related: How Establishing Core Values Drives Success

People come first

When we saw our company growing 10x in the first three months after launch, we understood that this increase was most likely to continue along the same lines. And now, after ten months of operation, the monthly revenue exceeds $3 million from zero, which is an even greater performance, meaning that our assumptions were right. So we needed a more advanced approach to business to keep pace with it.

After consulting with a few highly skilled entrepreneurs from various niches, we summarized our research and concluded that any great organization’s first and foremost criterion was quality recruitment.

Сompany values that let the workforce know the essential parts of doing any given business are what underlies the hiring processes. They serve as a reliable guideline for an employer who seeks long-term and productive cooperation.

While hard skills can be corrected or enhanced over time, a potential employee’s values are usually immutable. In case a candidate’s inner culture runs counter to your company’s principles, making a job offer:
- poses a threat of wasting time and energy on training;
- can cost you thousands of dollars — our HR department calculated that the losses are six monthly salaries of a bad hire plus indirect costs of the organization’s inefficiency;
- will eventually require more efforts to revitalize the search for a better employee.
Setting your company’s core values helps avoid these outcomes, systematize the qualities that you need your staff to have and better understand what workforce should be fired. If employees easily get discouraged by what they do after a month of operation, do not learn from their failures or do not want to grow, they are not with us for long. The passengers of our bus never give up and always strive for more.

Related: Stand for Something: How to Establish Authentic Core Values

Only true values have power

When working on your company’s culture, consider the values that matter to you. Do not motivate your employees to lead a moderate and thrifty lifestyle if you purchase a luxury purse every time you walk past an expensive boutique. Otherwise, your employees will soon sense the difference, and communicating with the team will be much more challenging.

If several entrepreneurs manage a business, all co-founders must agree on the company’s values to avoid future misunderstandings and conflicts. As three co-founders, we came to common opinions about our company. Among them, we believe that we need to be first in everything. Thus we are waiting for a job candidate who is not just a good employee, but a top performer. Also, we do not tolerate gossip and rumors, so we cannot go any further with those who demonstrate that they are prone to backstabbing.

Related: 7 Traits You Must Find In A Co-Founder

Implementing your values into business

Based on our experience, the best solution is to integrate your values into all employee development activities, which requires excellent internal communication. We started by presenting the company’s mission and values to our C-level executives to assess whether they could settle down in the team. As soon as some positive progress was made, we designed our own culture fit scoring system, which implies:
1. Holding an extra interview with a competent expert to determine whether the candidate’s values correlate with the company’s fundamental beliefs. In cases with C-level managers and team leads, often the co-founders themselves perform this role. Ideally, you should involve an impartial specialist who did not previously participate in the hiring process and will never even cross paths with a candidate at this job. Thus, you manage to avoid the bias as people unconsciously sympathize with those they already put time and energy into. This tactic is a good hedge against the risks – third-party opinions have already saved us from multiple bad hires.
2. Including acquaintance of new employees with the core values into the list of the onboarding activities so that every specialist knows what qualities you appreciate along with hard skills;
3. Launching individual training plans and performance reviews for employees who are generally good performers but lack a few essential qualities. For example, suppose people are afraid of making decisions. In that case, managers are gradually delegating relevant tasks to them. Then the discussion of the results takes place.
As an ending note, I would like to share one good method my company uses as part of culture fit when selecting suitable candidates during interviews: appeal to your senses. This means that the first part of the conversation you spend being diligent and attentive to details, but then you distance yourself from what you hear, focus on your inner thoughts and try to feel the candidate in front of you. Sometimes employers become too keen on the process and ignore their doubts when having doubts should be a key signal for refusal.

Creating the company’s culture is more important than coming up with strategies because strategies are executed by people who get genuinely inspired by your mission and values. Setting the right culture fit scoring system may significantly increase your recruitment’s effectiveness and ensure your business’s long-term success.

Related: Having A Work-Life Balance is Nonsense. To Reach Your Goals, Follow Another Approach
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Roman Kumar Vyas

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November 25, 2022
3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Software Developers’ Efficiency

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I’ve observed an odd trend in company board meetings. Marketing and sales vice presidents will come in with charts, reports and finely-tuned data. The CFO will fire up a dashboard detailing every penny of revenue and expense. The HR chief will share hiring metrics down to the last employee. But when it comes to engineering, the lifeblood of any modern company, there’s little data — just a vague sense of what’s working and what’s not.

The reality is that engineering efficiency and developer experience remain a black box, even at some of the most tech-forward organizations. And inside that box lurk inefficiencies on an enormous scale.

I’ve heard of big banks that employ tens of thousands of developers who are operating at 30% efficiency because of bloated processes and unnecessary toil. This is more than a waste of resources. Frustrated developers quit. Company payroll sags under the weight of extra salaries needed to compensate for inefficiencies. Customers are stuck waiting on deliverables. Considering the global impact on productivity and output, this is easily a trillion-dollar problem.

The good news is there are simple, concrete ways to prioritize developer experience (DX) and engineering efficiency. I’ve seen the transformative benefits of improving DX as a developer, founder and CEO of three high-growth tech companies. Here’s what every CEO should know:

Related: Use These 4 Tips to Attract and Retain Software Developers

The true cost of poor DX

Any company dependent on software development should be obsessed with optimizing developers’ work experience. Research shows most software engineers spend more than half their workday performing tedious, repetitive tasks. No engineer wants to spend hours troubleshooting an issue that could be detected by automation or wait weeks for approvals from other teams. Yes, they can (and do) move on to other projects, but context switching increases drag and the likelihood of errors. It’s also a stressful way to work.

A frustrating work environment leads to heavy turnover, which is costly at any time, but particularly now when demand for great developers far outstrips supply. In the U.S., there are around 162,900 open positions for software developers and related occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As word travels about a company’s DX failures, recruiting becomes difficult, creating a downward spiral.

All of this translates to the bottom line, with developers earning a median salary of more than $120,000, leaving them idle amounts to burning money. Worse, inefficient engineering inevitably slows product development. Companies in competitive industries like banking, retail or healthcare that can’t figure out DX will lose customers to competitors able to launch apps, updates and new products quickly.

The silver lining is that since most companies are new to DX, a few simple improvements can yield substantial benefits. Here are three practical ways to improve your developers’ efficiency:

Related: The Future of Software Development in 2022 and Beyond

1. Make it someone’s job

It could be a Developer Experience Officer (DXO), lead engineer or rotating team, but you need someone to own DX inside your company. Here at Harness, we have a Tiger Team that analyzes inefficiencies and recommends solutions. Here’s a recent example: The team learned that our code base was too large for developers to test changes on their laptops, which turned a two-minute test into a 40-minute excursion to use a sufficiently robust computer. Once they identified the problem, the fix was straightforward: Reduce the number of microservices needed on developers’ laptops so they could use their own computers to test the code.

2. Gather data, and put it to use

It’s pretty ironic that engineering — of all departments — suffers from a lack of quantitative operational data. Most companies know more about sales team productivity than the engineering teams at the heart of their work. You can’t fix what you haven’t measured, so start by gathering hard numbers. Some useful metrics include the number of automated processes in your developer workflow, how much work a developer can complete within a certain timeframe and the lead time between a project’s beginning and delivery.

Then, there are qualitative insights. Most companies rely on feedback from customer and employee experience surveys to make sure they are on target, but there’s no equivalent for developers — and that’s a huge oversight. Use surveys to gather qualitative data from engineers, and pinpoint bottlenecks and deficiencies to resolve. DX measurements can include metrics like how easy it is to locate the information, tools or systems they need to do their work.

3. Remove needless barriers

Barriers faced by developers can be cultural or technological. Endemic to many large companies is a culture of micromanagement and excessive oversight. For developers, that means wasting time waiting for someone to greenlight incremental progress. Instead, establish high-level guardrails around cost, security and quality, and give engineers free rein within those parameters. The streamlined process will boost creativity and productivity and increase developers’ job satisfaction.

This goes hand in hand with upgrading developers’ own tech toolkits. Too many are stuck using dated and manual tools and processes or hacking their own fixes. That’s why I’ve worked to build solutions using automation and AI to enable users to build, test, deploy and verify on-demand. For example, if a developer is working on a feature, merging it into the main code can require thousands of tests, which could take hours to run. But using intelligent automation, the same process might take 20 minutes. There are even automations that allow you to programmatically define your guardrails and automate approvals when a project meets the specifications.

Related: How AI Will Transform Software Development

Ultimately, improving developer experience can’t be a one-time event. It takes ongoing attention and iteration to gather relevant data, remove blockers and increase productivity and job satisfaction. Yet improvement is well within reach, and the potential return is far too great to ignore.

I dream that I’ll soon walk into a boardroom and see a developer productivity dashboard as comprehensive as any other department’s. We have the tools and data to unlock productivity, morale, efficiency, customer satisfaction and innovation gains. It’s time to free developers from toil so they can do the work they love.

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Jyoti Bansal

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November 17, 2022
How to Solve Quiet Quitting Without Shaming Employees

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You have probably heard of quiet quitting. If you haven’t, it’s simple: An employee continues to do their job — there’s no actual quitting involved — but they disengage. They don’t give 110%. They don’t even give 100%. Their heart is no longer in their work (if it ever was). And so, they don’t sit up, they slouch. They do only what they must.

What do we do, then, to address this? Clean house? Fire the quiet quitters and strike fear in all who are left? Install spyware on their work computers that monitors all that they do? Many will offer that kind of advice. They’ll give hard-nosed guidance for how to get 110% from our people — which is both unreasonable and logically impossible. That path is a dead end.

By taking a long, hard look at how we do things and acting on the faults we see there, we can solve the problem of quiet quitters once and for all.

Related: 8 Ways to Avoid Your Employees Quiet Quitting on You

Where did quiet quitting come from?

Word of quiet quitting has spread via social media, LinkedIn in particular, and much has been written about it since then. Many erroneously see remote and hybrid work as catalysts. Workers aren’t saying “hello” at their coworkers’ glamorous cubicles; they’re not getting in-the-flesh visits from immediate supervisors and pats on the back from well-compensated executives. They’re on longer leashes than before, and now this disaster — a quiet, but rampant innovation-killer — has struck.

On that point, I am skeptical. Time spent in the confines of the office does not equal greater productivity, creativity or innovation. Let’s admit it: Too much of traditional office time consists of long lunches, sharing company rumors, zoning out at a desk and fretting over the next visit to the corner office.

Quiet quitting did not start with remote work and its lack of supervision. It’s only that people are talking about it now. If anything, that is what is new about all of this: We’re finally opening up about something we couldn’t discuss at work for many years, lest we get overheard.

Why are people really quiet quitting?

Let’s try talking with a random employee in our organization. Ask a few questions, like, “Could you describe your company’s strategy?” “What are your organization’s current goals and KPIs, and how you are contributing toward them?” “When was the last time you were given an honest update on how the company is doing overall?”

If we get clear, accurate, unhesitating responses, then congratulations. We don’t likely have an opaque culture that stimulates quiet quitting, and it’s likely because we’re among those who have taken the right steps to ensure our people are fully engaged — not only with their own duties but with the company as a whole.

Quiet quitting results from not doing what it takes to ensure employees can answer questions like those above. From the jump, quiet quitters were probably never truly engaged with the company or organization they work for. They don’t have a voice, don’t feel essential and don’t know why what they do matters. They’re acting in a way that seems right.

Quiet quitting is not a disease. It’s a symptom of a disease, and the cure does not lie in shaming quiet quitters or pulling them back to the office so they can quietly quit under our noses without mentioning it again. If forced, once they’re back in the building, employees will start looking for the exits in favor of finding another job where they can be free and make their own choices, like the adults they are.

All of us, managers and leaders, should look in the mirror, take stock of how we do things, and see what wrinkles we can iron out. Let’s find where we’re losing the people we’ve hired and see what we can do to correct that. Here are five things to consider.

Related: Quiet Quitting Is Taking Over the Workforce. Here’s How to Fix It.

1. Start at the very beginning

What does it look like when we bring a new employee into the fold? What are they told about their place in the organization? How aware are they, not just of what’s expected of them and how they can best perform their duties, but of the long-term or even short-term goals of the company as a whole?

Most of us have visions for our companies, not to mention metrics that we’re striving for. But when have we communicated that to the people who are there to help us achieve it?

2. Put the big picture on display

What do we do on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis to promote a real sense of psychological safety, openness and belonging among our employees? How do we keep them informed about the company’s long-term goals so they don’t get lost in the bureaucracy and day-to-day tasks?

If we have quiet quitters working for us, the answer to those questions is likely “Geez, I don’t know,” “Nothing” or something similar. Or the things we’ve been doing are not quite enough, and it’s time for a reevaluation.

3. Stop talking. Start listening.

Leaders don’t have a monopoly on vision. We can learn a lot from the people we’ve hired — surely that’s part of why we hired them in the first place. Perhaps it’s time for genuine connection, where we listen, rather than talk, and we see what they have to say, rather than tell them what we think.

Let’s not ask, “How happy are you with your job?” Let’s be real. No one who’s unhappy at work will risk losing a job by saying so to the boss. Instead, let’s ask where an employee thinks the company is headed. Ask for one thing they would change about the job, and see what we can do about the bureaucracy, dysfunction and inefficiencies that your “quit quitters” are surely noticing.

4. When all else fails, let go

It’s true: Sometimes it’s time for quiet quitters to quit less quietly, and the best thing is to part ways. Sometimes it is not about what we’re doing wrong or not doing at all, and we must cut ties. There is nothing shameful about that.

It could be that we hired the right person, but they’re not in the best place to do their best. Going separate ways is for the better. We can also pay the disengaged people to quit. It’s been done before, with good results for everyone. But if we do this, it’s important to engage the rest of the workforce to make sure we’re doing more than weeding out the ranks seasonally.

5. Take a look in the mirror

Too many commentators write and talk about quiet quitting without considering the root cause of the problem. Too often the attitude toward them is shaming and punitive.

But it’s not about the people who work for us. It’s about us and what we have done or not done to ensure our organization behaves like a well-oiled startup.

Innovation requires freedom, and being an employer of choice requires that we liberate our people to be themselves and do their best. We must accept that our employees are likely to have ideas on how to grow and streamline the organization that could be way better and more informed than ours.

Related: Are You a Victim of Quiet Quitting? Look in the Mirror for Answers.

People are quiet quitting because we aren’t being realistic and taking personal responsibility as leaders. We’re forgetting how to drive an engaged and transparent culture of innovation. And that is what we must understand if we’re to fix this problem.

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Alex Goryachev

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November 3, 2022
Solidarity Without Sameness: The Key To Working Together

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies are more than just feeling good about ourselves. Diversity drives innovation, and companies that innovate in today’s fast-paced environment are the ones that come out on top. Socially-responsible companies are attracting more demanding consumers. But the more diversity we bring to a team, the more potential for crossed interests and differing opinions about what social responsibility implies, which can quickly escalate into conflict.

This is where building solidarity comes in.

Solidarity is not thinking and behaving exactly the same. It’s rallying support as a team, welcoming and respecting open communication even when opinions are different, and agreeing to the course of action that best considers the company and its people. Fostering solidarity, not sameness, is the key to unlocking the benefits of a diverse team.

Related: Solving Organizational Diversity Is Still an Issue: The Cost Is Steep, But the Rewards Are High

Welcome the benefits of embracing diversity as a team

Everyone has differences, and the more diverse backgrounds, upbringings and histories we bring onto a team, the more opportunities for differences to exist. But from boards and management teams to organizing a charity fundraiser event, embracing group diversity brings more perspectives, ideas and alternatives that spur innovation and improve productivity. Diverse teams focus more on facts and process them more carefully, resulting in smarter decisions.

A 2015 McKinsey report found that embracing diversity also improves the bottom line. Companies in the top quartile of ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have higher financial returns over the industry average; companies in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely. Diverse teams that work well together outpace the competition.

Companies seek to advance diversity at all levels. Still, for those diverse minds to work well together as a team, they need solidarity — “unity, association, reciprocation, a good community or social interest, gratuity, justice and respect for human dignity.” With a culture of solidarity, companies can more successfully implement DEI and ESG initiatives that reduce social and economic inequality within the organization, improving efficiency, productivity and the company’s reputation.

Related: How Diversity Helped Bring My Company Together

Align everyone around individual responsibilities

Building and encouraging team solidarity requires an established set of values around personal responsibility to contribute to the effort. Sincere acknowledgment and mutual support build a culture of community, which can foster solidarity, but solidarity cannot be forced. It is a co-responsibility for the moral well-being of all others as equal partners on a common mission. Each person with their individual and collective interests needs to embrace solidarity around acknowledging and respecting our differences while arriving at decisions that best serve the collective “we.”

People pick up on culture fast through the example of their leadership, so leaders should demonstrate acknowledgment and support of diversity to build that sense of solidarity in their teams. There are many worlds of thought with which I disagree, but I work hard to respect them and be understanding of the background from which they originate. So much of our foundational backgrounds embed themselves into who we are today. While I can’t even begin to fully understand every person’s background or how they got to where they are, I can at least respect the fact that it played a part in creating them, even when we disagree.

We can also build a community culture by recognizing the dynamic interdependence between all team members, emphasizing the need for dialogue, compassion, and understanding across a team. Start by making sure everyone feels they belong.

We just had our annual meeting, where everyone — those stationed outside Minneapolis and some even outside the country — comes home to the “mothership” to celebrate everything in Clearfield. We start by discussing the upcoming year, host lots of learning during the day and hold parties every evening. Especially in this new hybrid world, bringing everyone together is critical to maintaining their sense of solidarity.

Related: How to Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Your Workplace

See everyone’s potential equally

When I became a grandma, I developed a new perspective to understand inclusion in the face of diversity better: Look at people as babies. My six-month-old grandson is slightly over 19 pounds, while my 15-month-old is approaching 20 pounds. The older one is small for his age, while the younger one is big. To look at them, they seem totally different. And yet, I look at them as very much the same. They are both my grandsons, with the same potential for growth despite their differences. When we look at babies, whether grandchildren, children, or someone else’s children, we so quickly look at them and see their potential. Each one is equally capable of becoming the next future star performer. If we can see the potential in babies, why can’t we still see it when they grow up to become adults?

As leaders, seeing equal potential in everyone allows us to respect what their differences can bring to the team — as team members, seeing our peers full of potential will enable them to achieve their best for the benefit of the rest of the company. Look at someone and think about whose baby they were. Imagine someone caring for them, praying for them and trying to open doors for them; someone who saw them brimming with potential. Encourage others to imagine the same and help instill diverse teams with a greater sense of oneness and unity.

As former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon put it, “A world of peace and solidarity can only be accomplished by acknowledging and celebrating [sic] our diversity.” Diversity and inclusion are more than just inviting people in: We need everyone aligned around creating an environment where people feel comfortable being their authentic selves and bringing those diverse perspectives to the table. Leaders need to build it into their team culture, but it also comes down to individual employees to take on their responsibility. Once someone takes charge, solidarity can quickly start to spread.

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Cheri Beranek

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November 2, 2022
How to Improve Employee Motivation to Increases Your Profits

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Employee motivation is critical to any organization as it directly impacts its earnings. A motivated employee is a productive employee, and a productive employee is an asset to any organization. Employee motivation can be divided into three main categories: intrinsic, extrinsic, and intrinsic-extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within the employees and is based on their desires, needs and motivations. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources, such as rewards and punishments. Intrinsic-extrinsic motivation is when external rewards and punishments enhance the employee’s personal motivations.

Motivation leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, which results in increased profits for the organization. It is therefore essential that organizations find ways to increase employee motivation. There are several ways to motivate employees, including financial incentives, positive reinforcement and opportunities for advancement. Below are some ways employee motivation increases an organization’s earnings.

Related: Employee Motivation Has to Be More Than ‘a Pat on the Back’

1. Increased employee commitment

Employee motivation is one of the most important aspects of any organization. Motivation can increase employee commitment, which in turn can lead to increased revenue. When employees are motivated, they are more likely to put in their best efforts, which can result in better productivity and overall success for the company.

Many companies understand the impact of motivation on commitment and use various means to increase employee motivation, but there are a few drawbacks. Firstly, motivation can be contagious, leading employees to be more committed to the company and produce more products. However, if the motivation is not sustainable, it can lead to burnout or a lack of enthusiasm.

Related: 3 Strategies to Keep Employees Motivated In The Age of Burnout

2. Increased profits

The most effective way to motivate employees is to focus on the individual needs of each employee. Companies can create an environment that encourages employee productivity and motivation by understanding what motivates each employee. Businesses that focus on employee motivation see an increase in profits. Motivated employees are more productive and efficient, have lower absenteeism rates and are more likely to stay with a company for the long term.

3. Reduced employee turnover

Employee motivation has been shown to have a positive effect on both employee turnover and company revenue. In an Indeed.com study compiled from employee reviews, it was found that employees motivated by their job were less likely to leave their position, and companies with motivated employees had higher revenue levels. The study showed many ways to motivate employees, but the most effective way is through monetary and non-monetary rewards. While financial rewards are important, they are not the only way to motivate employees.

4. Improved product quality

Lack of employee motivation is the main reason for low productivity and business revenue. By fostering a sense of urgency, clarity and purpose among employees, employee motivation elevates product quality and revenue for the company. Employees are more likely to produce high-quality products and boost sales by being encouraged to work toward a common objective. As a result of increased effort due to increased motivation, the cost of producing a product decreases, increasing revenue for the company.

5. Optimized training development

Employee motivation optimizes training development and ensures that employees can positively contribute to the organization. Investing in employee development through training and education can lead to higher motivation levels and, as a result, increased productivity and profitability. It is important to note that employee motivation is not always about financial compensation. Research has shown that employees are motivated by various factors, including recognition, meaningful work and career growth opportunities.

6. Improved customer satisfaction

Employee motivation improves customer satisfaction and increases business revenue by creating a connection between an employee and their job. Employees who are satisfied with their work are more likely to provide top-notch customer service. Motivation also increases the likelihood of employees recommending their company to others. Happy employees also tend to be more productive and are less likely to leave their job. In turn, this leads to increased revenue for businesses.

7. Constant employee development

Motivation fosters employee development so that employees are constantly growing and learning to meet the company’s ever-changing demands. Motivation should encourage constant employee growth and development, not just periodic bursts of enthusiasm. Constant motivation helps employees stay engaged, leading to better work performance and a higher sense of job satisfaction.

Sources of employee motivation

Bonuses and other financial incentives

Bonuses and other financial incentives are often used to motivate employees. Studies have shown that bonuses can improve employee motivation and productivity. Financial incentives can come from cash bonuses, stock options or profit sharing.

Related: Reality Check: Not Everyone Deserves a Bonus

Flexible working schedules

Flexible working schedules can have a significant impact on employee motivation. In particular, employees who are allowed to work flexibly are often more motivated to work harder and contribute positively to the organization. There are several reasons for this, including that flexible working schedules often allow employees to balance their work and personal lives better. Additionally, flexible working schedules can give employees a greater sense of control over their work lives, leading to increased motivation.

Improved working conditions

New employees are often motivated by the potential for improved working conditions. Companies can increase employee satisfaction and motivation by providing a positive work environment. This can lead to increased productivity and a reduction in turnover. Improved working conditions can take many forms, including better equipment, up-to-date technology, safety gear and safety installations to prevent work accidents and related risks.

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Ferrat Destine

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October 31, 2022
3 Strategies for Hiring Promotable Entry-Level Talent

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Beating a tough labor market is easier when you can promote from within. And the easiest way to have a promotable workforce is by setting up a pipeline of eager, entry-level workers.

Companies that hire from within do better than those that focus on promoting outsiders. Case in point: A University of Massachusetts Global deep dive shows that internal hires cost about 18% less than their external counterparts. They require limited sourcing efforts, too, which can lead to more savings. But that doesn’t mean you can just pull from the rank and file and start filling positions. Being able to hire from within starts with a consistently replenished entry-level talent pool pipeline. If you’re not being strategic about bringing in high-performing, entry-level newcomers, you can’t get the benefits of internal hiring.

A 2021 Joblist survey showed just how much of an advantage it could be to promote current employees when possible. Out of the 1,000 workers asked, nearly two-thirds said they’d rather be led by someone from within the company. Seven out of 10 felt the practice was important for their employer’s growth potential. More than 55% said it led to heightened morale and lowered training costs.

LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends report reflected similar findings. The report found a 41% uptick in how long workers stuck around at companies that hired from within. Plus, it reveals that almost three-quarters of hiring professionals are in favor of inside recruiting.

Related: 7 Ways to Make Sure Your Employee Knows How to Get Promoted

The message is clear: Internal promotions can accelerate employee engagement, trim onboarding timeframes and attack attrition. And the simplest way to have internal job candidates is to bring rising talent into the fold. By regularly pulling in strong, entry-level employees, you can create a funnel that pushes future leaders up the corporate ladder.

The following strategies will help you attract eager entry-level applicants to your organization. That way, you can choose the right ones to start constructing an enviable — and internally promotable — workforce.

1. Interview for both hard and soft skills

Most jobs require some type of basic technical know-how, even if it’s just being comfortable with general word processing or spreadsheets. However, employers are discovering more often that it’s soft skills that make certain employees stand out. And a stand-out employee is one who may be interested in moving around the company.

According to recent data gathered by a High Point University poll in 2022, companies put a higher value on soft skills than hard ones. The poll of 500 leaders from enterprise-size organizations identified employee motivation and coachability as markers of future success. Three-quarters of poll participants said it was easier to teach technical aptitude than motivation. Seven out of 10 felt the same way about technical expertise versus the ability to accept constructive feedback.

How can you determine someone’s soft skills based on resumes or initial conversations? One method is to ask candidates to answer situational “What would you do if…?” questions. Another is to have prospective workers talk about challenges and failures and how they faced them. Just be sure you’re asking the same questions to all applicants. You’ll reduce interviewing bias and be able to compare interviewees’ soft-skill responses objectively.

Related: Why Soft Skills Are More Important Than Hard Cash for Your Acquisition’s Long-Term Growth

2. Make career pathing part of your onboarding and ongoing training

Career pathing involves helping your employees create roadmaps to move through your organization. For example, a career path will show the routes an employee can take to get from job A to job B to job C, and so on. Most entry-level workers haven’t been in the workforce long enough to understand how to construct career paths. You can assist them by introducing them to career pathing during onboarding and making it part of their employee experience.

Having a group of employees who have constructed realistic, doable career paths can improve your internal hiring. Deloitte’s Talent 2020 report notes that 42% of employees looking for different employment are leaving because they’re not using their talents. 37% said they were unsatisfied with their career progress. Dynamic professional development support and career pathing can ease those challenges.

Remember that you can’t just set up career paths and let them gather dust. Teach supervisors how to encourage their team members to identify training areas using their career paths as guides. Be sure to set aside resources for upskilling, too.

Related: 4 Reasons Employees See a Bleak Career Path and Quit

3. Treat your internship programs as feeder opportunities

Information culled in 2020 by Chegg Internship suggests that around 70% of all internships turn into job offers. Of those interns offered a position, 80% accept. This means that for every 10 interns you bring into your organization, you could end up with around five or six new employees. Those employees would already be familiar with your culture — and buoyed by a chance to start working.

Even if you have an internship program in place, take a harder look at it. See how you might be able to make it more of a feeder into a bigger succession plan. For instance, should you be broadening your current pipeline and accepting interns from more disciplines? Could you use interns in more departments than you normally do? These are all questions worth asking.

Interns who feel their time with your company was well-spent may become members of your C-suite someday. At the very least, they’ll be more likely to join your company if you extend a job offer after they graduate. So look for ways to boost the real and perceived value of your internships. Don’t be afraid to survey current and past internships so you can continuously improve your internship experiences.

The Great Resignation has shown how tough it can be for employers to find candidates. When you can hire from within, you have more choices. You also reduce downtime associated with empty seats. So start (and keep) bringing entry-level workers into the fold. They’ll become your competitive advantage.

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Rashan Dixon

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October 26, 2022
Employers Should Fear The Truth Behind Quiet Quitting. Here’s Why.
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Quiet quitting seems like odd terminology since it has nothing to do with actually ditching your job for greener pastures. Many argue that there’s no such thing as quiet quitting because it simply refers to workers doing their assigned job during their typical workday. What they’re not doing is taking on any extra duties, or participating in extracurriculars at work. It’s about rejecting the idea that work has to take over your life.

And, while the buzzy phrase has been seemingly replaced by fast quitting (for now), what we must not ignore is the real reason why these terms were coined in the first place.

As a leadership consultant and executive coach, I’ve had many clients struggling with how to establish boundaries between work and home before feeling like it’s all too much. They’re not sure when or how to say “no” to phone calls, emails and messages after they are officially off the clock. They are overworked, overwhelmed, stressed out, burnt out and fed up with the work-to-exhaustion-to-survive culture. While many of them may appear to be moving towards the quiet quitting trend, what they are really doing is saying no to burnout. As their consultant and coach, I completely get behind their decisions to do exactly that.

Related: Quiet Quitting Is Dividing the Workforce. Here’s How to Bring Everyone Back Together.

Addressing the root cause of so-called “quiet quitting”

Rather than trying to keep up to speed with the latest workplace trends sweeping across social media, perhaps leaders should stop to ask why these trends began in the first place. Why is it considered unacceptable for employees to reject extra, often undesirable tasks outside of their job description? Have we placed too high a value on employees working long, high-stress days with little time off or time with family, only stopping when they are burnt out?

Or are we ignoring a growing pool of people becoming increasingly disengaged at work and getting little joy out of it because they are burnt out? According to Gallup, the number of engaged employees dropped from 36% in 2020 to 32% by early 2022.

Related: 5 Burnout Warning Signs (and How to Respond)

Why are workers done with working themselves to exhaustion?

The research is clear: Burnout and stress levels have increased significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic began. In fact, by January 2022, the American Psychological Association (APA) said “Burnout and stress are at an all-time high across professions.”

“From longer work hours to increased demands at home, the Covid-19 pandemic introduced new stressors to nearly every domain of life,” the APA said. “As the world heads into the 3rd year of the pandemic, these stressors have become persistent and indefinite, heightening everyone’s risk of burnout.”

If the pandemic has pushed many workers into a state of burnout, it makes sense that they are trying to resist the daily grind by doing only what they’re required to do. They no longer see their workplace as a place to thrive and instead feel unmotivated and disengaged.

This may partly be linked to the switch to a work-from-home culture, which has contributed to many employees working significantly longer hours, having difficulty switching off and experiencing a lack of boundaries between work and home life. So many employees sit in front of their computers for more than 8 hours daily with little more than a 15-minute break to make lunch (then eat in front of the computer), if they even take lunch at all. They are exhausted.

Interestingly, this increase in burnout is noticeably higher among the younger generations. Indeed’s research into burnout in 2021 found that while 53% of millennials already felt burnt out pre-pandemic, it jumped to 59% in 2021. Gen Z had a similar increase.

Together, these generations consistently like to throw out the old rulebook of how things were done in the past in favor of building a better future. They’ve been campaigning to protect our environment, improve equality and justice and better living and work conditions. They generally don’t agree that all work and no play is a recipe for a life of thriving. This generation wants to do meaningful work, but enjoying life outside work is also essential to them.

The World Health Organization states burnout is a syndrome resulting from workplace stress that has “not been successfully managed.” Three factors define it, they say: feelings of depleted energy, increased mental distance from a job and reduced professional efficacy.

Related: 8 Fireproof Tips for Avoiding Business Burnout

Those in leadership positions must transform work culture so their employees feel engaged, included and connected to their work. Having disengaged or burnt-out employees on your team will disrupt team cohesion and negatively impact everyone. When someone is barely working, and others are working flat out, it quickly becomes apparent and affects the team’s dynamics. That’s why investing in improving the culture for everyone is so important.

How to begin

There are three main components that you can work on to improve that will ultimately benefit your company and team: value, wellbeing and communication.

1. Ensure your staff feels valued

Ensure your employees know their presence, skills and work are needed and valued. Recognizing them goes a long way to achieving this. Companies that make employee recognition a priority have workers who are 56% less likely to look for a new job, a recent Gallup-Workhuman survey found. It could be as simple as acknowledging milestones in their lives, such as work anniversaries and birthdays, and celebrating achieved goals or completed projects.

Perhaps it’s looking at progression and promotion opportunities for team members or doing an end-of-week round-up recognizing the achievements of the week and the team members who made it happen.

Or, if budget allows, perhaps an organized event: A monthly staff get-together where everyone finishes work a few hours early and have a late lunch or dinner together.

Related: The Simple Trick This CEO Uses to Prevent Burnout

2. Invest in the wellbeing of your employees

It’s no secret that employee wellbeing and engagement work well together. Gallup found engagement and wellbeing are reciprocal, “where each influences the future state of the other.”

What can you do to show that the company is prioritizing its employees’ wellbeing and is committed to improving it?

There are practical things you can do. Your company may offer an employee assistance program that members can refer to if they require support or are struggling. You could also include wellbeing benefits:
- A weekly massage.
- A meditation class in the office on a lunch break.
- The option to work flexible hours
On a more long-term note, having designated wellbeing leaders is an excellent way to keep track of what’s being done in the office to improve people’s mental health — they could even send a monthly update on the changes. Very simply, encourage workers to leave on time and take regular breaks.

3. Focus on connecting people to their work

Recognizing and valuing your employees’ input is an important and powerful way to increase their ownership of their work. Create an open forum where staff can share ideas about the status of their work and projects, discuss innovative ideas that would excite them going forward or perhaps even creatively find solutions for processes that aren’t working.

Hear what your employees are saying and listen to their ideas. Not only will it make them feel valued, but it’ll make them feel more connected to their work. Encourage involvement and participation as much as possible.

Engaged employees and healthy workplaces are a by-product of exceptional leaders who create an environment for growth without the expectation that their team will work to exhaustion.
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Dr. Samantha Madhosingh

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October 19, 2022
3 Ways to Keep Your Outsourced Teams Engaged and Motivated
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As your organization grows, you’ll have to make decisions about building different types of teams around the world. You might consider options like opening new offices, hiring remote teams or bringing on agencies.

Given the current economic climate, outsourcing teams might seem like the most appealing option. Many people think it saves money and time and allows managers to offload the hiring, onboarding and managing processes to a third party. This strategy has a range of benefits, especially for customer success, which can require around-the-clock availability.

However, it actually takes a surprising amount of effort and investment to make this strategic decision pay off in the long run. Plus, outsourced teams are not as different from your in-house team as you might think. Here are a few tips on how to successfully manage outsourced teams in a way that truly pays off in the long run:

Related: What Not to Do When Outsourcing

1. Keep them engaged

Just because your outsourced teams are out of sight doesn’t mean that they can be out of mind. Similar to your in-house team, disengaged employees will have a higher turnover rate, which will require you to spend even more time and effort on hiring and building strong teams.

For this reason, the in-house manager still needs to oversee the hiring, onboarding and management process to make sure the outsourced teams share similar culture and values. Here are a few ways to keep your outsourced teams engaged:
- Hiring: It might be tempting to fully pass off hiring responsibilities since you won’t have to do the heavy lifting. But it’s important to stay involved by onboarding the people responsible for hiring so they fully understand your company culture and expectations.
- Setting structures: Put the right structures into place that will support training and engagement. This means implementing training and knowledge programs that mirror your in-house programs and could even include sending over your in-house educator to implement their high-quality, engaging learning plan.
- Planning events: Run employee engagement activities similar to the ones you run for your in-house teams. Deck the events out in the company branding to make the outsourced teams feel like an equal part of the company.
- Creating a flight plan: Create a flight plan to strengthen relationships and create a unified team. Send your in-house teams and outsourced teams to visit one another’s offices.
- Survey: Distribute surveys about employee satisfaction so you can continually improve the ways you engage with the outsourced teams and make them feel valued.
Related: Pros and Cons of Outsourcing and Hiring In-house Staff

2. Help them grow

Again, similar to your in-house team, without room for growth, your outsourced teams will lose motivation quickly, which will create high turnover and low retention. To attract and retain the best talent, you need to treat them as such.

Consider creating a growth path in which exceptional work results in opportunities for upward mobility, expanding skill sets or deepening industry knowledge. While it might seem more costly up front, it will be more cost-effective to retain your talent than constantly hiring and training new talent.

Offer a high level of visibility into your organization’s work, progress and plans. This will help them understand their contribution to short- and long-term goals. Compounding on that, celebrate milestones and achievements for the teams and the organization on-site. Then elevate these successes in larger forums so everyone gets the recognition they deserve, despite the distance.

Related: 7 Ways to Make Outsourcing a Success Time After Time

3. Set high standards

The final piece of the puzzle is setting the right KPIs for your outsourced teams. Unfortunately, outsourced teams are sometimes thought of as a trade-off: a cheaper solution with mediocre results, but this should not be the case.

Your outsourced teams should have similar KPIs to your in-house teams. Lowering your KPIs for outsourced teams means you’re inherently sacrificing quality for cost, which lowers your organization’s overall efficiency. Outsourced teams are equally as professional and talented as your in-house teams — they’re simply located in another region.

There’s no doubt that outsourcing has plenty of benefits and can seem like a simple and attractive solution for scaling. But don’t lose sight of your goal: building a team that will produce high-quality work to better the organization. Invest time and resources to support every team member, and the value will be undeniable for everyone.
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Hila Levy-Loya

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October 14, 2022
Tele-Mental Health in the Workplace is Crucial to Employee Morale and Productivity. Here’s Why
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How can leaders keep their organization or business functioning through these unprecedented times? By understanding and prioritizing mental well-being.

With the world lurching endlessly between global health and economic crises, conditions have never been more challenging for employers or employees. In the context of record workforce and resource shortages, a drive for sustainability challenges businesses to consider implementing innovations like virtual mental health care in the workplace.

The state of mental health in the U.S.

In 2020, as society grappled with the new normal, the nation’s mental health was anything but ordinary.

During this time, the number of adults reporting anxiety or depressive symptoms quadrupled. This was more than a mere spike — the Mental Health Index (MHI) reported a 71% increase in the risk for depression in workers through 2021, and stress, anxiety, and depression have only recently returned to pre-2020 levels.

Research has shown that long-term disasters place society at risk for increased stress, anger, anxiety, depression, and substance misuse. This is partly due to financial insecurity, a loss of confidence in authorities, and disruption to everyday life.

Studies of earlier disasters have shown that increases in mental health service provision may have helped avoid future mental health problems. However, less than half of individuals with mental illness received inpatient mental health services or prescription psychiatric medication in 2020. In addition, communities of color that typically experience difficulty accessing mental health services were disproportionately affected, deepening pre-existing fault lines of health inequity.

Related: 4 Ways to Help Employees With Their Mental Health and Emotional Needs as You Reopen Offices

Employers taking the lead

If any silver lining can be taken from the disruption and trauma experienced, it is the normalization of mental health and employers’ recognition of its importance.

Major companies are acknowledging the responsibility to their workers. For example, sports giants Nike, Bumble, Hootsuite and LinkedIn have introduced access to digital resources, virtual counseling services, and even paid time off for mental health. Smaller companies are following suit. After 2020, 39% of companies expanded their mental health providers to meet the evolving needs of their employees.

But why should the employer take the lead? The answer is two-fold.

As the mental health of the population and workforce declined, employment and productivity declined too. According to the Peterson Institution for International Economics, productivity is falling at the fastest rate on record. Simultaneously, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows that the numbers of people quitting their jobs remain above pre-pandemic levels, with a high turnover in lower-wage sectors.

While the fiscal impact of poor mental health on employers and employees is well documented, there’s more to this issue than balance sheets and stock prices.

Employers are expanding benefits to include tele-mental health because it’s the right thing to do. The longstanding false dichotomy between physical and mental health needs to be challenged, and employers can do this by offering integrated healthcare. As Dr. Hilary Grant, Medical Director for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, notes, “Mental ill health precipitates, perpetuates, maintains and exacerbates acute and chronic physical health problems.” Offering physical cover alone is like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom and wondering why it never seems to fill.

An ongoing need for mental health service provision

Though one global challenge is over, others have only begun. According to MHI statistics from February – May 2022, macroeconomic trends and the war in Ukraine have led to a 12% increase in stress levels, a 23% jump in general anxiety, and a 53% increase in the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Researchers examining the impact of the global health crisis on society concluded that the frequency of mental health symptoms made access to mental health services, such as telehealth, critical. Though the challenges are different, the need remains unchanged.

Related: How to Protect Your Team’s Mental Health

Modern solutions for modern times

As the global health crisis kept people at home, consumers demanded more convenience across all sectors, healthcare included. As a result, healthcare organizations worldwide were driven to treat people where they were, delivering care in out-of-hospital settings.

Technology-driven, remote solutions like telemedicine have become part of the architecture of contemporary healthcare. Though the necessity of staying home has passed, virtual care remains relevant as consumers have embraced the flexibility.

Beyond convenience, virtual solutions underpin equitable access in isolated or marginalized communities, where stigma or a shortage of mental health professionals might otherwise be a barrier.

The rapidly growing field of tele-mental health

In the growing telemedicine sector, mental health has taken the lead, accounting for 53% of all consultations in the US between 2005 and 2017. However, mental health services in the US face two significant challenges; a lack of capacity and inequitable geographical distribution.

Using consumer-grade electronics, tele-mental health is a low-tech answer to both. Multiple studies have shown that clients and providers are satisfied with the transition to virtual consultations. Advantages include:
- Allowing people to be seen in their homes or workplace rather than in an unfamiliar clinical setting.
- Avoiding the inconveniences of scheduling.
- Waiting.
- Other personal stumbling blocks, such as arranging transport or a babysitter.
Tele-mental health holds many advantages for businesses, too. Accessible support boosts efficiency by reducing absenteeism and presenteeism, the latter being estimated to cost the United States economy $150 billion per year. As a low-cost option, telemedicine helps employees to avoid co-payments and deductibles, removing financial barriers to medical care and resulting in a healthier workforce.

In these trying times, many will experience varying levels of mental health and mental illness that affect how they think, feel, and act and their interactions, problem-solving, and decision-making. Whether employees have reported or been diagnosed with mental illness, employers must provide mental health access for all workers and, in turn, their businesses.

Related: Healthcare For The Masses: Why Tele-Health Is A Game Changer For The Middle East
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Larry Jones

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October 14, 2022
Avoid This Surefire Way to Disengage Your Workforce

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It happens — companies hire jerks. Maybe you’ve even hired someone who turned out to be a thorn in your team. Unfortunately, companies often keep and promote top performers, despite poor behavior. At least, that’s how it’s always been.

Working for toxic bosses, feeling unappreciated and missing out on life have given rise to the latest Gen Z workplace trend, “quiet quitting” — the idea of showing up and doing the bare minimum to maintain employment. This has been exacerbated by virtual work environments with minimal oversight. Employees are waking up to the idea that they don’t need to produce their best at work to get paid.

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Elyssa Seidman

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October 10, 2022
5 Things Great Leaders Do to Create Inspired Teams That Deliver

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Did you know that almost 50% of employees consider leaving their companies due to bad bosses? We are suffering from a lack of good leaders today, causing a negative ripple effect throughout companies. Good managers are key to deriving employee engagement which impacts productivity, customer satisfaction, and, most importantly, profits.

So how do great leaders inspire teams to improve productivity? Here are five things you can do to inspire your workforce.

1. Build on your employees’ strengths

A leader’s most important job is to identify every individual worker’s strengths and weaknesses. That helps them assign tasks and responsibilities to the right employee.

For that, leaders must pay close attention to their employees, especially if they are new to the team. Observe how each one collaborates on projects or interacts in meetings. You can also invite employees to submit new ideas and tips through presentations. If you run a large organization, assign this task to your senior management.

Related: 9 Ways to Become a Better Leader

2. Empower your team

When does team empowerment happen? You empower your employees when you give them the authority and responsibility to make decisions. An empowered team organizes itself around a leader instead of waiting for instructions. Empowered employees don’t need to wait for approvals to implement a decision.

Granting this authority gives a new voice to your employees. They start owning their opinions as well as becoming accountable for their actions.

However, that can only happen when you empower the right employees after assessing their strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, this strategy can backfire.

3. Walk the talk

There is only one way to walk the talk: Be the change you want to see in your team. In simple words, before you communicate any changes to the team, first implement them in your own work life.

Every leader’s personal core of ethics must align with the company’s values. If it doesn’t, you will have trouble enforcing it on others. On the other hand, when leaders consistently follow company rules, even in turbulent times, employees follow suit.

If a leader fails to walk the talk, employees are less likely to follow the leader’s decisions. So, as you try to lead a business unit or an organization, remember that even the most minor actions can create huge ripples in camaraderie and trust.

Related: How to Become a More Effective Leader and Manager

4. Communicate wisely

Another important thing is to keep your employees in the loop. That way, everyone stays on the same page and remains focused. Use your persuasion powers to impart the right messages at the right time. When sending an official email, ask yourself before you hit the send button:

Is this the right time to make this statement? Would it sound better if said in person?

The tone and timing of your message can make all the difference. Harsh words and an aggressive tone can harm your employees’ productivity. When your objective is to motivate and inspire, reflect on the timing and medium of your communication.

5. Offer employee incentives

Do you know many of today’s most successful leaders rarely take credit for their successes? Instead, they commend their employees or colleagues who made it all possible. Humility is a trademark attribute of successful leaders.

Don’t forget to create a weekly or a monthly honor roll or paste names/pictures of the most productive employees in your office. Pay homage to an employee who performed well in front of your entire team for motivating them to deliver the same results.

Organizing quarterly dinners/lunches is another fabulous way to reward a team after finishing a project. But what is the best way to acknowledge your team’s efforts? Rewards and incentives.

Offering monetary rewards to the most productive employees is one of the best ways to acknowledge your team’s efforts. While sending an email or a personal note is a grand gesture to thank your employees, incentives and rewards can infuse gratitude and confidence in your team.

But another important question arises: How to track employee productivity?

Use gamification for setting up a transparent performance tracking system. Gamification means turning work into games so projects become fun and engaging. Designing games with strategies and embedded corporate goals is the best way to monitor your employees’ performance.

According to a recent survey, almost 90% of employees believe that gamification makes them more productive at work. That’s because managers and leaders can check every employee’s points and offer rewards fairly. So, naturally, it boosts the employee’s morale.

Related: Gamification Can Solve the Great Resignation. Here’s Why.

End the era of bad leaders

Gone are the days when draconian and authoritative leadership strategies worked to make employees more productive. Today, the best ways to inspire teams are to value your employees, create an agile work environment and foster open communication. Define your expectations clearly and communicate work goals to inspire and motivate your team.

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Gordon Tredgold

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October 7, 2022