Ask the Coach - Why Employers Need to Embrace Employee Motivation

Ask the Coach - Why Employers Need to Embrace Employee Motivation

In today’s competitive environment it is critically important that employers recognize the need to consistently motivate their employees to drive productivity and employee engagement.

Part of it starts by understanding the role and important of performance management.

The following article and information were first published in Forbes magazine in 202 and provides great insight into how best to drive motivation in your team.

According to Gallup, the purpose of performance management is to improve quality of work, productivity and other business outcomes, but traditional approaches have consistently fallen short. Let’s look at Gallup’s findings:

• Only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

• 30% of employees strongly agree that their manager involves them in goal setting.

• Employees whose managers involve them in goal setting are 3.6x more likely than other employees to be engaged.

• 21% of employees strongly agree they have performance metrics that are within their control.

• 14% of employees strongly agree that the performance reviews they receive inspire them to improve.

• 26% of employees strongly agree that the feedback they receive helps them to do their work better.

The result? Gallup estimates the cost of poor management and lost productivity from employees in the U.S. who are not engaged or actively disengaged to be between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion per year. Wow! What steps do leaders need to take to motivate their employees?

What Employees Really Want

The workplace is evolving and shifting. As leaders, we need to realize that the wants and needs of our employees are changing. We saw this when we learned how to create a culture where Millennials and members of Generation Z can thrive. The key to inspiring maximum performance from your team is not scoring them and offering standardized feedback based on their score. Instead, use a process that creates intrinsic motivation and benefits both the team member and the company.

Performance Motivation Is Key

Empowerment and motivation happen when people solve their own problems and create their own aspirations and expectations. That’s why the outcome frame tool is a powerful first step. It helps our team find out what they really want and how they know when they’ve got it. It generates clarity and insights. Helping our people focus on the outcome they want to create, not the problems in the way, activates their reward (pleasure) network. Once our team knows what they really want, it’s time to create an action plan to motivate team performance.

1. Impact Descriptions – Not Job Descriptions

2. Clear Needle Movers

3. Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

4. Performance Self-Evaluations

When you implement the above action plan, your team will begin to shift. They will be motivated to do outstanding work because they know their role is part of something bigger. They will realize they are valued and that achieving their goals is essential to the success of their organization. More importantly, they will begin to trust their leaders.

Trust creates reliable environments. Enriched environments are more reliable. Reliable and enriched environments equal ROI. A more enriched, interactive tribal environment is good for the brain and good for the business. The result? Team members making more connections, solving problems faster, figuring things out faster and innovating better.

• Excerpt from Forbes Magazine

We have the pleasure of joining forces with Merrill Pierce, a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accredited by Corporate Coach U, and a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is also an accredited member of Society of Organizational Learning (SOL), and an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mediator certified by the ADR Institute of Canada.

Merrill has spent over 20 years working at a number of Fortune 500 companies, of which 10 years were at the senior executive level. This background provides her with a solid and practical understanding of personal and professional issues, challenges, and concerns. Merrill is also a regular contributor to the media and has published several articles and white papers on business related topics.

Merrill is ready to tackle YOUR questions! Whether they are personal, or professional - she can anonymously answer your submissions, and help you navigate any relevant challenges occurring in your life. Doing so could help others in similar situations and scenarios. Merrill will also be presenting advice on relevant, general topics to help our readers. If you want to send a question to Merrill, please submit to submissions@explorefenelonfalls.com before the Monday of each week (otherwise your question may be held til a following week!).