Motivating Your Team

Make sure that every individual realizes the link between their performance and the rewards.

There are other methods of motivating employees in addition to direct positive reinforcement. These include:

• Strengthening effort-performance-reward expectancies. To get the best from your team, emphasize the anticipated reward value, whether extrinsic or intrinsic. Make sure that every individual realizes the link between their performance and the rewards. Even if you organization does not provide performance-based pay, you can bestow other extrinsic rewards, such as allocating more favorable job assignments.
• Giving performance feedback. Provide feedback to demonstrate that you know what the members of your team are doing and to acknowledge improved performance or a job well done. Especially when individuals are unsure of themselves, you should point out ways in which the person is improving. Praising specific accomplishments will help to bolster the person's self esteem.
• Reinforce the right behavior. Quite often what managers say they want, what they reward, and what they get from their teams are quite different. If you verbally espouse innovation but reward doing things by the book, you are sending mixed signals and reinforcing the wrong behavior that you want to see repeated.
• Empowering employees to achieve. Empowering the people you are managing, by giving them the authority, information, and tools they need to do their jobs with greater autonomy, can greatly improve their motivation levels.

ACTION POINT: Reinforce right behavior and empower your team for independence.