Motivation Tips for Employees

Someone once said, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s way ahead of what’s in second place.”
Do you believe that? I don’t.
Money is important, at least above the subsistence level. We tend to treat money and position as evidence of progress and success: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
I don’t believe that either. It would seem that there are several options for motivation tips for employees.

It Begins With Self-Motivation
It starts with “The Fire in the Belly,” that self-motivation that invites me to rise in the morning, prepared to meet the world on its own terms and return, having challenged and defeated the dragon. Therefore…
It would be nice if I could go to my local Alliance-Boots (the Chemist) and purchase a bottle of Passion Pills. The fire in the belly comes not from thinking about motivating yourself but from actually doing it. You can develop that if you’ll adopt a few concepts:

• Excellence is not optional. Excellence starts with knowledge. It continues with presentation. It finishes with satisfaction—not yours, but your customers’. If you expect excellence from yourself and from others, provide it to your customers. This means you must be serious about your work. With excellence, you can start at the top—not because it has been given to you, but because you have earned it.

• Excellence knows no time clock. Just how many hours per week are you willing to give to your work? If this business is your means of support—or if it is your launch platform to something greater, your perspective is certain to change. You have a choice between developing good habits and developing bad habits. Excellence can be a habit. Demand more of yourself and you’ll receive more from yourself.

• Excellence requires superior product knowledge. You must know what your work’s products are. As time goes on, and as customers ask more questions, you’ll learn more. You’ll have to research; you’ll have to read; you’ll have to investigate and experiment. Once you have gained the necessary knowledge, you will be unbeatable.

• Excellence requires participation. Employees are, by definition, parts of a larger team. An employee performing excellently tends to increase the excellence scale of the entire team.

• Excellence requires commitment. Be aware, however, that being excellent yourself can make you a bit intolerant of others’ failings. Excellence does mean that you have offered quality in a timely manner and that presentation of quality has become foremost in your mind and actions. It means that in every case you must expect—no demand—that same level of excellence. You may not always get it—but if you never ask for it, you’re certain never to get it.

Beyond Self-Motivation
Let’s take the original theme and twist it just a bit to “How Do I Get Paid?” Abraham Maslow, a prominent psychologist of yesteryear, identified that Security is a predominant motivator to humans, and financial security is right up there at the top.
Yes, we know there’s a product. There’s always a product. Or a service.
But how do I get paid? “What’s in it for me?” is merely another way to determine:
• Does this position meet my needs, both physical and emotional?

• If there is a future worth considering.

• If there is a quick way out of trouble.

• If the individual is at all attuned to personal risk.

• If the rewards are commensurate with the effort required.

• If the rewards depend upon things that cannot be personally controlled.

Motivators: Questions Requiring Answers:
• Do I like the work? Life’s too short to work at something you don’t like.

• Am I satisfied with my personal growth? You need to be, in order to grow.

• Do I like the people with whom I work? Congeniality breeds cooperation.

• Do I like the surroundings where I work? Place enhances results.

• Do I feel valued where I work? If you weren’t there, what then?

• Do I feel valued by my supervision and/or the organization?

Final Motivational Thoughts:
• We are not prisoners of fate, but only of self-imposed limitations.

• Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will see further.

• Success is simply getting up one more time than you fall.

• Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.

• One of these days is none of these days. Opportunities multiply as they are seized. They die when neglected.

• You will be judged by your actions, not your intentions.

• It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its opportunities but also its own talents.

The process of motivation is realistically the pursuit of excellence. Commitment to a goal of excellence becomes self-motivating, on the one hand, while simultaneously providing horizontal (between employees) motivation. This article has provided considerations to allow you to take a measure of the motivations not only of yourself, but also of your peers. What now remains is the impetus for improving those motivations.