Do you have trust and true cooperation in your team or company established? No? You are missing out on the most valuable resource - your peopleâs motivation. Motivational research has shown, that people are willing to work for nothing, if they are intrinsically motivated. That means you cannot motivate people from outside, it has to come from their own will.
What happens, if your employees are not motivated? They do their 9to5 jobs. They do not spend a minute too much at work. They do not even get to have good ideas, which bring the company forward. Worst case, they infect others with their bad vibes. The result is in any case less profit.
How do you recognise, that your employees are motivated? They have fun at work while being super productive. That is btw. NOT the same as being busy. đ They share their great ideas to the benefit of the company. That reflects in the relationship with the customer and means more profits.
We know, that we cannot motivate others from outside as leaders. But we can create a motivating environment. One way to do so, is to transform from managers into truly empathic leaders. What is the difference you ask?
A manager manages his job. At some point, he/she gets promoted and he/she starts managing the people doing the job. From now on, the one and only responsibility for the leader is his/her people. Leadership skills are not genetically given from your birth. They can be learned by everybody. It is like training your muscles and condition to be faster at running. You might not become a Usain Bolt or one of these extraordinary charismatic leaders like Steve Jobs, but you become a better empathic leader with training.
Your goal is now to create a trustful and cooperative environment, which creates motivated people. As you remember, you can only motivate yourself. You have your answer already in you, you just have to ask yourself the right questions:
Can you describe a boss, you totally trusted and would have done everything for him/her? What did he/she do or say when i.e. your department did not deliver the results?