When it comes to employee motivation, there are two schools of thought:
- Managers need actively to motivate their employees.
- To be motivated, employees need to figure out what they like doing.
According to an article on the addicted2success.com website, the latter option is better. A culture of high accountability and high performance should be nurtured at any company.
The article describes the case of a successful real estate investor who discovered his own intrinsic motivation. That allowed him to do exactly what he loved.
We tend to have a short-sighted attitude
Is this not just some lame advice that works only for the wealthy? No, doing what you love is really a simple, functional solution for a high number of dispassionate workers. In the early days of our careers, many of us adopted the belief that we should take the highest paying job possible and it was not really so important how we actually felt about doing that job.
This leads to a dispassionate life, which is sad. However, if you are doing something that truly inspires you, and others around you feel the same way, this culture of passion will yield high achievements.
Keep employees interested in their work
This is becoming the difficult challenge of today. A dispassionate, disengaged workforce is causing huge problems for both workers and their employers.
Fortunately, resistance to waking up every day and doing things you dislike is definitely not necessary. And the people you hire shouldn’t feel that way either. When people around you love what they do, you don’t need constantly to force yourself to boost their motivation.
-jk-