Staff Motivation

Staff Motivation

How to Improve Staff Motivation

You can’t be a leader without followers so you have to understand how to motivate people to buy into your agenda. Motivation is what makes employees act in certain ways so how can you achieve this? Understanding people’s motives and staff motivation – their reasons for doing something is the key to becoming a good leader.

One of the main theories relating to motivation is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. People have needs. A need is a lack of something- something we want. This produces the drive and desire which motivates us to satisfy that need. Satisfying this need, or getting the thing we want or lack is the goal.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s theory of motivation is called the “hierarchy of needs”. Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance:-

Physiological Needs

i) the need to eat
ii) the need to drink
iii) the need to work
iv) the need to sleep
v) the need to reproduce

Safety Needs –

i) the need for shelter
ii) the need to fell secure

Belonging Needs –

i) the need to feel part of a group
ii) the need for acceptance

Self-Esteem Needs –

i) the need to feel good about themselves
ii) the need to be recognised for their achievement

Self-Realisation Needs –

i) the need for personal fulfilment
ii) the need to grow and develop

Maslow believes that people would not move on down this list to be motivated by the next set of needs until the previous set(s) had been satisfied.

Suggested Course Content

Our programme looks at how to motivate your staff with different needs. We focus on gaining an understanding of what factors demotivate staff and how to recognise  the early symptoms.

Benefits for Delegates

Here are some of the benefits from learning how to empower your team and increase motivation for improved performance:-

  • Learning how to share the big picture
  • Understanding the importance of showing you value people
  • Share goals and direction
  • Understand the importance of  expanding the decisions members of your team make
  • Learn how to let go and  trust the ability of your people

To learn more about staff motivation and how we could work with you and your team, get in touch today.

The Puzzle of Motivation by Dan Pink

An interesting TED Talks video from Dan Pink with an interesting take on motivation.