200 WAYS to Be More Productive in Life, and in Business

Give Employees a Sense of Achievement

Most management consultants would agree that feeling a sense of achievement is a very powerful motivator. Leaders can help motivate their employees, improve employee satisfaction and increase productivity by setting up programs that will allow that to happen.

Work with your employees to set up attainable and realistic goals. If the task seems too large, too complicated or too overwhelming, the employee will most likely feel disappointed, and so will you.

Create Opportunities for Employees to Grow and Develop

Most employees soon tire of repetitious tasks. This inevitably leads to poor work quality, employee dissatisfaction, lowered productivity and poor morale--a negative situation all around. By offering training sessions either internally or externally, leaders can stimulate and motivate their employees. At the same time, the workers become more curious and creative, learn new techniques and procedures, and improve on the old ones.

A dividend: They can then mentor their peers.

Make People Feel Important

Get out of your office! Walk around and get to know your employees. Ask them questions about what they like about their jobs and what they don't. Find out what really fires them up, and then ask if their current job does that.

In the process, ask them what makes them feel proud of themselves and others in their department. Determine if you can adjust their job description to ensure that they are working on tasks they like and that make them feel important. If not, try to adjust job responsibilities so your employees feel excited and positive about the job, themselves and their colleagues.

Meet With Employees in Small Groups

Successful leaders want to hear their employees' complaints and compliments. So in addition to informal chats, they get together with them regularly in the main office or a conference room. The goal of these sessions is to demonstrate your interest in listening to both the positive and negative views your people hold. In so doing, you are showing them that you care about their work, their end product--and them! When employees see and appreciate this, they are more willing to be frank, offer first-hand views on what is really happening and work with management to improve situations.

Review Your Policies, Processes and Procedures

Form small teams to look at how your company's policies, processes and procedures can be streamlined to increase employee satisfaction and productivity. Most employees like to work on teams, especially ones that report to the boss. It provides them with a sense of importance and better self-esteem. If they trust their leader, they will offer specific opinions on what is happening in the organization.

• Motivating Gen X, Gen Y Workers
• Creating a Culture of Excellence
• Happy Employees Make Thriving Companies