Local Motion

Energize employees and watch your business take off.

Looking for ways to get the best effort from your employees? Bob Nelson suggests energizing them--and no, this way of improving performance and increasing enthusiasm doesn't involve batteries. "Energizing means tapping into the potential every employee has and wants to use," says the president of Nelson Motivation Inc. in San Diego and author of 1001 Ways to Energize Employees (Workman Publishing).

Three key areas that charge up employees are:

• Involvement. "Involve people in decisions that affect their jobs," Nelson advises. Give them a say in how they perform their work, and be sure they understand how the entire business works, where the company is going, and their individual role in the company's goals.

• Communication. Look for creative ways to communicate with employees. "Communication is more than just telling; it's explaining. And it's a two-way process," Nelson says. He suggests treating people as colleagues, not subordinates, and being as personal as possible in your communications.

• Flexibility. "Allow employees flexibility in how they do their jobs, where they do their jobs, and what they wear when they're doing their jobs," Nelson says.

Unleash employees' potential by energizing them--and then watch their productivity, along with your profits, soar.

Contact Sources

Eastern Connection, fax: (781) 416-3280, http://www.easternconnection.com

Nelson Motivation Inc., (800) 575-5521, http://www.nelson-motivation.com

This article was originally published in the December 1998 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Local Motion.