Motivating Employees

It’s hard to overemphasize the importance of havingenthusiastic, committed employees. A well-motivated work force willalmost always allow a company to grow faster than one that’slackadaisical or even prone to sabotaging your growthinitiatives.

Everybody who works for you needs to know where they stand andhow they’re doing compared to your expectations of them. Manycompanies have formal review systems to let employees know howtheir performances stack up. Reviews may be conducted as often asevery three months, but annual reviews are most popular.

Each review should go over the goals that were set when theemployee started the job or during the last performance evaluation.Then the review should examine how well the employee has donetoward reaching these goals. The employee should be asked to ratehis or her performance, in addition to relying on objectivemeasurements such as sales figures. You and the employee shouldthen discuss the desirability of trying to reach goals that haven’tyet been achieved, and you should both set goals for thefuture.

But reviews and evaluations are–often justifiably–viewed aslittle more than formalities that accomplish little or nothing inthe way of true feedback. To make formal evaluations go moresmoothly, and to eliminate any surprises on the employee’s part,give feedback at the time something occurs to warrant it.

Don’t underestimate the power of feedback. It should be simple,honest and unfailingly constructive. Try to make sure that everypiece of feedback you provide contains the following elements. Itshould:

• Highlight something good the employee has accomplished
• Point out something that needs improvement
• Contain specific suggestions about how the employee canimprove

Don’t neglect to say something positive. Even making note of theamount of effort the employee has expended can make the employeemore receptive to feedback. If you can’t think of a positivecomment and specific suggestions for improvement, it’s better tosay nothing.