Purdue University
Intro to Management
MEMO
TO: Philip Thomas, VP Human Resources
FROM: John Lopez, Consultant
RE: Employee Motivation
Hi Philip,
I see that your recent delegated task of drafting a new policy for your team isn't going as well as we expected. To get things back on track, here are some ways to motivate your team. Display the work as being meaningful, acceptable, challenging but attainable, specific, and quantifiable. Employee motivation is amazing when it is on, but sometimes it wanes. Goal Setting Theory or Expectancy Theory may also be great options for you to motivate the team.
The most powerful goals are meaningful; noble purposes that appeal to people's higher values add extra motivating power with this project directly affecting the team's policy, letting them know that the benefits will directly impact themselves and their coworkers should give them meaningful motivation. Creating a new policy might be some members of the team's first time being involved in something like this. Lets them know that although the goal is challenging it is attainable and will be reached.
Sometimes employees just don't have the motivation to get the project done. Some might have a lack of confidence to help build this sense of confidence, point out times in the past when they've overcome similar challenges, or break down the current project into manageable parts to build confidence after each accomplished step. If confidence isn't the reason for the lack of motivation, maybe the values don't match. Have a conversation with team members to make sure what they care about a link to the project. Life gets in the way of everyone, and your team is no different. Check-in on them individually...
