Leadership and Employee Motivation

Leadership can always improve employee motivation by tweaking a few key factors. Employee motivation can be a difficult task for managers and leaders when the dominant company culture is lax. It can be extremely challenging to tackle a workplace culture of laziness that has invaded and become the norm. Motivating employees is all about intrinsic reward and satisfaction. Leaders must be able to tap into this internal drive for achievement to get employees motivated. Ray Williams writes more in depth on the subject below. 

It turns out that people are motivated by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility–intrinsic factors. People have a deep-seated need for growth and achievement. Herzberg's work influenced a generation of scholars and researchers–but never seemed to make an impact on managers in the workplace, where the focus on motivation remained the “carrot-and-stick” approach, or external motivators.

What do we mean by motivation? It's been defined as a predisposition to behave in a purposeful manner to achieve specific, unmet needs and the will to achieve, and the inner force that drives individuals to accomplish personal and organizational goals. And why do we need motivated employees? The answer is survival. Motivated employees are needed in our rapidly changing workplaces, and to be effective, managers need to understand that and do something about it.

…More at How to motivate employees | Psychology Today

Leaders require employees who are motivated because motivated employees are the work-horses of the office. They are go-getters who want to succeed for themselves which translates into success for the company. Leaders can and should develop a methodology for designing projects that are intrinsically pleasing to their team. This is not to say that you need to make up work for your team but rather you should adjust your presentation method and frame the project in light of how it will impact the company and the team by working on it. In other words, give the project purpose or meaning. Leadership can always improve employee motivation by tweaking a few key factors.