Webster's Dictionary: Motivation-to impel, to influence, to stimulate, to incent and to drive.

H.W. Beecher once said, "God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them any more than a boat without steam, or a balloon without gas. Find out what motivates men, and we can touch the button and turn the key that makes men achieve."

Managers are constantly asking the question, "How do I motivate my employees and team members?" Most often, motivation is generated by the external factors called 'fear' and 'incentive.' People often try to "scare" individuals or "buy them" into achieving through threats or throwing money and benefits at people.

         Consider the following: Motivation: Some people have it and some don't! This is a myth. Everyone has it. You need to find it and use it!

        Motivation is a force that prompts you to take action because of a desire to achieve a specific goal. True motivation develops internally because of a burning desire that exists within you. This occurs only when you clearly visualize and plan how you will achieve your goals.

       Motivated individuals know the importance of "balance" and place equal importance on personal and organizational goals.

         You are motivated by qualitative rewards with equal intensity to quantitative rewards.

         You must understand what motivates you, before understanding what motivates others. You may then ask, "How can I create an environment that is conducive to developing my own motivation and that of others?"

        Emotions and logic drive motivation. Both words; emotion and motive, come from the same Latin derivative-to move. Logic plays into the equation because you need to make sense before committing to something.

       Your personal level of motivation depends directly on your ability and desire to see a fair exchange between what you give and what you receive in return. If the features and benefits, needs, and wants exceed the price you must pay, you will invest and expect a fair return on this investment.

       Fear and incentive motivation are short lived. To be motivated long term, you need to change attitudes and behaviors and get personal buy-in.

        Everyone wants to achieve results. These results depend on your behavior-how you act or react to situations. Your underlying motivations are driven by your values, beliefs and attitudes. You must understand all these clearly to find your personal 'drivers.'

Whether you are a supervisor, a manager, an individual contributor in a company, or business owner, you must create a motivating environment for anyone to be a valuable part of an organization.

Consider these tips to create a motivated work environment.

       Establish a positive environment where everyone freely expresses ideas and are encouraged to challenge themselves, to grow, and to develop.

        Develop a system of recognition for a job well done. This includes both tangible and intangible rewards.

       Praise improvement regularly.

        Create an 'honest' relationship with anyone around you so that they trust you. This creates an environment where people trust your judgment and your leadership, and you reward them for their trust.

         Recognize that along with any 'carrot' or reward, consequences for lack of action must be included. Outcomes from a person's action and/or inaction weigh on how motivated a person will be.

       Always manage in a participative environment that acknowledges a team effort. Great coaches and players both realize that they are dependent on each other to reach goals and satisfy their personal needs.

Ask yourself, "What am I doing to create and maintain the most favorable environment?  What do I need to continue doing, to start doing, and to stop doing?"

Work hard and measure your improved results.

Will Helmlinger and Suzi Helmlinger co-founded Your Hire Authority™ and The Resource Development Group, Inc. in 1995. 503.657.1192

Experience- Based Retention

Is it because of money?
Benefits?
The fact they believe there are no real opportunities for them at the company?

While many might argue about which of the above has more impact on whether or not a person decides to jump ship, attempting to identify the main overall culprit is probably the least productive approach to increasing retention. Why? Because while studies may show that one factor carries more weight than another, those same studies also show that all of the factors have the ability to influence people to some degree.

So that means by focusing solely on the main culprit - whatever it might be - your retention plan is only as good as the number of people in your company who are primarily affected by that factor. Which means that it's nowhere close to being 100% effective.

People and Situations
Are you going to retain every person you hire? Of course not. The key is to retain those people you want to retain, those employees who make a difference and contribute a tremendous amount to the company in numerous ways. And in order to retain those superstar employees, you have to consider what kind of experience you're providing to them.

Life is nothing more than a series of experiences, and people respond to them in a rather predictable fashion. They strive to avoid negative experiences, and they tend to gravitate toward positive ones. That rule certainly applies to people. After all, people provide an experience, don't they? I'm sure you could identify people in your life who provide negatives experiences and people who provide positive ones.

Which ones do you try to avoid?
The same holds true for an employment situation. If people aren't receiving a positive experience in their job, they're going to try to find a new one. The challenge is to ensure that they're receiving that positive experience. However, there are two aspects of this challenge to keep in mind:

Experiences are very person-specific. In other words, what one person believes is a positive experience might not be the case for another person. Employees are not apt to come right out and tell you what constitutes a positive experience for them. Unless you have a very outgoing and highly communicative person on your team, you'll have to gather that information yourself.

Productivity and Profitability
As you might imagine, there are many different components to an experience, especially an employment experience. The good news is that there are ways to not only account for all of them, but also to ensure that you're addressing them in a way that will create positive experiences with your team and increase retention.

In future issues, we're going to identify and discuss these different components, how they affect the overall employment experience and why, and how your understanding of them can help you to maximize the productivity - not to mention the profitability - of your team.

Copyright protected, all rights reserved worldwide. ©2008 Gary Sorrell