3 questions that will boost motivation - and business

Excerpted from the Executive Report: Why Good People Jump Ship

Involved employees are motivated employees. So how do you make sure they're involved? Ask employees these three questions and you can boost morale and business:

1. Can you tell me our top three goals for this year? (To analyze the level of engagement, people need to be on the same page.)
2. If you were competing against our company, what would you do? (Managers are often surprised to learn that employees know right where the weaknesses are.)
3. What is currently impossible to do that if it were possible would change everything? (This forces people to think is there something different we can do? What drives us crazy and how can we fix it?)

DIGGING DEEPER
Making sure your best people stay is key to boosting business. To get help doing that, read the Executive Report: Why Good People Jump Ship - and What You Can Do to Keep Them

Comments

[Jay Forte]

I feel the best three questions to boost motivation (which really means activate an employee's passion for what he does) are:
1. What do you love to do and are there things at the company that will allow you to do more of what you love? (This activates an employee's emotional connection by adding things to their role that activates their passions and interests).
2. Does your job use what you are great at? (This opens a dialog for an employee to identify what his talents are and if his role plays to his talents. The closer the role and talents match, the more capable, confident and motivated an employee feels.)
3. What are three things we could do as a company to be more successful? (Soliciting input activates employees' sense of ownership and contribution. It is motivating to be included in an organization that asks their employees what they think, values their opinions and uses their ideas - it encourages them to think and act like owners).

Motivation is about connecting employees intellectually (they are good at what they do), emotionally (they are passionate about what they do) and personally (they have a stake in the results).

[Allison]

I found this very interesting and am thinking of ways to use it in casual interactions at work. Following the link to "Why Good People Jump Ship" I was truely tempted (for the FIRST time) to buy a presentation that an HR Site was selling.

[manual handling training]

Excellent. I am working on this right now. I have the most difficulty with this when we're out and his actions cause people to turn around and stare ... I mean the nasty tone of voice mostly. There's one place we go where there's a person he doesn't like. He flies off the handle at this other person very easily to the point where I don't want to go there for that reason, and, yet, we have a commitment to go there.
manual handling training

[kelli]

I have found that food normally motivates here at the office.