11 Misunderstandings About How To Motivate Employees

Managers find it easy to accept some misunderstandings about how to motivate employees. They need to guard against doing this because this can lead them down the wrong path and they will not reach their goals. Here are some of common misunderstandings about how to motivate employees to be mindful of:

1. Staff members come either motivated or not motivated. (In whatever state of motivation your workers begin their jobs, most can be molded into better motivated workers.)

2. If workers are not motivated, it is the manager's error. (The manager does play an important role and does share blame for poor employee motivation. However, the manager is not the only factor.)

3. It is the employee's fault if the employee is not motivated. (The employee has part of the responsibility for being motivated but there are other factors that can affect employee motivation. Some factors can de-motivate employees.)

4. Each and every employee can be motivated. (Nearly all employees can be motivated to do better work.)

5. Managers naturally are able to motivate all employees. (Managers have a range of abilities and employees can be complex and different. Managers do not know innately how to correctly motivate every employee.)

6. The same type of employee motivation method will work for every employee. All workers can be motivated by using the exact same methods. (This is simply not true. Different employee motivation techniques work best for motivating different types of employee.)

7. Money (i.e. promotions, raises, money awards) is necessary to maintain employee motivation. (Money is not the "perpetual motivation" machine. There are other influences that can work better than using money alone. Managers should not use just money to motivate employees.)

8. Bosses who use fear to motivate employees will have the best results. (Overall, fear is a poor employee motivator to use in the workplace and should not be employed. It may work short term and in unique circumstances.

9. The desire to see the company be successful is the biggest factor driving employee motivation. (While it is in the best interests of employees that the company they work for is successful, it is not the biggest factor driving employee motivation.)

10. Feeling "valued" has nothing to do with an employee's motivation to work harder or better. (Feeling "valued" can be a significant factor in motivating employees.)

11. Increases in employee motivation will only last for short periods under the best of circumstances. (This is not true. There are proven ways to increase employee motivation on a deeper level that will be long lasting.)