Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Motivate

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When you are the boss of others, the temptation to use your power to control them is always there. However, if you start using this power too much it can bring disorder to your office environment.

Think of how you would feel if you had a boss always driving you around. Would you like to work for someone like that? If your hard work was never appreciated, would your motivation last? Definitely not! Therefore it is important to do your duty as a boss in such a way that you get your respect for your position without upsetting your employees.

Giving power to your employees to make them feel unthreatened by yours can be a dangerous tactic. Being over friendly with your subordinates or not acting like the boss might make them a little too relaxed with their work. They might even start questioning your decisions. Be friendly and do not gorge them with work, make them do just as much is required from them. Also do not let them forget who the boss is by not allowing them to question your decisions.

Keep an eye on your employees but sure you give them enough space to work comfortably. Think of your staff as your team and yourself as the captain of this team. Your job is to make sure everyone plays in their right positions and keep them guided and motivated. Perhaps a few incentives to make them work harder will help in keeping them motivated to work harder.

When you change your focus onto a new opportunity, you should not expect your employees to know what you want them to know, without having explained/guided them properly. Hire and use some extra training staff if you have to, but make sure there is no communication gap between you and your employees. They should know exactly what you expect from them.

The most important factor that keeps your staff motivated is optimism in the way you see their work. Finding mistakes in their work and correcting them is important but do not just be a cynic about it, make sure you appreciate what they do right. Appreciation is often what employees look forward to more than anything else for their hard work. Putting just a little effort to gratify them wins you a healthier office environment and thus better results on their work.