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Make them Smile: 5 Ways to Motivate Your Employees and Send Them Home Smiling

When a manager walks into a work place among their employees, that manager has the power to change the outlook of the employee for the entire day, maybe longer. You are the most important maker of motivation and morale among your employees.
Words, body language, even the expression on your face can make the difference in how an employee perceives your opinion of them. All these things tell the employee how you feel about them, what they mean to you and how valuable they are to you as a manager and to the company.

Making the employee feel as though they are needed and appreciated is a key factor in maintaining high employee morale and motivation. If your employees feel that they play an important part in the company by the work they provide, then they are much more likely to say that they like their job and to strive to better themselves at that job. For some, feeling valued is just as important as competitive pay, and advancement opportunities.

Building Employee motivation:

1. Make your presence known. Coming to work and announcing your arrival is a great way to motivate employees and put a smile on their face first thing in the morning. Walking through the doors and simply saying good morning with a smile on your face can make all the difference in the world.

2. Verbal Praise. This kind of praise doesn't have to be over dramatic or over the top, most times showing respect for your employees by saying simple things like please and thank you are easy and effective ways to motivate your employees. Simply saying "you did a great job" when the employee deserves it is another way that verbal praise can work to motivate employees.

3. Set clear expectations. Communicating deadlines, objectives, and requirements of a job is essential to completing the task efficiently. Sometimes these things are reported very well but they may change. Usually these changes are not discussed in detail and therefore it causes employees to feel that they are either not important enough to be told why the changes are taking place, or that the manager has made a mistake. Neither of these thoughts will lead to a motivated employee. One way to prevent this is to always get some kind of feedback from the employee about the job so that you are certain that he knows what is expected. If there is a change in a project, tell the employee why. Make them part of the solution to the problem.

4. Give employees regular feedback. Let the employee know when he is doing a good job. This also works the other way, let the employee know when you are not pleased with the outcome and why. This is a great opportunity to let the employee know how they can do better next time. Also, now is a good time to ask the employee if there is anything that you as a manager can do to help with the change. Wait for feedback from the employee. Talk it over and have a real discussion. This will make the employee feel like you are not upset about the job, but that you are genuinely concerned and willing to help correct the problem.

5. Create consequences. Make sure to not only tell the employee when you are pleased with the work, but also provide rewards and recognition for outstanding work. A personally written thank you card is a very effective and inexpensive way to do this. When an employee is not working up to the expectations set by the company, it is UNmotivating to other workers, after all, they may think, "If he isn't doing it why should I?" That is why it is so important to make clear consequences for those who do not perform as expected. It is very important to be consistent with these consequences.

Employees will like working with you and you will like working with them more and more if you will take a few minutes out of your day to make sure that they are happy. Spend time with employees and show them that you care and value them as an important part of the company and you will see outstanding results.