What Motivates Your Employees?
Were you ever paid to perform some household chore when you were young? Many children have received an allowance in exchange for mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage or cleaning their room. How enthused were you about doing that job? Probably not very, until you were reminded that you would receive your reward once the work was completed. And how well did you perform that task? To the best of your ability, or just enough to get it done? In a similar way, some employees may be motivated to perform the tasks required of their position only by the thought of receiving a paycheck. Yet others seem determined to not only perform at their best, but reach beyond. They truly enjoy their work and will go that extra mile. It’s part of who they are. Who will make a better employee, someone who always needs to be motivated by an outside source or someone who is truly self-motivated? OK, you don’t have to answer that question. Let’s just say motivating that first type of employee could become time consuming and costly.
Driven by Internal Wiring
What accounts for the difference between those employees who merely get the job done and those who strive for excellence? What pushes high achievers to play full out during their work day? It’s the way they’re “wired.” We are all driven by specific internal factors, which are established at birth. Just as our character, disposition and temperament are based on our genetic patterns, this “internal wiring” sets the tone for our personality and behavior, and in many respects determines the kind of human being we become. If we understand internal wiring, we can better understand how to motivate employees as a manager. So when it comes to the work world, one person may prefer to work alone, while another needs to interact with their coworkers. If a particular employee needs “thought time,” you wouldn’t expect that person’s best ideas to come during an impromptu meeting. And if an employee likes to work on projects in sequence, you wouldn’t hand off several unrelated tasks at once to that individual. Our wiring also dictates the type of environment in which we are best equipped to thrive and succeed. When we are given tasks and put in an environment that matches our innate preferences, meaning those that are part of our genetic makeup, we are more motivated and energized. We’ll perform at our best because we’ll be working in sync with who we are naturally. And when that happens, we create our own internal motivation. That’s often what differentiates high achievers from their coworkers: They have the best fit in terms of work tasks and work environment. Others may think they are putting in longer hours or are working harder, and they may be doing some of that, but much of the time they’ll be just doing what comes naturally to them and accomplishing more. As an employer, you can use this knowledge to better interact with your employees and build a high-performance team. First, you can select employees who are the best match with the requirements of particular positions, based on their internal wiring. Second, you can create an optimal work environment for those employees. Those two strategies together will enhance your team’s performance and increase your chances of having a highly motivated team. What’s the most effective way to find those people who are best suited for the positions at your business? Using the AcuMax Index is one way to help you take the guesswork out of the hiring process. The AcuMax Index accurately measures internal wiring and will help you gain insight into the personal characteristics of the candidates you are considering and determine how well they match the criteria of the positions in your company. After each potential new hire goes through the AcuMax Index, you’ll receive a precise and reliable wiring profile for each person. An easy to understand report will give you green, yellow or red visual indicators to guide you in deciding if a given candidate is a match for that specific job. In addition, AcuMax can create a wiring profile for the position. Then you can compare how well your candidate matches the ideal position profile. Leaning on the power of natural wiring, you can also build work teams based on each team member’s wiring profile. Once you know the working conditions each member prefers, you can tap into that information and use it to your advantage, pairing up those who have complementary wiring. Providing the right kind of work environment and feedback will encourage your employees to be self-motivating. And when your team members understand how to best work with each other, that will also contribute to their productivity.