How To Motivate And Direct Your People

Success in business comes from people; more and more people. You can't grow without them, but people are more unpredictable than computers and spreadsheets. You have to manage, motivate, and lead them, something many business owners and managers today are not good at doing.

Getting the most out of your employees involves structuring their work by devising performance expectations, agreeing on goals for the job, providing ongoing feedback, and holding official performance appraisals.

Writing performance expectations for a job isn't hard. You need do it only once, and then revise it every so often as the job and the employee change. Always focus on results, not the activity.

You start by explaining the position's objective and how it relates to the corporate mission. Then you identify the job's responsibility. Next, have the employee write a position mission statement and include it. Then define the evaluation process, when and how the employee will be appraised. Finally, give the employee the freedom to obtain results. Don't restrict the ways a job can be done.

Tasks without goals are journeys without destinations. Together with employees, create goals for the job. Good goals prioritize the work to be done as well as set a direction. You should set or change goals as needed, but don't make the mistake of just randomly changing them once a year.

Goals should be smart, specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic, and have a time limit. In all cases, in order for goal setting to be effective you must define the how of the goal as well as the what.

Employees should do more than just take part in setting goals. They need to commit to them. If an employee comes up short on a goal, find out why and make sure it doesn't happen again. On the other hand if the employee succeeds then you should reward him or her and celebrate.

An important part of motivating and directing your employees is holding regular performance appraisals. A good performance review provides an assessment of an employee's past six months and provides direction for the next six. You might hold the first around the beginning of the fiscal year when you're also establishing budgets. Hold another six months later or quarterly or monthly, to follow up on the first and make sure everyone stays on track.

Watch any good professional golfer and this is what you'll see: He tees up the ball, steps back and imagines its flight down the fairway. He has a vision. He, then approaches the ball, fidgets with his grip, and thinks, "One piece takeaway and don't forget the slight pause at the top." He has a mission. Then, he relaxes and focuses only on the ball. He has a goal. Craaaak! The ball lands 270 yards down the middle of the fairway. The vision becomes a reality.

Like a golfer on the links, you need a vision, mission and goals in business. Your vision will be broader than just splitting the fairway, however. It'll be your perception of where the company will be in the next five or ten years, and not just in sales or product, but in distribution markets, manufacturing capability, and anything else you think will ensure your company's survival and growth.

You need to put your vision in writing for your employees. If you want your people to be motivated, then, they deserve to know where they're heading.

The next part of motivation and direction is mission, which gives direction to your vision. It's a plan of action that has to be understood and implemented by the team. Ask your team to help develop the mission; involvement paves the way for commitment.

A good mission provides focus, defines direction, differentiates you from the competition, and communicates your niche, but always keep your mission statement short. Once it's completed put your mission where everyone can see it; plaster the mission on walls, put it in manuals, memos and emails. Then, set company department and personal goals that will achieve it.

Here are four more tips I've found work well for motivating and directing employees:

1. Don't look for mistakes. Look for things that have been done right and celebrate them.

2. Broadcast good news. Find and reward, loudly, the person to who has done good things.

3. Set stroking goals. Aim for at least two a day. Praise on the production line, in the office, on the bulletin boards, at parties, and by the water cooler.

4. Overdue strokes lose impact. Do it while the news is fresh. By the way, stroking works great in your personal life as well, with your family and friends.

Growing your business involves concentrating on the "people" side of building a business. When you are able to motivate and direct people on a daily basis you'll be laying the groundwork for something that eludes most businesses; long-term success

Copyright2008 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.

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