What is motivation?
Motivation is a process that initiates and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It is something that cause you to act upon something which will eventually let you achieve your goals.
Major Components of Motivation;
The major components of motivation are;
*Activation:
It involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as starting to exercise to get lean.
*Persistence:
It is an effort towards your goal even though you face different obstacles.
*Intensity:
It can be seen by the hard work, concentration, enthusiasm that goes into pursuing a goal.
It also involves the biological, emotional and social forces to activate behavior. It is the willingness to get the job done.
"The term motivation refers to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior... Motives are the 'whys' of behavior—the needs or wants that drive behavior and explain what we do. We don't actually observe a motive; rather, we infer that one exists based on the behavior we observe."
(Nevid, 2013)
Employees Efficiency and Motivation:
The efficiency of an employee is directly related to the level of motivation he has. We usually as manager put our efforts to motivate our employees to the possible extent that they can increase their productivity without an issue.
The actual key for managers is to first identify the reason for an employee’s demotivation and then apply a targeted strategy for betterment.
Managers need to carefully access the nature of demotivation among employees and then take action because reacting can be crucial.
Top Reasons for Demotivation among Employees;
There are the four major reasons for demotivation;
- Mismatch of Values
- Less Self-efficiency
- Disrupting Emotions
- Attribution Errors
Here is the strategy to help employees get out of the above traps:
Mismatch of Values
When a task doesn’t link or add something to employee’s value, they won’t be motivated to do it. When an employee is doing something which isn’t paying him off in any way, will eventually lead him towards demotivation.
*Strategy to Get Employee Out of this Trap:
We firstly need to find out what task exactly motivates the employee. Managers normally thinks about their own motivation and assume the same is true of their employees. They are required to engage them in probing conversation and take their perspective to identify what the employee care about. We need to find links between the task and employee’s interest. Engaging them in teamwork, problem solving will also work out.
Crucial tasks are required to be identified in a way that interests your employee and he should be acknowledge by the ways that how that particular tasks will benefit him. Future benefits shall be cleared to him in accordance with that.
Less Self-Efficiency:
”When employees believe that they lack the capacity to carry out a given task, they will be less motivated to do it.”
*Strategy to Get Employee Out of this Trap:
An employer must do efforts to gain confidence of an employee. To help employee gain its self-efficiency back, an employer should wisely guide him with practical and personal experiences and should make work easier by dividing it into manageable chunks. Employee should be motivated and acknowledged for their efforts which will eventually lead to success.
Employees should be demonstrated with the possibility of tasks before assigning to them and should be convinced with a different approach.
Disrupting Emotions:
”When employees are disbursed with negative emotions such as angst, annoyance, or depression, they will not be motivated to carry out a task.”
*Strategy to Get Employee Out of this Trap:
Make you employee feel at ease and gain their confidence so that they can share their thoughts. Active listening will work in this case. Do not just agree or disagree. Because when people feel that they have been understood, their negativity turns. This often helps the person to get more productive.
Ask an employee to try to reframe their belief and anger about anything. Positive and creative suggestions may work. In case this strategy does not work it is advisable to help the employee access counselling.
Attribution Errors:
”When the reason of a task isn’t understood by an employee employees, they won’t be motivated to do it.”
*Strategy to Get Employee Out of this Trap:
Assist the employee with their assigned tasks. Helping the employee to identify exactly why the task seems impossible can help them move past such evasion. Here, motivation is the key and strategy of giving them confidence will work.
*In nutshell, we can say that when employee’s motivation goes off the rails, identifying the exact trap and applying just the appropriate targeted strategy can get things going. As, the motivation is important in many areas of life. Rewards and appreciation can help establish positivity among people hence resulting in productive outputs.