Two Things Every Manager Needs to Do to Keep Their Employees Motivated

I had a great question from former baseball great Tommy Lasorda on my YouTube show recently.

He wanted to know, how do you keep your team and employees motivated? I love this question coming from a great manager and motivator himself who understands the importance of employee motivation.

Well, Tommy, I have the answer for you:

Motivating employees should be a top priority for you in your business, no matter what. If you have motivated and engaged employees who are excited and ready to work, it’s a recipe for success. It may seem obvious to some of you, but there are so many people who think they are giving employees incentive, and they’re not at all. It can be difficult when you’re the boss to notice when employees are feeling motivated or not. That’s why you need to make sure that motivating others is always top of mind; hence you must learn to pay attention.

There are so many different ways you can go about motivating others, but in the end, two methods have worked best for me. I would love to share them with you; hopefully you find them useful.

#1: Lead by example

By this I mean, quite literally, lead with your actions. Actions will always speak louder than words. If you are motivated and bring energy, your employees will react to that. And I mean in every aspect of the day, not just when you’re running a meeting. How you interact with people. Emails you send. Your posture in a meeting. Everyone is always watching and they are looking to you for an example of how to behave. Don’t forget that everything stems from the top. The way you act and behave in the presence of your employees will dictate so much of how motivated they are.

#2: Knowing what your employees want

The title says it all. Figure out what it is your employees want most in life, and help them get it. Let them know that you are invested in it. Check in with them often on how it is doing.

Everybody is driven by different things. We all have our own dreams, aspirations and beliefs that motivate us. So you need to use your ears and listen. You need to sit down with your employees and understand where they want to take their careers. What’s their ambition? What do they want to do with their life? By sitting down with people and actually listening, you’ll be able to set up your employees for success while also motivating them to work hard and fast.

Also, it makes you a good boss. So there’s that.

Motivating others around you

Here’s the big takeaway: never think for a second that money drives all motivation. It’s simply not true. People are in the game for multiple reasons and the only way for you to understand that is to listen. Once you understand then you can set them up to be in a place for them to deliver on it. And that gives them incentive to always work their hardest for you, because you did it for them. Get it?

Take moments out of your day to get to know all your employees. I meet with every single new hire at my company in the first few months they start. Every single one. I want to get to know them as best I can. And I really listen, as I do understand the importance of employee motivation . For all the reasons I stated above, it’s so important to understand what they want to achieve in life. It could change at any time, and I want to be prepared for every single moment, at any time, forever.

Be a good boss and listen more than you talk.

See my full answer for Tommy Lasorda here:

Tommy Lasorda Asks How Do You Keep Your People Motivated