By means of this post, you will get a series of practical insights that you can understand without trouble to improve the productivity of your company, as well as the work environment of your employees. This will not only benefit you, it will make your employees' lives happier. You, as a leader, only have to know a series of principles about human behavior to ostensibly improve the motivation of your workers.

1. How to motivate your employees
By David Kiger Image courtesy of KristopherK at Pexels.com

2. By means of this post, you will get a series of practical insights
that you can understand without trouble to improve the
productivity of your company, as well as the work environment of
your employees. This will not only benefit you, it will make your
employees' lives happier. You, as a leader, only have to know a
series of principles about human behavior to ostensibly improve
the motivation of your workers.
The first thing you should do is a small test. If I asked you which of
the following aspects is paramount for you (as a boss,) what
would you answer? Work conditions, safety, work progress,
colleague relations, achievements, salary, or responsibilities.
Think. Organize those priorities from one to eight. At the end of
this post, you will really know how you should organize those
priorities to properly motivate the people who work for you. If you
are reading this post, maybe you do not know how to organize
those priorities, so, pay attention and learn.

3. One of the most common ways you can motivate people (and
this may include you) is to make them consider the benefits of
making certain decisions and doing certain things. This form of
motivation has to do with external factors external, for example:
“If I work enough during the summer, I can harvest in the fall, and
have enough resources during the winter.” This type of stimuli is
opposed to those motivations that have nothing to do with
external elements, but are intrinsic: Someone does something
because he or she really wants to do it.
Here is one key element: the most efficient form of motivation has
to do with intrinsic aspects: When people do something because
they know they are right, and they want to do things right, not
because they will get an economic benefit from it.
Read also: How To Strengthen Your Own Leadership Skills, by
David Kiger

4. To understand this, it is quite useful to analyze Maslow's pyramid a
little. Maslow claimed that human beings do things, stop doing things,
decide things, and skip things because there is some need related to
it. We, as human beings, are always needy. We always need
something. We are not self-sufficient, and all the movements of our life
are directly or indirectly related to the satisfaction of our needs.
Although we are all unique, we live unique circumstances, and,
therefore, we have unique needs, it is possible to group needs by
categories within a pyramid scheme. In this way, we are all needy, but
we all do not have the same needs fulfilled. Maybe Dave needs to
finish paying off a debt he has with the bank, and he's working hard
this year to get rid of it. Maybe Anne is working hard this year because
she wants to study a master degree next year and she needs some
savings. Maybe Matt is working hard because he wants to prove his
ex-wife that he is a responsible person and he is able to take care of
his children.

5. In this way, it is necessary to know the specific circumstances of
each employee to motivate them.
In the first category of the pyramid, there are physiological needs,
the most instinctive. These are the needs that keep us alive: Eating,
sleeping, breathing, drinking water, etc. In the second category,
there are all the safety-related needs: Will I be OK? Will anyone hurt
me? Will I have enough resources? Until when will I have this job? In
the third category, there are all the needs related to belonging to a
group: Feeling loved, respected, as members of a family group (or
similar.) In the next category, there are all the needs related to
esteem; on the one hand, those that others give us, such as
attention, knowledge, and reputation, and, on the other, those that
we offer ourselves, such as trust, self-love, and knowledge of what
we are good for. The ultimate level is self-realization: When people
think they can become all that they can be. Only a true minority
reaches this point, indeed.

6. The first thing you must learn is that what motivates your
employees is not money. Money, itself, is a means. Some
people need, or they believe they need, a lot of money in the
bank account that they will never use … but these people are
really a minority. People need money for other matters, and
those issues are the ones you should know about.
Also, the working environment is not the most important. It
doesn’t matter how nice an office is, how fun it is, how
delicious the coffee is. Having poor working conditions is
demotivating, yes, but good conditions are not a guarantee
of true motivation.

7. As Nietzsche said: When you
have a "what," you will find the
"how." The real motivations have
to do with personal challenges,
with the identity of the people,
with inner growth, with
recognition, with the meaning of
their lives. Everything else is
secondary; necessary, but
secondary.
So, check again the test of the
beginning of this post, and
organize those priorities again.
Recommended: Factors affecting
Motivation at Work
Image courtesy of Pixabay at Pexels.com