How do you motivate your employees when times are tough?

I also think it is a very interesting question, however I would challenge you to think about the phrasing of that question and what it says about you and your organization.

Since I do believe by viewing the employees in a different framework may help you to avoid these problems in the future. I am specifically referencing the terms "some our employees aren't motivated right now" and "do you have any tips for motivating employees". Over the years in business and serving as a military officer, I have come to the conclusion that it is very arrogant of us to think because we are in positions of power that we can "motivate" other human beings. If I were in a position of authority over you and I asked the question, "what can I do to motivate you?", I would almost guarantee that unanimously your answer would be "nothing". Primarily, because you would feel that your motivation comes from within. I would challenge you to show the same respect for your employees, and their means of generating "motivation".

Maybe the better question to be asking "is what can we do as an organization to allow people to feel empowered and more in control of their destiny and the destiny of the company?" If done properly, that is one of the benefits to implementing things like Social Media platforms within a company. Your employees become engaged with the client/ customer and can provide meaningful suggestions for improvement. When utilized in an internal way, it also gives the employee an opportunity to get through the difficult times by offering grassroots suggestions to improve the organization that probably were not even considered or thought of by upper-level management.

Basically as an organization, your job is to create an environment where peoples natural inclination to be productive and to do the right thing is fostered. Assuming that you have hired quality employees they are already motivated, however the environment that you have fostered up until this point has not provided them substantiative opportunities to go forward. Hence, your impression that they are not motivated during a down economy.

I think it is very easy to blame the economy and placed the burden on the employee. I would believe that the same problems were there before the economy turned but because management's bottom line, was not affected, the issues were overlooked and never addressed.

I don't know if I have truly addressed your question but I do think that rethinking it may be the start of progress towards a solution.

W.T. Boykin Jr.- Managing Member
The CB Group, LLC
cboykin@wsimarketing.com

That is a very good question and one that many leaders seem to be asking themselves lately. Motivating employees can be difficult, especially during tough economic times. A few suggestions that may help:

1. Communicate openly with your employees, keeping them informed about the state of the organization. Often, employee morale becomes low because they sense something is not going well but they are kept in the dark.
2. Try to drill down to the root source causing the lack of motivation. You may find out that it may be something that you are able to address rather quickly.
3. Create a vision, share it and solicit feedback from employees on what the company could potentially look like when the economic conditions improve.
4. Include others in the process of navigating through the tough times. People tend to have a different outlook when they are part of the solution.
5. Lastly, you will want to address the issue with the staff and specifically those who are showing the least motivation.

The company still needs to function, even in the worst of times. Find out what motivates your staff, often you will find that simple rewards and recognitions cost little to nothing, but make a world of difference.

Best of luck to you and your staff!

Such a great question! Communicating a vision takes clarity and consistency. Once you frame your message you need to consistently communicate it to employees, vendors, clients, and colleagues. The mistake that leaders make is saying it once and expecting that people will know it to be true. They need to hear it over and over again in conversations throughout the week, month, year, and throughout the organization. They need to hear it from all levels of leadership. THIS is how the employees will know the vision is real.
And the adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ is very true here. A vision is only as true as the implementation. Otherwise, it’s just words. So, consistent communication of the vision combined with actions that work toward the vision will cement the idea in everyone’s mind.

I don't think it's a coincidence that all the above responses about motivating employees start off with a compliment. Sounds like praise/positive reinforcement is great approach to start with.

I agree with Diane and would like to emphasize what should happen assuming you have communicated the vision of your organization. As leaders we must ensure that employees know where they fit into the vision and how you plan to lead them there. Many organizations have a clear and consistent vision that can inspire the uninspirable, but if you fail to communicate to ALL employees where they fit into this common mission, they may believe the goal and mission is unattainable because you (leadership) can't tell them how and what role they fill. It's like providing a destination with neither transportation nor a map. The economy is tough right now and employees want assurances that their company and leaders will take care of them. Don't promise them the world, just be sure they're aware and ENGAGED in the long-term vision.

In essence I am agreeing with Diane, I just feel it important to point out that your strategic vision must be accompanied by effective communication then followed by great execution to keep those high performers engaged. You can't get there without them!

I'm glad you're thinking about this Ralph. I've found it helpful to establish an ongoing dialogue with employees. Take time each week to sit down with leaders and managers and talk about issues. These aren't gripe sessions, just quiet meetings to listen to people's concerns. It's the act of listening to employees that helps defuse much of the worry.

You can also try doing some team building, ongoing praise of employees and try to make their jobs fit their talents and abilities. Fulfilled employees who also feel valued by the company tend to be more motivated. An important thing to note is that these activities should be ongoing.

First you need to identify why they are feeling unmotivated. Is it because they feel the company is doomed so effort is pointless? Is it a sense of uncertainty they feel about the true state of the company? Do they believe you as owner/manager(s) are the source of the problems or if not the source are nevertheless not the solution? Are they worried about losing their jobs and that has led to depression?

Often it's a sense of helplessness that overwhelms employees in a small company when times are tough. In a down economy they will have the combined stresses of feeling they work at a risky proposition yet can't easily find another job. Once you figure out the real cause (by talking to them - ask them) you can address it with some chance of success. It's almost never a bad idea no matter the cause to a) Keep them in the loop on exactly the state of the company - this will remove worry based on uncertainty and make them feel bought in; b) Ask them for ideas for improving things.

The most demotivating situation for an employee is to feel helpless to make a difference (in up or down times). If you are open with them about your situation and seek - and USE - their ideas for improvement motivation can improve even if the situation doesn't immediately.

Seek input from the employees and make sure that you implement some of their suggestions - giving full credit to the employee for coming up with the idea. This will be recognised as actually listening and respecting your employees.

As an ex military ( army) officer myself, I totally concur with Chip's comments above. I have always seen my job as a manager as primarily the environment manager, so that others in the team can get on with the mission. Yes, its important to make sure everyone is on board with the mission etc, but that is just part of the environmental management. I have hired folks for a reason, and generally because they know more about their specialist area than I do. It would therefore be extremely arrogant to assume that because I have a higher pay grade ( in this case, co owner of the business) that I automatically know more than they do. I am constantly and pleasantly, surprised at the output and results of people who are allowed to own their role". I dislike the term employees, the people that I hire may be employees of the company, but they are in my mind the folks I work with.

Leaders of companies facing tough times should clearly communicate relevant information about the challenges facing their organization to employee, the strategy for meeting these challenges, the specific performances that the organization needs the specific groups of employees to render as part of the strategy, the importance of the contribution and performance of each employee to the success of the plan, and, where applicable, the rewards or detriments that may result from success or failure.

Our company was just one year ago on the brink of administration, Administrators were walking around the building, it was a mater of hours before over 500 people were going to face the job markets which were already saturated with other people in the same circumstances. So with a work force on the brink of redundancy how do you restore faith, motivation and a feeling of self worth especially when everyone had given so much to keep the company afloat.

Speeches were now redundant, money certainly was not going to be a motivator what helped- pure honesty. Open forums about where the company was financially. What what was going to happen over the coming months and what went wrong.

Needles to say the company was bought by a vc house and things had to change, but how do you change 500 peoples motivation when they were about to loose there job just before Christmas.

Meting with every individual, Providing them an arena to ask open and frank questions, allowing them to spend as much time as they need raising questions that needed. Answers. Explaining honesty the journey that was about to begin, reviewing with then what was needed and empowering them to take decisions relating to their working practices.

Not once did we ask; what would Motivate you. What we did ask everyone though was what would you like to see change, what would make your life easier at work, what would help you achieve your business objectives and what are your goals for the next 12 months.

This had a positive effect and the business today has aminimal attrition a team who work so hard, bearing in mind there have been no pay increase or bonus, but why have we not lost people in droves looking for a secure company, Regular meetings on company performance, monthly reviews giving feedback on positives, recognizing great performance pubicaly, holding 6 monthly social events to bring everyone together and highlighting through reward ceremonies great achievements and personal achievements.

To sum up how we motivate / motivated during very tough times. Understanding, recognition, feedback, honesty & financial transparency and social gatherings.

It strikes me that part of the answer relates to how you dealt with your employees during the good times. Did they feel they were dealt with fairly, were kept informed of the company's progress and were made to feel that their contribution was valued?

If this was the case it is easier to keep them focused on looking for solutions and opportunities when times are tougher. You have to make them feel they can be part of the solution...and that means asking them how they would like to respond and what they can do to help make things better. Downtimes can be a real opportunity for creative change as everyone is looking for a way to improve the situation...tap into this resource and you could be surprised.

Company size can be a factor here. It is obviously easier for a smaller company to change its ways of doing business than a larger one...but both can do it if the will is there.

Sometimes leaders are afraid to be truthful about how the business is doing in fear that people will jump ship. If you build a culture of honest information then people will be less likely to panic. The rumour mill gets cut off if facts are presented in a context.

Uhhh. The question assumes we can actually motivate employees. The reality is that motivation is internal. In tough times as well as in a competitive enviornment the key is focusing on what you can control.

S

While it is admirable to communicate the organizations goals, mission, vision, etc., and attempt to keep employees focused on the objectives. We as managers have to realize that these may be, or are, meaningless to individual employees because each has their own fears, frustrations, problems with which they are dealing and those are frequently far more important than the organization. During tough times, employees will care less about the organization and will be focused on themselves.

Create an environment in which your reports feel comfortable sharing their fears, problems, frustrations on an individual basis. Give them a forum to truly open up and speak freely and honestly. Each employee will be different and a one size fits all mentality will not work. Don't "act" like you are sincerely interested, "be" truly interested.

Find small and personal ways to do things and provide support that will help relieve their individual issues. Once an employee has less personal stress, they are more willing to focus on the organization.

Obviously, you cannot solve all problems or fears, but knowing them will give you great insight as to what is really going on underneath. Demonstrating a truly sincere interest in employees on a truly personal basis will go a long way toward rebuilding morale.

If a company is run well motivation of employees should not change regardless of economy or current state of the company. Of course in good times you can increase raises or bonuses or other incentives which you may not be able to do in leaner times. However, these are only short term solutions and if the more intrinsic nature of leadership is not exemplified you will lose motivation anyway among employees. The key is communication, communication, communication. Communication eliminates the wild exaggerations of the imagination when people work in a vacumn and don't understand the direction they are going.

Here is a brief outline for getting employees involved in improving revenue and expense management even in lead times.

1. Explain the current status of the company and the impact it is having on the company.
2. Engage the people doing the work for ideas on working more efficiently, creating more revenue, getting rid of redundance and bureaucracy, and use their ideas where appropriate and where not applicable explain why.
3. Expectations: Create expectations for what what the company needs to achieve, how it will be measured, time frames etc.
4. Equip: Equip your workers as well as possible to do their jobs to meet the expectations otherwise words are meaningless.
5. Execute: Execute the changes
6. Evaluate with the workers progress on a regular basis and change what needs to be changed and reinforce what needs to be done.

In addition, you will invariably have key personnel who need to be recognized because they are leaders among their peers and will help keep people focused and motivated on the front lines. Recognition can take various forms and may or may not involve compensatory measures.

And continue to: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

I don't think you can motivate anyone but yourself. But I believe you can understand the motivations of others and speak to those motivations as a way of engaging people. If motivation is all about direction of movement, there are two directions that move people: Towards (desire) and Away (fear.) Fear is an excellent short term motivator, but if you use too much of it, people adapt to it and it loses its power to move. Desire is an excellent long term motivator. It's sustainable. And when you combine a great deal of desire and some degree of fear, you become unstoppable.

So motivating employees means understanding what they are moving towards and moving away from, and then speaking to their desires AND fears as a way of engaging them.

Finding the fears in tough times is easy. Finding the desires, whether it's the desire for doing what's right, or for reward, or success, or challenge, or purpose, or pleasure ...that requires that you pay closer attention.

I don't think you can motivate people. I think people motivate themselves. During my career I have encountered some people who are highly motivated and others who are not. I believe motivation is driven internally by an individual's desire to succeed, to learn, to grow and improve. Motivation isn't something someone else gives you it is something you give yourself. The reward and engine that fuels motivation is the satisfaction of accomplishment and having done your best.

Many useful answers have been provided. I concur that organisations need to create the conditions that enhance individual motivation and that, most likely, the conditions that have caused people to appear 'de-motivated' now were present well before the economic downturn.

My research and experience has clearly indicated that there are a number of factors that leaders/manager can control that can enhance the conditions where individual motivation has a chance to be raised.

1.) Let people know what is going on - be honest
2.) Remind people of where you are going and how what you are doing now is going to get you there (Vision and strategy)
3.) Recognise people for their efforts - be genuine when doing this else it will backfire
4.) To the best of your ability ensure that people are doing work that engages their talents - this assumes, of course, that you have spent the time working out what their talents are in the first place (if you haven't done this yet, then this too is an opportunity)
5.) Create opportunities for your people to contribute to finding and implementing ways to help the company 'turn things around' - Low Risk Projects are a great way to do this (a Low Risk Project is one that has minimal financial or brand risk associated with it, but a big upside if it comes off)
6.) This builds on number 6 above - continue to create developmental opportunities for your people - how smart can you be with you existing budget line items so that you can stay within budget yet still create developmental opportunities for your people to develop themselves? E.g. you probably can't pay people more, yet you might be able to send some on a conference (that would be relevant to them and their role of course)
7.) Listen to what they have to say and implement (where possible) their suggestions - then let everyone know that you have implemented a suggestion from whoever suggested it - this proves that you have listened
8.) Trust people to do their job - there is not much more de-motivating that someone unnecessarily looking your shoulder
9.) Give people honest feedback on their performance - what are they doing well, what could they improve on and what could they start doing that they are not currently doing
10.) Re-enforce the value of what they are doing and how it is helping the company get back on track.

These 10 suggestions are all within the control of each manager/leader and in my view are absolutely doable.

Best of luck!

The motivation must percolate up from a sense of purpose and commitment to what must be accomplished in order for the company to succeed. When businesses face challenges, there is a tendency to "point the rifles inside the foxhole"....as a former CEO of mine us to say. In other words, companies become internally focused, not externally driven. So, how do you motivate employees in tough times?

1) Focus on solving customer problems and "proving your value" with every interaction. Remember... your customers are facing tough times as well. Help them succeed. Focus OUTSIDE your business.

2) Be consistent, clear and concise with critical success factors. Break CSFs down intro achievable stages, reward contribution and success.

3) Don't tolerate negativity. Nothing kills a company quicker than the cancer of negativity. I am not talking about cheer leading nor ignoring what needs to be fixed. I am talking about pervasive negativity that counters any positive action management takes to improve morale, culture or performance.

I am a big believer in positive inquiry. Humans have a tendency to be fault finders. Let's break down what is going wrong, identify the bad parts and fix it. Thing is, human systems evolve in the direction that you inspect. If you are always inspecting the negative, you will perpetuate negative energy. Positive inquiry says, "yep, this is tough, but have we just barely once had some success at what we are trying to do?"

Then you break down all the things that helped you have a sliver of success and then ask the team to get focused on replicating those items. Essentially, you put them back to work.

Or as King Leonidas may have said before the Battle of Thermopylae, "Remember you are the officers and commanders, our men will take their cue from you. If you show fear, they will be afraid. If you project courage, they will match it in kind. Your men will look to you and act as you do. Let no officer keep to himself or his brother officers, but circulate daylong among his men. Let them see you and see that you are unafraid. When their is work to do, turn your hand first; the men will follow. Keep your men busy. If there is no work, make it up, for when soldiers have time to talk, their talk turns to fear. Action on the other hand, produces the appetite for more action."

While always important, effective execution and a culture of accountability are even more essential when a business is faced with challenging economic conditions. Our research on top performing companies points to four actions critical for success in the current environment. Keeping individuals and teams focused and engaged during tough times requires leaders to:

Be optimistic but realistic. It’s important to be positive about the future without appearing naïve. The key is to set realistic expectations and find the right balance between resources, time, and desired outcomes. People have confidence they can succeed, even in a difficult economic period, when they feel that objectives are realistic and adequately resourced.

Hold everyone accountable for results. Tough times demand that everyone bring their “A” game and pull their own weight. Therefore it is important that everyone understands what is expected of them and when. Then monitor progress, celebrate successes, and recalibrate or coach people to get back on track when necessary. It is also important to create an environment where people can raise problems and admit mistakes, rather than “covering up” or “pointing fingers,” which is more likely during challenging times.

Involve people in decisions. When times are tough you want everyone’s best thinking and full commitment. Now is not the time to close people out of the decision-making process in order to protect them or to ‘speed things up. Involving people in decisions increases decision quality and acceptance, and enhances engagement.

Ensure plans and actions are coordinated across departments and levels. Don’t let uncertainty or ambiguity push you into a day-to-day mindset, as this is not the time to “wing it.” However, even the best plan will fail if everyone is not pulling in the same direction. During difficult times efficiency is critical and coordination is king.

Even in a weak economy there are winners and losers. By consistently applying the four key actions you increase the likelihood that you and your team will end up in the winner’s circle.