Motivation Process
In its simplest form, the motivation process begins with a need, an individual’s perception of a deficiency. For instance, an employee might feel the need for more challenging work, for higher pay, for time off, or for the respect and admiration of colleagues. These needs lead to thought processes that guide an employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a particular course of action. If an employee’s chosen course of action results in the anticipated out come and reward, that person is likely to be motivated by the prospect of a similar reward to act the same way in the future.
However, if the employee’s action does not result in the expected reward, he or she is unlikely to repeat the behavior. Thus, the reward acts as feedback mechanism to help the individual evaluate the consequences of the behavior when considering futures action.
Core Phases of the Motivational Process
1) Need Identification:
First phase of motivation process is need identification where the employee feels his/her some unsatisfied need. The motivation process begins with an unsatisfied need, which creates tension and drives an individual to search for goals that, if attained, will satisfy the need and reduce the tension.
2) Searching Ways to satisfy needs:
Second phase is finding the different alternatives that can be used to satisfy the needs, which were felt in first stage. These needs lead to thought processes that guide an employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a particular course of action
3) Selecting Goals:
Once if the need is assessed and employee is able to find out the way to satisfy the need than next phase is selection of goals to be performed.
4) Employee Performance:
These needs lead to thought processes that guide an employee’s decision to satisfy them and to follow a particular course of action in form of performance.
5) Consequences of performance Reward/punishments:
If an employee’s chosen course of action results in the anticipated out come and reward, that person is likely to be motivated by the prospect of a similar reward to act the same way in the future. However, if the employee’s action does not result in the expected reward, he or she is unlikely to repeat the behavior
6) Reassessment of Need deficiencies:
Once felt need is satisfied through certain rewards in response to performance than employee reassesses any deficiencies and entire process is repeated again.
5 ways to get the best out of your team
Success story of a firm is usually scripted by an efficient and driven workforce. Any organisation that fails to maximise the potential of its human resources is not productive. A good leader, or a team leader, must try to capture the best out of colleagues.
The leader’s task is to continuously reinvent and introduce strategies that would help in getting the best out of the people, and all this can happen if the leader has a keen understanding of people in the firm/team and is quick on his/her feet to motivate to achieve better results. Economic Times brings five ways to get the best out of your team along with experts.1. Emphasis on Power of Listening
Listen to the employees and get a hang of the missing block. “Humans make an organisation and, therefore, their insights and ideas should be given value & attention,” said Avishkar Mehrotra, chief people officer, Walmart India. Employees should feel comfortable to put forth their Suggestion & ideas and express their feelings in an open environment and they should be aware of organisational goals & objectives, changes and targets.
2. Empower Employees
Leaders must react and not ignore the views presented by the employees. In case the organisation discovers relevant suggestions, leaders must take note of them. “Leaders must not only make an effort to listen to their suggestions, they should also empower them to lead some of the initiatives,” said Mehrotra. Employees are a lot more motivated when they are aware how they are contributing to a larger objective.
3. Work as one Unit
Create an environment in the workplace that helps to open interactions and does not restrict or close communication channels. Open and interactive communication with associates is one of the most effective ways to make them feel part of the decision-making process. This makes them an integral part of the organisation. Teams should have a sense of purpose and an effective leader should always explain to the team how their contributions can help in solving problems and achieve common goals.
4. Continuous Coaching
Learning must never stop. All organisations must put their resources in training and coaching the workforce. The leaders must take ownership of providing opportunities to team members to acquire new skills that prepare them for the future and benefits the company as a whole. Growth and development of team members is important. Regular training sessions and other opportunities to help employees’ personal growth also act as great motivational drivres.
5. Recognition and reward
Good work of team members should be recognised. A simple ‘pat on the back’ goes a long way in motivating employees. Right behaviour as well as high performance must always be rewarded,” said Mehrotra. There are myriad ways to inspire and motivate teams and align them to the organisation’s goals.
Performance anxiety at work is good: It helps you focus and remain motivated
PTI Apr 18, 2018,
Anxiety in the workplace can help boost employee performance in certain situations, a study has found. Researchers from University of Toronto in Canada looked at both the triggers of workplace anxiety and also its relationship to employee performance. If you have too much anxiety, and you're completely consumed by it, then it's going to derail your performance," said Julie McCarthy, an expert on organisational behaviour. "On the other hand, moderate levels of anxiety can facilitate and drive performance," she said.
If employees are constantly distracted or thinking about things that are causing them anxiety, it will prevent them from completing tasks at work and that can eventually lead to exhaustion and burnout, said Bonnie Hayden Cheng, an assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. However, in certain situations anxiety can boost performance by helping employees focus and self-regulate their behaviour.
Cheng compares it to athletes who are trained to harness anxiety in order to remain motivated and stay on task. Likewise, if employees engage in something called self-regulatory processing, that is monitoring their progress on a task and focusing their efforts toward performing that task, it can help boost their performance. "After all, if we have no anxiety and we just don't care about performance, then we are not going to be motivated to do the job," said Cheng. Work-anxious employees who are motivated are more likely to harness anxiety in order to help them focus on their tasks. Those who are emotionally intelligent, can recognize their feelings of anxiety and use it to regulate their performance, as well as those who are experienced and skilled at their job, are also less likely to have anxiety affect their performance.The model of workplace anxiety researchers developed is broken into two categories.