BY BRIAN TRACY
What’s the most effective way to motivate employees? Find out what best-selling motivational guru Brian Tracy has to say about self-concept and how managers can create an environment of high self-esteem that inspires employee potential.
By tapping into the psychological factors that determine performance and productivity, you can make a dramatic difference in your effectiveness as a manager and in your ability to get results when trying to motivate employees. Perhaps the most important breakthrough in the development of human potential in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was the discovery of the self-concept.
The self-concept is the belief structure or value system that forms and develops from early childhood. It is a combination of all of the emotions, experiences, decisions, education, and events of a person’s life. It is like the command center that sits at the core of personality and productivity. All changes or improvements in external performance and behavior begin with improvements in the self-concept; to put it another way, all changes in the outer world of the individual begin with changes in the inner world.
The manager who creates a positive, high-self-esteem workplace will have higher performance, lower absenteeism, lower employee turnover, higher productivity, and fewer mistakes. Here are seven ways that the manager can build and reinforce a positive self-concept to motivate employees:
1. Challenge. Give people jobs that make them stretch. Challenges inspire engagement.
2. Freedom. Give people sufficient autonomy to work without close supervision.
3. Control. Set regular times for feedback. The more regular feedback that employees get on their performance, the more valuable they consider their work to be.
4. Respect. When you ask for people’s opinions, and listen closely to them when they want to talk, they feel more valuable and important. Devora Zack on the Best Way to Motivate Other
5. Warmth. The more your people see that you like and care about them as individuals, in addition to as members of the staff, the better they will perform.
6. Success Experiences. Give people jobs that they can perform successfully at their levels of experience and skill. This is key to building both self-esteem and self-concept.
7. Positive Expectations. This is perhaps the most powerful motivator of all. Nothing boosts self-esteem and improves performance more than when people sense that their boss believes that they are good and competent and that they have the ability to do the job well.
You might also be interested in these articles by Brian Tracy. For more information on AMA's new sales seminar developed by Brian Tracy click here.
For practical, proven methods to engage and motivate your employees check out Brian Tracy’s book Motivation. Adapted from Motivation (The Brian Tracy Success Library, AMACOM Books, 2013).
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About The Author
BRIAN TRACY is the Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. One of the top business speakers and authorities in the world today, he has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 5,000,000 people in 5,000 talks and seminars throughout the United States and more than 60 countries worldwide. He has written 65 books and produced more than 500 audio and video learning programs on management, motivation, and personal success.