The secret of motivation

       Employee motivation is important to the success of every organization. Highly motivated employees tend to be more productive and have lower rates of absenteeism, turnover and lateness: the three evils that employees can manifest which destroy organizations. Employee motivation is concerned with why people do what they do and why one employee works harder than another. In major organizations, its important for managers as well as HR officials to understand how to motivate the people they work with. The first thing that comes to mind each time we mention motivation is cash! How much is the organization paying me? Or to put it more bluntly: "What's in it for me?" Cash is a very useful incentive to motivate employees, but what do you do when you don't have cash? Well, the option is to do a quick analysis of your workforce and try to determine what your employees value most: What do they need the cash for?

         You might be surprised after a thorough analysis that not everyone just wants more money. For some people the issue is more initiative or leeway to get things done. Perhaps you are in charge of managers who head certain units and you find out that the issue at hand is not more cash but more power. After a considerable observation and proper trouble shooting, you could actually increase the power of the people concerned. In this sense, we are referring to organizational politics, but in a positive sense:  Organizational politics are the activities managers engage in to increase their power and use it to achieve their goals. As long as these goals are good for the organization, there really is no detriment to them. But we ought be very careful before we increase the power of a manager or any operative in a company. There is need to make sure that we are not doing more harm than good.  Politics can be negative, but it is also a positive force that can allow needed change to take place.
          In some cases, the people we seek to motivate may not necessarily want more power or money! They could simply require some level of recognition or praise. One scholar wrote: " You can achieve anything if you can give the praise away!" Major organizations have a recurring decimal of top managers taking credit for the things that the people they supervise have done. The trend is familiar: when we succeed, the boss takes the credit, but when we fail, they look for a scapegoat among the operatives who took part in the activity!

        

         This nonrecognition of achievers is a major trend in government circles of many countries. Often, we see the results of projects and programmes, but we are not sure where they originated from. So, due recognition could be a boost for people who perform, but are left in the backroom while the boss takes the credit. HR professionals often create bonding activities to give operatives the recognition they deserve!  Asking an employee to take a bow at a major organizational event, giving a plaque, trophy, medal or letter of recognition could inspire a worker to do more and perform better. 
         From the best practices HR perspective, managers in major organizations are still finding it difficult to motivate their employees in economies that are distressed or in recession. The reduced cash flow and the inflation

       affects even the largest organizations. So what is to be done? Well, the advice comes clear that managers ought to be creative in finding solutions to motivating staff. Nobody wants to lose their best hands to the competition.
      Some trends that have developed among HR managers is to look for incentives that do not necessarily cost the organization too much in terms of cash. In some situations, they may not even cost cash directly. Holidays which are bank rolled by the organization as regularly as once a year have become attractive rewards for performance. So have brand new cars, classy apartments that have astute furnishing, memberships of exclusive clubs and tickets to exclusive events. The management of the organization is challenged to make some of the incentives work for its employees with out necessarily attracting extra costs. 
         Managers have examined how they can barter, buy on large discounts or get favors from friendly organizations with a view to returning such when they are in a position to do so. The modern HR manager is challenged to look into his country and the various organizations therein, and see what he can grab for his  talented workers and managers so that they are not tempted to go somewhere else.  All this is motivation from the organizational point of view. As individuals, we ought to know how to motivate ourselves too!
         Self motivation arises from the interests we have that drive us to achieve things. Beyond the material things like money and what it can buy, what encourages us to go on and keep doing something that other people would probably find difficult? Passion! Everyone ought to have a passion for something. If that passion is based on a desire to make a difference, a driving force that enables us to go forward even in the most difficult circumstances, then our motivation is inbuilt and is such that it could be useful to us in times of trouble, when the going is hard. 
         Research shows that if we love what we do, we really do not need the organization we work for to motivate us. HR managers in this modern age are looking for individuals who are self driven and "go-getters", the synonyms they use for self motivation. Every person has something that motivates him beyond the desire to be rewarded. If we can discover that in ourselves or have other people discover it for us, there is a tendency that we would do great things at our work without anyone encouraging us.   
         Some people have the ability to change the most harrowing experiences into prods towards greater achievement. Writers, speakers, politicians and teachers of various kinds. Even athletes and artistes. As individuals, if we can muster inspiration or passion from our hurts and difficulties and find a way to channel them into productivity, we end up succeeding and this is the secret of motivation. No matter our circumstances we can, as individuals who are determined, find a way forward. Motivation is buried in the human spirit and that is why even in the darkest hours, in moments of great despair and hopelessness, some people are able to find strength and move forward. Its time for you to get motivated!    

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