If you are a good leader, first of all you want to have happy employees in your company who come to the job with a big smile on their faces and a lot of new ideas. You also want them to be responsible, passionate, well-performing, and critical-thinking. I am sure that there are 1 hundred more skills and abilities you would like your employees to have. However, it is only possible to get this kind of outcome if your staff is passionate about the job and their motivation factor is really high. Unfortunately, more and more employees do not have a chance to fully realise their creative potential and realise all the brilliant ideas they have. Therefore, the bigger question is HOW? How can you keep your employees motivated? One of the answers –encourage them to shape their job. Give them freedom of expression and make them feel attached to what they do.
Let’s look at the situation more closely in order to understand it better. I invite you to look at it through the eyes of the employee. In which case do you think your employee would have a desire to maximise the use of the knowledge, skills and experience and work as hard as he or she can? Obviously, this desire arises only in the case an employee sees a close connection between his personal needs (rewards, career growth, recognition, respect etc.) and the work he or she performs. By encouraging your employee to shape his or her job you will make the connection between these two factors closer.
With internal responsibilities to the company and with identification with the goals and objectives of the business, staff will surely become more motivated and their performance will grow. By encouraging your employees to shape their own job, you will get their indifferent attitude to the problems of the company and their readiness to contribute to the development and the solution of these problems. All this will be coming from the simple fact that your employees clearly understand the goals and directions of company’s development and they converge their own interests with interests of the company. Moreover, if the employees faces fair recognition for their achievements and see opportunities for professional career growth, their commitment will increase even more.
Let’s ask again- why should you encourage your employees to shape their own job?
Simply put, if you want to your employees to have:
- understanding of the business with its organizational culture and structure and, most importantly, their role in it
- new ideas and new ways of dealing with problems
- faith in the organization and its goals
- the desire to maximize their work in order to achieve the best results possible
- the desire to be a part of the organization
Many employers are now focused on making money, and do not give an opportunity of self-expression to their employees. However, the opportunity to be self-realised can be considered one of the main necessities of life. It leads to new possibilities and creativity in the work place. If the organisation does not undertake concerted efforts to build commitment among its employees, the level of influence on the motivation of the staff will decrease. Therefore, let’s not forget that people who are working in the organisation are the key factor for a company’s success, and without the effective use of this factor the achievement of the best results will become impossible.
By: Polina Merkulova