Creating a Motivating Environment

“What I do best is share my enthusiasm.”
Bill Gates

A frequent complaint from many supervisors is that their employees lack motivation. Supervisors feel this lack of motivation is responsible for most of the problems they encounter, from tardiness to a lack of productivity. The big question is, “How do I motivate my employees?” This chapter will define motivation and explore how to use it in the workplace.

One of the first questions we need to address is, “Is it really possible to motivate anyone?” Most people will agree we can motivate ourselves, but many of us have tried a myriad of different ideas and we still have not created motivation in another person. This is because you cannot motivate anyone! What you can do is create an environment that is conducive to motivating someone. You can also create an environment that will demotivate someone.

Motivation is an internally generated phenomenon. It is a feeling that each of us develops internally and it causes us to act. As supervisors, our focus should be on how we can develop an environment and a relationship with our employees that fosters the action of motivation.