8 Communication Mistakes To Avoid And Increase Employee Motivation
All your employees will have different reasons for coming to work in the morning. While some are just looking to pay their bills, others will want to aim for a promotion, save money, or become their own boss some day.
As every employee is motivated by different things, you need to think about how you can motivate them to achieve their best. It’s easier than you think to make communication mistakes, and hurt their motivation. If you’re well informed though, you can avoid these mistakes and get the best from employees, every single day. Here’s how.
What Motivates Employees?
This is the universal question that all business owners ask themselves. What can they offer their staff to help them perform at their best? As noted above, everyone has a different reason for coming to work. While people are different, there are some fundamental things that drive us all.
“These are called key motivators” says Adrienne Fisher, a project manager at Ox Essays and UK Writings. “You should look to incorporate these into your management style.” These motivators are identified as mastery, autonomy, and purpose by Daniel Pink. Keep these in mind when considering your own communication style.
How Poor Communication Will Damage Employee Motivation
Can communication mistakes really have such an impact on employee motivation? It’s more common than you’d think. Problems can stem from the fact that you don’t realise you’re making the mistakes. They are small mistakes, but over time they will build up and cause larger issues. That’s when you see employee motivation decrease, and even employees leaving the business altogether.
That’s not to say you can never make mistakes, though. Everyone will make a mistake from time to time, and one mistake on it’s own will not dent motivation in a meaningful way. If you’re aware of the mistakes that you could be making, you’ll be able to avoid them too. Here are the most common communication mistakes that you’re making right now.
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- Not Checking In Your Employees
This sounds very obvious, but as a business owner you’re being pulled in several directions at once. Because of this, it’s very difficult to continually check in with your staff on a social level. Many owners don’t think twice about this. After all, they’re busy running the business, and your staff are busy with their own roles. Is this really a mistake?
If you’re not building up that relationship with your staff, then it will have a negative effect on your relationship with them in the long run. That doesn’t mean you need to have long and meaningful chats with them. Instead, just quickly checking in and seeing how they’re getting on will go a long way.
Also, it’s a good idea to build up a more social relationship with your staff too. Of course, you still want to maintain that owner/employee dynamic, but it never hurts to ask “What did you do this weekend?” It shows that you care about them on a personal level, and that really helps your communication with them.
2. Not Listening To Your Employees
There are many business owners out there that think they know what their staff want, but they haven’t been listening at all. Communication isn’t just about what you say to your staff, but actively listening when they talk to you. If you fail to do this, then you’re going to run into problems sooner or later.
When you speak with your employees, are you paying attention to what they’re saying? Many employees get frustrated if they feel their boss switches topics when they bring up something important, or downplay the severity of what they’re talking about. Even worse, some feel that their boss blames them for any problem they bring up.
As an employer, you have to ensure that you’re listening carefully to what your employees have to say. If you’re paying attention, you’re showing them that you care about what they have to say, and that you value their opinion.
3. Not Publicly Recognising Their Hard Work
It’s one thing to work hard and get satisfaction in the work you do, but you do want some external recognition for what you do. As an employer, you may feel you’re giving your employees enough feedback about their work, but in fact they don’t see how much value your work has to them. Because of that, they can be demotivated because they feel their work isn’t worthy of praise.
A good way of showing employees that they’re valued, and that you recognise the work they do, is to issue that praise publicly. It’s very easy to do this, either in team meetings or online on social media. If you ensure you’re praising your staff in public, then it shows that you see how hard they work.
4. Not Allowing Employees To Make Decisions
One of those key motivators listed above was ‘autonomy’. Everyone wants to feel as though they have power over their own lives, and so your staff will be happier if they have the power to make decisions at work. However, many business owners tend to make all the decisions on their own, leaving their employees out of the loop.
Of course you’re going to make some decisions on your own, because you’re the person that owns the business. However, you do need to be listening to your staff. They need to have autonomy over their own working lives, as they’re the people working on the ground floor day after day.
If you’re listening to staff and asking for their opinions on a decision that needs to be made, it makes all the difference. When you take their feedback, you’re showing that their experience is vital to the decision making process.
5. Not Showing Gratitude
This is similar to not publicly recognising hard work. If you’re not showing your staff that you appreciate what you do, then motivation is going to plummet. This can be as simple as saying “Thank you” when they complete a job or get something done. “Just saying thank you goes a long way” says recruiter Alison Masterson from State of writing and UK Services Reviews. “In fact, recognition is so important that 36% of employees would think about switching jobs if they felt they weren’t being appreciated.”
With this in mind, you should actively recognise your staff’s efforts throughout the day. If you’re ensuring that you recognise their work and thank them as soon as you see what they’ve done, it makes all the difference to their motivation.
6. Not Offering Feedback
There are many people who go to work every day because they’re looking to advance in their career. In the best workplaces, they are given opportunities to do so. This can be through training, reviews and more. These are more formal examples, but your staff need to get feedback throughout the day, so they can learn and grow.
Many business owners make the mistake of not offering feedback until yearly performance reviews. In between these reviews, staff don’t know how they’re getting on, or what you think they need to improve on. They need that feedback to improve their skills and get better at what they do. Without it, things will get stagnant for them quickly.
As such, you need to find time in your day to offer feedback on what your employees are doing. It doesn’t need to be a full meeting, like in a performance review. If you’re just taking a few minutes to talk with someone though, it really helps them get ahead and make the most of their time at work.
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7. Not Being Available
It’s hard to communicate with your staff if you’re not available to talk with them. It’s highly frustrating for employees when they can’t get hold of you. This may be happening, even if you think you’re available to them. For example, do you take a long time to get back to messages? Do you have to reschedule meetings often? Do you only speak to employees during meetings?
If so, that’s going to cause problems for you and your staff. If they can’t reach you, how can they communicate with you? It’s disheartening when you feel your boss is locking themselves away, and you can’t talk to them when you need to.
Of course you cannot be available 24/7, but you do need to be available at points in order to help your staff. If you are available, it helps your employees feel more secure as you’re present when needed. Perhaps you can set aside some time during the day to speak with staff and see what they need.
8. Turning Down Employee’s Ideas
Lots of managers and business owners out there have a bad habit of turning down employees’ ideas. They feel that they know best for the company, and so they dismiss them out of hand. The problem is, the staff who are go getters are going to be the ones coming to you with ideas. If you’re turning them down, you’re in danger of losing them.
This doesn’t mean that you have to say yes to every idea that they have. If they have an idea, you just need to make the time to listen to them. They may have unique insights that you don’t have, which is incredibly valuable. They’ll feel valued, and you’ll get ideas that you wouldn’t have had on your own.
As you can see, communication is incredibly important when it comes to management. When you communicate effectively, you’ll be able to motivate your staff and show them how much they’re valued. When you don’t, that’s when you’ll find they’ll go elsewhere.
Author Bio
Christina Lee is a project manager, writing about her experiences for Boom Essays and Big Assignments.
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