- Part of your role as a business owner and the small business as a whole is to be a motivational factor in the lives of your employees. Now when I talk about motivation I'm not talking about you necessarily becoming a motivational speaker and giving people a rah-rah speech. There's nothing wrong with that, but when I talk about motivation I'm defining it a little differently. I define motivation as something that people have inside of them already. All you need to do is help them uncover what they already have and connect their day to day activities with what they want most.
Now many business owners lean almost exclusively on money as a motivator. Money can be motivational but giving people raises, and bonuses and profit sharing is only motivational to a point. And that point is usually once their basic needs are taken care of. After that point we want to use other things to help motivate and drive employees to be excited about working in your business. Let's talk about a few documents that you can use to help people become more motivated.
First, our company vision and company values. By company vision I mean that you describe, in as much detail as possible, a destination in the future where your business is headed. What will your business look like five years from now? This company vision is a motivational document because it lets people see that they're a part of something. That this business is going places. And everyone wants to be a part of something that's becoming bigger, becoming greater every single day.
On the other side we have company values. Company values are statements of principle. The way in which you as a business owner and the individuals that work in the business operate. Company values are motivational because they provide principles and guiding factors that allow your people to become a team. It helps create culture within your small business. Now we also have personal vision and personal values. These are documents that your employees will want to create individually.
You don't necessarily tell them what those are but you can encourage them to create those documents. A personal vision statement is essentially saying where I want my life to be five years from now. It doesn't need to be as detailed as a company vision. Just a few sentences will do. And personal values are the things in which I believe. They're the principles that guide me as an individual. When you as a manager can help people identify those and make connections between the work they're doing day in and day out with what they really believe in and want most, that's extremely motivational.
It's also motivational when people can see progress day in and day out toward achieving those visions and living those values. Now there's one more document that we can look at which is a company cause. This is a statement of the cause that we believe in and support. I'm speaking in particular about charitable causes or other projects that we work in that do good things in the world. For instance, we may choose a cause that's related directly to our business.
Like a dentist providing free dental service in a third world country. Or it may be something that we're passionate about and we just want to support such as donating to breast cancer. Regardless of the cause that you choose having a cause is incredibly motivational. Not only that, but it builds a sense of teamwork and closeness amongst your employees when they work and serve that cause together. I recommend that you take a little bit of time and schedule it in your calendar to work on these documents.
To sketch out a company vision and values and to think about what your company cause might be. Just get a first rough draft and then over time refine it and move it closer toward a completed document that you're comfortable sharing with your employees and sharing with the world. These documents can help become a motivational factor for the business as a whole and in the individual lives of the employees who get to work for you.
Author
Updated
3/31/2015Released
4/15/2014Skill Level Intermediate
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Management Tips
with Todd Dewett7h 50m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome48s
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1. Finding Your Most Valuable Customers
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2. Setting Fees and Prices
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3. Solving Problems
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4. Working with Family and Friends
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Managing family and friends2m 59s
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5. Creating a Business Plan
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6. Starting a Hobby Business
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7. Discovering Your Most Valuable Service or Product
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8. Bootstrapping Your Business
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9. Creating Culture
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Building company values2m 34s
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10. Getting Organized
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Managing your time4m 45s
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11. Marketing with Social Media
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Deciding on your channels3m 11s
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12. Business Entities and Compensation
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13. Small Business Accounting
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14. Finding Your Marketing Message
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Refining your message4m 56s
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15. Documenting Business Systems
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16. Balancing Work and Life
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17. Increasing Sales in Your Business
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Developing your sales system3m 15s
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18. Testing Whether You Have an Idea or a Business
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19. Hiring Service Providers
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Selecting and hiring vendors2m 51s
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20. Hiring Employees
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Crafting a job and pay range3m 58s
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Interviewing candidates7m 25s
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21. Motivating Employees
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Developing people and paths4m 24s
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22. Seeking Capital
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Crafting your pitch5m 40s
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23. Working With Difficult Customers
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Working through complaints6m 11s
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24. Letting Employees Go
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Making a smooth transition5m 58s
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25. Generating New Sales Leads
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26. Maintaining Focus as a Business Owner
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Avoiding opportunity traps5m 26s
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27. Thinking Like An Entrepreneur
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Getting rich your own way4m 16s
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28. Dealing with Competition in Business
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29. Avoiding Blind Spots
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30. Creating a Customer Experience
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31. Networking for Small Business
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32. Building Accountability into your Small Business Culture
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33. Dealing with Business Failures
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34. Improving Sales Systems
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35. Giving Back
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36. Setting Goals for Small Business
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Measuring your success3m 31s
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37. Channeling Your Motivation
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Why you deserve success3m 8s
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38. Building a Small Business Exit Strategy
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Exit strategy options5m 7s
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39. Building Customer Loyalty
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The role of customer loyalty3m 47s
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40. Building Employee Loyalty
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41. Structuring a Small Business
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42. Branding Your Small Business
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Crafting your company story3m 39s
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43. Dispelling Big-Business Illusions
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44. Understanding if Entrepreneurship Is Right for You
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45. Managing Remote Employees
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Leading from a distance3m 11s
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46. Crowdfunding Your Business
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Understanding crowdfunding3m 29s
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47. Cultivating Entrepreneurial Curiosity
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48. Growing into a Mature Business
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Putting it all together5m 50s
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Video: Discovering what truly motivates people