Employee Motivation Techniques - How to Achieve Peak Performance Through a Change Initiative

The term "employee motivation techniques" is in my view a little misleading as it implies a tactical "quick fix" approach. Whereas to achieve a peak performance from your people and in so doing, to create a genuine source of competitive advantage demands a strategic approach that embraces leadership style, corporate cultures and the supporting business and management processes.

At root this is all about the emotional dimension - specifically the emotional commitment of your employees and achieving an alignment and maintaining the balance between corporate performance and individual employee fulfilment.

In practise this means establishing what is important to your people, communicating to them what is important to you and the organisation, and finding ways of meeting both their and your goals. This is what lies at the heart of employee motivation techniques.

There are 4 factors that underpin all this in a change management context:

(1) Clarity in all areas- especially of the business need for the change, of the specifics of the change, the benefits of the change, and most importantly the impacts of the change. Also, at an individual level ensuring that people know precisely what is expected of them - i.e. you translate the vision into actionable steps.

(2) Communication - constant communication; two-way communication; communication that explains clearly what is happening or not happening and why, that listens actively and demonstrates to people that you have thought through the impacts of the change on them, and that you are prepared to work with them to achieve their buy-in and commitment to the change.

(3) Consistency - in all aspects of the way in which you lead the change; manage the delivery; handle the communication; and ensure the realisation of the benefits.

(4) Capability - constant attention to the management of the projects and initiatives that are delivering the capabilities into your organisation that will deliver the benefits.

Jon R. Katzenbach is the Senior Partner of Katzenbach Partners LLC, a consulting firm in New York City that specializes in leadership, team, and workforce performance. In his book " Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees" Katzenbach examined the leaders of some of America's most successful corporations and found distinct patterns to their employee motivation techniques and thus employee performance that differentiated them from their competition.

Findings showed:

(1) A strong belief in the worth and value of each employee
(2) An engagement with their employees that was emotional as well as rational.
(3) They got the balance right between worker fulfilment and enterprise performance.

Overall what he found was that each company had what he calls a "workforce value proposition" that makes clear is expected of employees and what they get in return - and this transcended monetary awards with an emotionally committed workforce.

The key to effective employee motivation techniques and how and lead them through change, really is to be found by engaging with the people at the coal-face in your organisation.