What Business Leaders Must Do to Inspire and Motivate Employees

This 2024 survey on employee engagement provides some startling revelations:

• 51% of employees do not engage with their work.
• 13% actively disengage from their job.
• 63.3% of employers have more trouble retaining employees than hiring them.

Employee engagement and motivation are, obviously, essential to the success of any enterprise. Business leadership is no longer simply about finding new growth opportunities and improving profits. It must be the force that drives employee empowerment and fuels innovative thinking.

Here are some more statistics from recent years that validate the crucial role of the leadership in this context:

• 79% of employees quit their jobs due to a lack of appreciation from their business leaders.
• 69% of millennial employees believe in a lack of leadership development at their workplace.

Besides motivating employees, strong business leadership can build a healthy workplace culture in any organization. Here’s what business leaders can and must do to inspire and motivate their workforce.

Leadership attitudes needed for employee motivation

The leadership attitude in any organization is crucial to motivate employees and keep them excited about their work. Motivational leadership is all about fostering the right mindset. Here are some “must-haves” leadership attitude traits that can reenergize any workforce:

1. Positivity

Inspirational leaders always impart positive branding to the company’s reputation, thus maintaining employee motivation even in tough times. Here are some specifics that can build a positive work culture:

• Be positive and enthusiastic about communicating with employees or teams.
• Focus on growth opportunities even when discussing any team or organizational changes.
• Highlight more positives than negatives when talking about individual employee performance.

• Listening skills

Effective business leadership is not just about communicating – but also listening to employees. Active listening improves employee productivity and collaboration by up to 25% – and sales performance by 8%. Here’s how good “listening” can help business leaders:

• Allows employees to share “ideas” openly to address any work-related challenge.
• Inspires employees to be “problem solvers” and think of feasible solutions.
• Understand the daily challenges faced by employees – and address their concerns.

• Resource management

Employees feel demotivated or disengaged at work when they don’t have access to high-quality tools and resources. This can also impact their daily productivity. Business leaders must ensure employees have the necessary tools and resources to maximize their output.

Through regular training programs, business leaders can provide employees with the necessary skills and expertise. Additionally, through employee empowerment, leaders can give the right employees the authority to make business decisions and execute their plans.

• Appreciation

In companies prioritizing employee feedback and work appreciation, employees are 56% less likely to change their jobs. 46% of employees leave their jobs due to a lack of appreciation from their managers and leaders.

Positive feedback is among the best ways to keep employees motivated and engaged. It can also help them work towards their individual and company goals. Here are some effective practices:

• Appreciate the high performers in front of the whole team.
• Offer both financial and non-financial rewards or perks to the top achievers.

Best practices in business leadership for employee motivation

Business leaders must also “actionize” these attitudes to boost employee motivation. Here are some of the tried-and-tested best practices in business leadership:

1. Communicate with employees.

Clear communication is the most effective method to boost employee engagement and morale. By communicating their expectations from employees, business leaders can create a sense of purpose and urgency. Through effective communication, employees can:

• Set achievable personal and organizational goals and objectives.
• Acknowledge how their work is crucial to organizational success.
• Work in a positive environment designed to improve their productivity.
• Identify the areas or skills where they need to improve.

Of course, in this age of hybrid work and remote employees, ProAV technology also plays a crucial role in establishing meaningful communications between employees and the leadership. 

• Set measurable KPIs.

Effective business leadership is also about setting achievable and measurable KPIs and performance metrics for every employee. Besides motivation, employees need clarity on what constitutes a “good performance.” Performance-related KPIs and metrics also work to maintain accountability and responsibility.

Besides setting KPIs, business leaders can provide an achievable roadmap for employees to improve their performance.

• Offer both financial and non-financial incentives.

Financial and non-financial rewards and incentives can be effective at motivating and retaining employees. Financial rewards can include performance-related incentives and bonuses.

Non-financial rewards can also motivate employees and make their work more “meaningful.” Examples of non-financial incentives include:

• Flexible or remote working
• Employee well-being practices
• Employee engagement activities
• Improved work-life balance

• Provide growth opportunities.

76% of employees look for job opportunities to grow their careers – while 86% would switch to jobs that offer them more growth opportunities. Employees are more likely to disengage if their current workplace does not offer them growth opportunities.

Business leaders can provide growth opportunities to employees by:

• Understanding their core behaviour and what would inspire them to perform better.
• Provide regular upskilling or reskilling opportunities through corporate training and educational pursuits.
• Identify the right resources and groom them for leadership positions.

Role of employee communications – and its challenges

A positive workplace culture is built on effective communication among employees, managers, and business leaders. Regular communication is necessary to build this culture and help employees maximize their productivity.

An efficient communication framework in any enterprise can help in:

• Articulating and sharing business ideas and suggestions.
• Resolving any conflicts or disputes among employees.
• Building collaboration and cooperation among diverse business teams.
• Creating an “open” work environment that values transparency.

As more organizations adopt the remote and hybrid working model, business leaders now face new challenges in employee communication and collaboration. Some of the major challenges include:

• Lack of non-verbal signs like facial expressions can lead to miscommunication and misinterpretation of information.
• Remote workers have a lower sense of well-being and cohesion because of their physical absence.
• Information overload can occur as remote workers need to access various workspace platforms and productivity tools.

Human-centric communications and collaboration address these challenges by using digital technology as a “tool” – and not a “barrier.” Through a hybrid workplace, business leaders can communicate and engage with a distributed workforce across the globe.

In summary

In the face of modern workplace challenges, business leaders have a pivotal role to play in employee engagement and motivation. With a human-centric approach, they can leverage communication tools to reach out to employees and build collaborative skills.     

As a specialist in audio-visual technology, Resurgent emphasizes the importance of healthy communication among business leaders and employees. Our range of AV solutions is designed to boost the workplace culture – irrespective of the employee’s location.

Book a consultation with us today.