High level of employee engagement is needed in order to make a successful business. The lack of effort can influence your company and create a division inside the team, and that is never good.

What you need to realize, in the position of leader, is that you are the one responsible for the motivation and general mood of the whole team. The existence or lack of, leader skills is the biggest single influence on your employees.

Now that we made sure that you are the boss and responsible figure, let’s focus on some simple tips to improve your employee’s performance.

Make Goals

In order to get the best performance out of your employees, you have to be exact in giving them jobs. Let them know how much, what, and when needs to be done. Make sure that you do not monitor every single thing they do and don’t question their methods if they lead to the goal that you have given them.

If it is a long term project, you should have an approximate date when you want the project to be finished. Depending on the length, make sure that you check how things are going from time to time and show great interest in everything your employees have to say. If they prepare a presentation, or statistics report, read it. Try to understand it.

Sometimes, results will be bad. Make sure to find out why. Are you using the potential of the worker correctly? Perhaps it’s because the project is just not for him. Try to move him to another task and show that you care. The ‘’I’m sorry you are stuck with it’’ approach is rarely going to give any results.

A part of the goal should always be some kind of a reward. If they are forced to do a boring project, they will show determination if they know a reward lies ahead. Generally, just show that you care for your team and the results that they produce on the long run, will create benefits for you as well.

Know When to Stop

Sometimes, things are just going to go well for your business. You can spend months doing a project, employees can be highly motivated for a long time, but the lack of results will influence everyone in the end. Sometimes, you team is just not compatible in working together. If this happens, you will have to take difficult steps and maybe let a person or two go in order to invigorate the team.

Good managers know how to deal with these situations. If a cut in benefits is needed, do that. If longer working hours are needed, do that. It is your place to make the hard decisions and your employees should show understanding for it. Being the ‘good boss’ all the time is hardly possible, so don’t trouble yourself if you sometimes have to use that position of authority.

What Motivates Employees? (NOT MONEY)

Individualize

You motivational speech is not going to work for everyone. Every leader should understand the diversity of characters inside the team and know that someone will need a bigger push in order to get things done. If you know that your employee is great at doing tasks, don’t spend yours or his time by navigating him through the work process step by step. There might be those that actually could use your help so dedicate your time to them.

Some people will react to criticism better, while others will not. Knowing your employees personally is going to help you in great measure to individualize your approach to them. Even when you find a problem, make sure that you always praise your employee about the things he has done well. That way you won’t make them feel low, but they will get the message you wanted to send.

Make Them Believe

Your business is extremely important to you and you are very passionate to make it work, right? Well, if you want that to transfer to your team, you have to try hard to make them believe.

It starts with the employment process, where you can carefully choose the people who share your vision about your business and its future. The picture of the vision will make them feel inspired and they will do their best to make you feel proud and make business go ahead.

One of the things that help employee’s performance and belief in your company is the chance to move ahead in life. If they see a chance to get a promotion, higher salary, company car, or any other benefits, this can create a huge motivation and turn any person into a believer.

Now you know a few trick to improve your employees performance, and maybe you are also reminded how hard it is to be the guy in charge.