No matter how large or small your company, having a team of motivated, engaged and hard-working team members is crucial to your business success.  When employees are not motivated, their job performance suffers-they become less productive and valuable to the organization.  You pay a heavy price when team members have motivation issues.

You need to learn how to light a fire under team members who have lost their motivation, whether a formerly engaged worker whose performance has declined over the years, or a long-term problem employee who has failed to improve.  This article will give you some tips to light that fire.

There is no secret formula for engaging and motivating employees, because motivation can be as individual as the employees who work in your company. But you can boil down employee engagement and motivation to one basic idea-- finding out what your employees want and finding a way to give it to them or to enable them to earn it. Based on that idea, do what you can to determine what motivates your employees or team members, even if you have to ask them.  Here some other ways to engage your team without having to spend any money.

• Add some fun and variety to the more routine jobs.
• Give your team a choice in how they do their work.
• Involve your employees in decision making and problem solving.
• Promote teamwork between employees.
• Avoid harsh criticism when correcting mistakes.
• Develop goals and challenges for all team members.
• Provide lots of encouragement.
• Make recognition, appreciation and positive feedback a part of your daily routine.

We plan to offer a no-cost webinar on how to engage your workforce early next month-a great way to start the New Year.  This will presented right before we travel back to Guam for an extended stay in mid-January.  More information will be forthcoming, but if you are interested in signing up now, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .