Internal and External Motivation Techniques for Supervisors

One of the biggest challenges supervisors face on a daily basis (besides overwhelming amounts of paperwork for some jobs and companies) is how to motivate employees. In a dream world, every worker would be self-motivated and eager to be highly productive and dedicated to the mission of the company but in reality, that just is not always the case. Depending on the work force, department or team of workers you have working with and for you, motivation can be incredibly consuming and take up most of your energy and resources. It is important to realize that each worker has different capacity for motivation. Some are motivated by internal drives and resources, while others need external stimuli to get them going on the job.

Taking advantage of internal motivation techniques can be a little tricky. The supervisor is basically trying to tap into the value and belief systems that the employee adheres to. If you know that your employee(s) have a strong conviction to help the environment, building in "green" or environmentally friendly components to work projects can help to motivate workers to be more involved. Looking for ways to shape work projects, quotas or goals to match the values of employees can be a very successful means of motivation. It does involve getting to know employees and structuring the work environment to express what they value or respond to.

Another way to consider "internal" motivation is to think of it as ways to motivate employees WITHIN the company. This can mean using quotas, contests, peer encouragement, rewards and other motivational techniques that the company has control over to motivate. Of course, again, the success of this type of motivation will depend on what the workers respond to and what they value.

External factors that can affect motivation for supervisors include a shift in the market, new or existing competitors, the economy, government regulations and laws and other realities that happen OUTSIDE the company. These uncontrollable realities can also be strong motivators and often supervisors can use them to stir employees up to working harder. Striving to "beat" the competition or getting creative to deal with new government regulations are just a couple results of employees responding to external realities with motivation. While supervisors do not create this external factors, they can use them to rally employees and build teamwork.