Talk to me!
Motivating others at work can often be tricky. But there is a simple solution: engage them in conversation.
How can you motivate people to work as effectively as possible? One obvious answer might be to pay them more. Money certainly can be a motivator, but its impact tends to wear off relatively quickly. The same is true of giving people fancy job titles such as “senior”, “head of” or “vice-president”. There’s another way to motivate others, however, that costs only your time and attention:
talk to people, listen carefully to what they say and, by asking intelligent questions, understand how they really feel about their job.
In this way, you can take the necessary steps to increase their motivation, for example by reorganizing their job duties or encouraging them to take on new challenges. In his latest Business Skills article, the fifth part of our current series on leadership, Bob Dignen looks at the often underestimated motivating power of conversations (pp. 36–43).
We also focus on older workers in this issue, by which we mean those aged 60 and above.
In her How to... column (p. 76), Margaret Davis looks at how this group can stay relevant at work — for example by learning new skills or mentoring younger colleagues. And in our Careers feature, “Life begins at 60”(pp. 70–75), Lois Hoyal examines the steps that those who are approaching retirement can take to ensure that this phase of their life is as enjoyable and enriching as possible. After all, there’s much more to life than work! P.S. Our latest Skill Up! booklet focuses on the topic of marketing. And be sure to check out our bundle of ten Skill Up! booklets on communication skills (p. 53).