Motivating staff remains one of management's most important responsibilities. A new Drake International report attempts to define the causes and policies which drive staff motivation.
According to the study, motivation is the emotion we feel when someone's actions or words inspire us to attempt great achievements. Team motivation has a similar definition but is either reinforced or broken down by an organization's group dynamics. However, for both individuals and work teams, there are no quick fixes to increasing motivation. The only solution appears to be a sustained, positive example on the part of management. Regardless of the environment or situation, successful staff motivation strategies are based on the following two common elements.

First, it appears that people complete designated activities or achieve results when they are motivated through one of two basic emotions -love or fear. Secondly, employer/employee relations resemble those between parents and children, as the latter are usually driven by either an inspirational parental love or a fear of punishment. Similarly, employees' achievements are inspired by a love of what they do, respect for a manager's exemplary behavior or out of fear of losing their jobs or not getting a pay rise.
A manager's role is to maximize the amount of positive motivation while keeping fear-based incentives to a bare minimum. Drake's Singapore country manager Maurice Yeo states that, "you simply have to inspire them to achieve through positive motivation rather than negative - through wanting to achieve out of respect for themselves, their team members and you, their team leader."

Yeo concludes that, "You [the leader] are the role model so your attitude must be impeccable. Although you need to present the team as the stars, you are the person they will look up to or should be looking up to. And nothing demotivates a team like a miserable, negative attitude in their manager. Like Caesar, you have to be above suspicion and beyond reproach." HRM

A step-by-step guide to motivating your staff
According to a recent study by Drake, these are the most important steps for motivating staff • Encourage staff to understand and agree to what is expected of them, then leave them alone to get on with it
• Provide comprehensive, documented procedures
• Set attainable goals, measure employee performance against these goals, and provide ongoing feedback
• Agree on realistic timelines
• Make sure employees know you have confidence in their ability to fulfill your expectations
• Keep communication open for help and advice
• Reward results
• Provide appropriate training to give employees the 'tools' to fulfill their role
• Celebrate successes and share failures
• Lead by example - a highly disciplined manager who gets results will motivate his or her staff to perform similarly. In other words, what you want your people to be, you must be.

Once you have these elements in place you must continue focusing on them. By making these steps a visible part of the office routine, your staff will be able to enjoy a prolonged period of higher motivation.