Skip to content
Tweak Your Biz home.
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Categories
    • Reviews
    • Business
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Growth
    • Sales
    • Marketing
    • Management
  • Who We Are

6 Ways Companies Can Motivate Smarter

By Warren Rutherford Published March 28, 2012 Updated November 26, 2022

Every person is motivated differently – every person motivates differently.Take a moment to evaluate and rank on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the highest, your company’s score for each statement below.

The Motivating Smart Survey

  1. Employees’ values, motivations, and talents are understood and measured.
  2. Employees consider their jobs rewarding and interesting.
  3. Employees are committed to jointly owned, shared goals, values, and beliefs.
  4. Employees hold each other accountable against agreed upon plans and standards.
  5. We have open and honest communication that empowers employees.

The Results

Now, total your score and divide by 5.  What’s your result?

  • If your average score is 4 to 5, you are motivating smart.
  • If your average score is 3 to 3.8, you are in the caution zone & need improvements to your motivational program.
  • If your average score is < 3, you are in the danger zone & need some serious attention and effort at building a motivational program for your employees and your company.

What is motivating smart?  Why did we choose these statements?

We have found that employers with the higher scores have employees who are more productive and aligned with a company’s values and culture.

Related: 

Here are 6 ways companies can motivate smarter.

Aligning your company practices to motivate people to do the right things right requires you to:

  1. Develop your company’s long-term strategy and plan with your employees.  This helps to set the stage for each of the following strategies to be successful.  This strategy and plan provides focus and reinforces the need for action.
  2. Develop a comprehensive orientation program for all new employees.  Employees need to understand the culture and environment they are working in.
  3. Hold company-wide meetings to share information about the company with your employees on a quarterly basis & openly share information with your employees regularly so that you can establish a regular and recurring dialogue with your employees.  This enables you and your employees to share valuable information and insights.
  4. Sponsor company social events to bind relationships that are developed inside the organization, outside the work setting.
  5. Work hard to create a strong social environment at work to establish and solidify your culture of caring, and motivating, for your employees.; and
  6. Offer profit or gain sharing pay to reinforce the previous actions by enabling a way to share in the successes financially.

Related: Motivate Your Employees When Times Are Tough

Let’s review some information to learn more about how we can identify an employee’s behaviors, motivations, and interests so that we can motivate smarter.

How Employees Behave

As companies (and employees) become more reliant on worker knowledge it’s important to develop a way to identify the thinking and decision-making patterns required for these different job functions.

Think about it.  The majority of your time, do you make decisions with your HEAD, HAND or your HEART?  Are you a systemic, practical, or empathetic decision maker and thinker?

When you are working with an employee it helps to understand how he can contribute his thinking strengths to certain aspects of the company’s needs, particularly as these relate to commitment, helping, adaptability, involvement, and sharing.  If we know his strengths we can better assist him by involving him in decision situations that rely on his strengths – we will also understand what type of decision attributes each situation requires – helping to develop a better match.

Try not to assume what employers in the past have by practicing the “pigeon-hole” syndrome that is, slotting someone to a position and not considering their capabilities.

I believe you need to understand this information to help you develop a more effective alignment of the person to the position and to the company.  As you work to “motivate smarter” seek to diagnose, assess, and understand employee talents, values, and behaviors; and then develop your motivational structures as suggested above to assist your employees to become more authentic.

Image: “Businessman’s hand choosing employees with modern technology/Shutterstock“

Posted in Management

Enjoy the article? Share it:

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on X
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Email

Warren Rutherford

Warren runs The Executive Suite, providing leadership & executive coaching programs, professional recruitment, One Page Business Plans, and franchise coaching services to businesses. Located in Hyannis, MA Warren is expert at people management, helping business executives hire, manage, and motivate others smarter. . He serves as the Director of Coaching Programs for Innermetrix, Inc. He is accredited in a variety of assessment and coaching methods. He is an ardent advocate of innovation, creativity, and inspirational change in business in life.

Visit author facebook pageVisit author twitter pageContact author via email

View all posts by Warren Rutherford

Signup for the newsletter

Sign For Our Newsletter To Get Actionable Business Advice

* indicates required
Contents
The Motivating Smart Survey
The Results
What is motivating smart? Why did we choose these statements?
Here are 6 ways companies can motivate smarter.
How Employees Behave

Related Articles

Business
Management

Best 12 LMS Features for Restaurants Staff Training That Reduces Turnover

Andrew Larson August 14, 2025
Business
Management

BetterHelp Therapist Licensing Verification: How the Platform Ensures Professional Standards Across All 50 States

Hanna Kim August 12, 2025
Business
Management

Risk Management 101: The Key to Effective Project Management

Ernest Ragsdill August 11, 2025

Footer

Tweak Your Biz
Visit us on Facebook Visit us on X Visit us on LinkedIn

Privacy Settings

Company

  • Contact
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Statement
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Sitemap

Signup for the newsletter

Sign For Our Newsletter To Get Actionable Business Advice

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025. All rights reserved. Tweak Your Biz.

Disclaimer: If you click on some of the links throughout our website and decide to make a purchase, Tweak Your Biz may receive compensation. These are products that we have used ourselves and recommend wholeheartedly. Please note that this site is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advice. You can read our complete disclosure statement regarding affiliates in our privacy policy. Cookie Policy.

Tweak Your Biz
Sign For Our Newsletter To Get Actionable Business Advice
[email protected]