Your managers' ability to lead and motivate people is critical to your organization's success. You count on them to navigate your group through change, make tough decisions, and focus efforts productively on the most important tasks. Motivation is an equally important responsibility of management. It translates directly into productivity and team effectiveness. People working together with energy and enthusiasm are far more effective and productive than a group lacking that spark because of job dissatisfaction or boredom.

Here are 10 keys to leadership and motivation:

1. Find out what motivates people. Get managers to ask their people how they are doing, how they perceive their work and their leadership, what drives them to give their best effort and what are their roadblocks to full contribution. Make it a part of an annual performance review to ask these questions again.

2. Hire and keep people who have the right qualifications. Hire people who have the skills and abilities needed for the job. People whose skills don't fit the job's requirements create inequity on a team. Keep in mind that a great hire in a few weeks is better than a mediocre hire now. Hiring mistakes are costly: training time is wasted, your strongest employees become frustrated, and firing an employee for poor performance is traumatic for everyone.

3. Get people working on what's important. Focus your management team's efforts on key initiatives that will make the biggest contribution to your organization's goals. Getting broad participation in goal setting can help employees prioritize and understand how their work contributes to the "big picture".

4. Give employees the tools they need to succeed. Teach managers about the importance of planning ahead to ensure their employees have the right skills and knowledge to meet the team's work responsibilities effectively. If there's a gap between what they need and what they have, they need to do one of three things: teach them; give them the background knowledge they need; or arrange to get them some training. Also, encourage managers to share their knowledge and experience with employees on an ongoing basis as a means of motivating employees and managing work-related stress.

5. Let people work. Once your managers have assigned a task, explained why it is important, and made sure their employees have the tools they need, they need to step back and let their employees get the job done. A manager's job is to explain the "what" and "why" of the task. It's up to their employees to get the work done in the way they find most efficient.

6. Be generous with praise and recognition. People are driven by the need to feel good about themselves and what they are doing. That's why praise and recognition are such powerful motivators -whether it's a thank you for a job well-done or substantial year-end bonus. Managers must not think there is nothing they can do because they don't have the budget for significant rewards. Small celebrations and regular praise for ongoing accomplishments can actually fuel the most enduring enthusiasm for work. As human beings, we all want to be noticed and appreciated when we do something well. Your organization's employees are no exception.

7. Expect excellence. Motivation and excellence go hand in hand. People will put their hearts into work if they think the organization and the team are striving for excellence. People want to be part of a world-class effort. Mediocre work, on the other hand, is demoralizing for everyone.

8. Care about people and show it. The strongest leaders make themselves available to ideas and opinions from beyond their small circle of direct reports, no matter how tight their schedules. They make time to talk with their organization's employees about things beyond the immediate tasks at hand. They're "present", meaning they pay attention, listen carefully and ask clarifying questions. Your employees are much more likely to care about work if they know that you listen to and care about them.

9. Treat employees with respect. Employees who don't feel respected are likely to shut down and contribute only the minimum effort to keep their jobs.

10. Lead by example. Managers serve as models for their teams and for the organization. No matter what they say, people notice and follow what they do. So if you want excellence and enthusiasm from your organization's employees, managers need to model excellence and enthusiasm in everything they do. Encourage them to be energetic and their energy will be contagious. They need to lead and motivate by example.

Ceridian delivers best-practice Human Resource solutions to help customers acquire the best talent, pay their staff accurately and on time, improve HR decision-making and reporting, and drive employee engagement and wellbeing. To learn more about our suite of HR solutions and how we can partner with your organization, click here or call us toll-free at 1-877-CERIDIAN.

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