Motivating people is an important and frustrating topic in business today.

That is because we think of employee motivation as something that the manager/CEO/business owner is responsible for. The problem is that you are half right. Or truly slightly less then half right.

Let's start with the 3 things needed to motivate employees.

1. A "positive environment" workplace.

2. The management.

3. WIIFM.

A positive environment workplace is everything outside of their immediate management. Is it a good place to work due to benefits, location, environment, and policies? The employee understanding and being involved in the organization's business strategy. Is it an environment that "values" their employees or considers them a high expense encumbrance? Is there good feedback and support mechanism's in place to empower the worker?

Please keep in mind I'm writing about organizations that walk the talk, not just have a bunch of written policies or placards that talk about how important the employee is, but the day to day truth is the opposite. That type of company is actually worse than one with no policies at all, because you are effectively lying to your people and reducing any trust you may have.

By providing a positive environment, you sustain a workplace that an employee wants to come to which is a strong motivator.

The second important motivator is the management and more importantly the immediate management. Studies show that the main reason for people leaving a dissatisfying job is due to poor relationship with their immediate manager. An effective manager empowers the employee, builds strong teams and builds respect and trust within and for an organization. A poor manager is toxic, and your best people are the first to leave. The ones that stay are not likely to be strongly motivated to perform.

A good manager encourages people to be more and do more, challenging them, keeping them interested and excited in their jobs/careers. They become positive influences in their employee's lives and create a strong motivation to do well and even excel.

The third and most important motivator is WIIFM. The standard "What's In It For Me"? If the job/career/position is not aligned with the workers personal goals, the worker will not be very motivated. Each person from CEO on down must feel that what they are doing is in some way advancing their personal interests, whether its income, time, ego, whatever. The closer the position is to the person's goals, the greater motivation they will have to do well in the job.

The interesting part is that while WIIFM is the most important motivator, it may be the least understood, even by the employee. Quick test. Find the person in your area that seems to be the most highly motivated, happiest and most focused in your organization. Ask them what their personal goals are and odds are they will have a very clear idea. And a better chance that what they are doing now is helping them meet those personal goals in some way. Now find the least motivated person, most dissatisfied person in the organization. There is a good chance that this person couldn't even define their personal goals or if they can, it would likely be clear that they are not aligned with what they are doing now.

You will consistently see the highly motivated performer knowing what "they want out of life". The performer will be very clear on how their position in the company is helping them to achieve that. Have you ever seen that performer all of a sudden turn in their resignation, moving on? You don't have to dig very far to understand that for whatever reason, their position within your organization is no longer aligned with THEIR personal goals. Sometimes that just can't be helped. But if you have a good honest relationship with that performer, it's a good bet you saw it coming. And maybe you can take the steps to ensure you ARE aligned. If not, at least you know you did what you could.

WIIFM is also important in understanding incentives. If you give an employee an incentive that doesn't much their WIIFM, you won't be motivating them. An example could be the team gets an extra day off if they meet their targets. If even a few members (or one key member) could care less about getting a day off, they may not be motivated to make that extra effort and drag the team's performance.

These 3 factors are not equal. WIIFM is about 51% of the motivators. In other words, even if you have a great place to work and a great manager, if the work is not aligned with the employee's personal goals you will NOT get a motivated employee. Frankly, they could care less. Sound like someone you know?

Of the 49% remaining, good immediate managers are probably around 40%, leaving 9% for workplace. You could have a great company, lovely environment and excellent human resources policies, a toxic manager will negate all of that in a heartbeat. If your people aren't looking for another job or at least a transfer out, what you will have is a department, division, etc that keeps its head down and does the minimum needed to not get into trouble.

So how do you motivate people then? If the majority is WIIFM, how does an organization get productive workers except by luck? It comes down to effective management.

First, the manager is a good manager, but a truly effective manager understands his people as a group and each as an individual. An effective manager treats each person differently, yet with a degree of group consistency. An example may be that Fred likes to be told what to do, then left alone and lauded privately when he does a good job. Mary may like to be given her work, but have her manager just check in occasionally to see how she is doing and help her if needed (which would have driven Fred crazy!). Mary also, although she may not admit it, likes to get her "attaboy" publicly at the group meeting. Joe is a single father, so flexible time is really important and he'll work his fanny off when he's there. Susan likes the award that adds a few dollars to her paycheck. Bill is looking to advance and could use a mentor. Each person has their own WIIFM and the closer the effective manager can satisfy each WIIFM and support each persons personal goals, the more the employee feels this is the right job at the right time, are happier and are more motivated to making sure it continues that way.

By providing a positive environment, effective management and opportunity to reach personal goals, you create a strong motivation for each person to work towards organizational success. And that's a great position for everyone to be in.