Many of the questions I get asked are from frustrated managers

Many of the questions I get asked are from frustrated managers constantly asking how they can create new buy-ins from their employees. The tend to forget that the question they are in reality is how their employees want to buy-in. While the two questions may sound the same, there is a vital difference between them. Managers should understand that buy-ins are not created, but something that employees are allowed to embrace.

Managers should understand the factors that motivates their team:

In the field of management, we often look forward to motivating employees by incentivizing them using various new and creative methods. These include employee-of-the-month awards, raises, ice-cream days, game days, bonus structures etc. While these can be, and in fad are good ideas that can indeed help motivate people in going towards the right direction, they can only be effective if the employees value them. And that's where the problem lies, since very rarely are all employees on a team motivated by the same thing.

In order to keep your team motivated, you must make sure that all the individuals on your team are motivated. You must remember that every employee is unique and has unique wished and desires of his/her own. If your goal is to allow your employees to buy-in to your goals, you must make sure that they clearly understand how reaching your goals will in turn help them reach theirs.

Money is not the only factor:

While money may appear to be the biggest factor that motivates most people (especially entrepreneurs), it is in reality exclusively a "backup motivator" of sorts when the main criteria are not being fulfilled.

Being in a leading position, managers must work hard to find the unique motivating factors for each team member and help them in achieving them. While it does require time and patience, it can yield good outcomes and great rewards for years to come.

For instance, let me show you the way in which I motivated my employees to reach our production goals.

Service-oriented employees: Some of the painters who worked in my company were truly motivated by the desire to serve others, and were at their best when they were helping the company, me or other customers. In order to motivate them, I showed them how meeting the production goals of the company would allow them to better serve the customers.

Ego-driven Employees: In contrast to the aforementioned category, some other painters in my company were motivated by ego. Now while that may sound bad, it is not necessarily so. There are many people who are rightfully proud of what they do. On my part, I made sure to congratulate them, and made them feel appreciated by awarding and even applauding them in the presence of others whenever they achieved any of our company goals.

Employees Driven by Experience: Some other employees, however, are motivated by life experiences, and were seen wanting to try out new things by going on a vacation or spending more time with their family. These people were motivated by allowing them their choice of hours, keeping their schedules flexible whenever possible or being easy on them whenever they legitimately wanted to schedule some time off.

Employees driven by seeking knowledge: Yet some other employees were motivated by gaining knowledge and understanding things. The painters, for instance, were curious to know everything they could about painting - from the reasons why we use products, to the costs involved in running the business to how sprayers work - they wanted to know it all! They were kept motivated by inviting them to training, seminars and the annual PDCA Expo.

To conclude... If your aim is to buy-in from your employees, you must make an effort to understand the needs and desires and the things that they want to buy into. Once you are aware of those, you can show them how they can meet their goals by meeting yours. Once you share goals in this manner, they will definitely try to embrace your goals with passion and grace.