by J. Henry Stewart

Created on: December 10, 2008   Last Updated: September 15, 2009

Sandra stood at the podium and looked out into the audience in the company auditorium. She was about to give a speech to motivate the five hundred or so employees before her, and she had a few last minute thoughts as the previous speaker - who was mingling in the crowd - finished up his remarks.

It had been a tough year for sales at the company, but things were looking better. Her employees were disheartened from the layoffs that she had been forced to impose six months prior, and she now wanted to change the tone and effectively motivate her staff to meet the new opportunities. As the spotlight turned to her, she remember a few important lessons that her professor at her masters program had explained to her.

Listen to Everyone and Communicate Clearly

Sandra had started her effort at motivating the employees in the weeks before this speech. She had walked around to the different departments and talked to employees on an individual basis. More specifically, this talking had actually been listening on her part to the concerns that many of her employees expressed.

Through this listening, Sandra was able to understand the uncertainty and bad feelings that the layoffs had induced in the remaining staff. She realized that there was a breakdown in trust, and that she would have to rebuild this trust to have her workers fully support her and work hard in this new effort.

Furthermore, immediately in her all company speech, Sandra outlined clearly the news about the upturn in business, and the plans that she had made to capture this additional revenue. She had worked several days perfecting and practicing her speech, and she planned to spend time talking to each department in a more intimate setting later in the day.

She wanted to make sure that her vision was clear to the employees, the very same vision that she had crafted with no small influence from the information she had gathered by listening to the concerns of her employees.

Money, Power or Respect

Before Sandra's speech, many of the employees had a fearful mindset - they were negatively extrinsically motivated by the fear of losing their job. Sandra had to put this fear immediately to rest, as the situation had changed and their business had become much more stable with the new contract with a big customer.

Moreover, Sandra realized that she could motivate her employees through positive extrinsic motivation - extra money and bonuses - but she had to be careful. Her company which had been started by her mother,

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