Leadership Needed * Project Security and Hope to Motivate

Thriving during this recession and positioning your organization to gain competitive advantage and market share when the upturn comes requires courageous and thoughtful leadership now. It is no secret that your people – their behavior, engagement and focus on delivering against your strategic objectives – are the lynchpin to this success. How are you encouraging them, supporting them and motivating them during this time of fear?

Gallup recently offered these suggestions for executives to keep managers and workers focused and engaged:

Security: Leaders can't entirely quell those fears. They can't control the economy or predict the future, so they can't assure workers that everything is fine and always will be. But they can promote a feeling of stability from day to day, and that creates a sense of security and engagement.

Hope: There certainly is reason for hope -- eventually the economy will improve. Employees just need to know how their company plans to survive during the downturn. They need to know what to focus on to help set it up to succeed.

In this Forbes article, leaders are encouraged to correct work environments that demotivate.

“I know of a large company that has an employee recognition program that involves publishing a list each year of employees who have been promoted to vice president. Only a few senior executives know the criteria for inclusion on the coveted list. The dozen employees with new VP job titles are, of course, pleased. But hundreds of others who feel they should have been recognized are displeased. They don't know why they were overlooked and why colleagues they may believe are of less value to the company were recognized. So the program benefits only a few and provokes uncertainty, frustration and a perception of disrespect in many.”

That’s not a recognition program. That’s a case study in demotivation. Foundational to a motivating work environment is a company culture of appreciation in which all employees know their work is noticed and valued -- by their peers and their managers.

What’s your work environment like? Demotivating and fearful or secure and hopeful? What are you doing to promote the environment you want? Tell me in comments.