Motivating the Unenthusiastic Employee

By: Marlene Cosain

Helping a discouraged employee is part of being an effective team leader. Knowing your staff makes it is easier to recognize when your employees are discouraged about their jobs. It is important to know how to recognize a discouraged employee because they can lead to inefficiency and under performance. Not to mention that discouraged employees can have a domino effect and draw others to their level. After you learn how to recognize a discouraged employee, motivate and help them to return to their productive level.

How to Spot a Discouraged Employee

The reasons to why an employee might be unenthusiastic vary tremendously. There can be numerous reasons and numerous causes. Look for employees that hardly interact with their team, are overwhelmed easily, or through basic body language. Below are a few universal signs that signal towards an employee who is not fully happy with their job anymore.

• They question the importance of their tasks

An unenthusiastic employee most likely does not see the significance their labor adds to your company value. Over time this feeling of being valuable may start to wear off. A simple way to boost their confidence and make them feel of value is to delegate small tasks to them. Even if they are doing something minor, you are involving them in the needs of the company.

• They vocalize or appear overwhelmed

It is possible that your employees are unhappy because they feel swamped with their work load. This might seem counterproductive considering we just discussed how adding tasks to their work load adds confidence, but there is a fine line. If you already have an employee with multiple responsibilities, projects and deadlines, feeling overwhelmed might be inevitable even for your best employee. First, you can delegate manageable tasks that way they are working at their comfortable skill level, or you can help them catch a breath of fresh air by reducing their workload while they catch up. This way, they will feel satisfied with a list of tasks that they can manage and work with comfortably.

• Lack of Confidence

Your employee has been on an error streak. Day after day it seems like you are approaching them with mistakes that have been occurring, so that takes a major hit to their confidence. This type of situation feeds employees to be discouraged. The best way to approach this scenario is by acknowledging the areas in which they excel in. Managers should boost the employee’s confidence in ways that make the employee feel like they are an important piece to your company puzzle.

The best setting to help an unhappy worker is in private. Sit down and really listen to get to the real reasoning as to why that employee is not satisfied. Sometimes you have to read between the lines because it might be an issue on a personal level. Ask questions that encourage progress and motivation, so they look forward to coming to work. Expand on their value to the company and their progresses will pickup.