Do you want to know how to motivate your employees? Ask them. Do not destroy their natural motivation, try to take the advantage of it. You can start by making sure that it is not your own behavior which demotivates your people. About.com pointed on ten warning signals.
You treat employees like children
Your people are legaly competent adults. Do not dictate them how to do every little thing and do not stay behind their back all the time.
You create rules for all based on the behavior of a few individuals
Companies need general legal and ethical rules. Rules for effective work performance are also needed, but not in case of solving all the small problems that arise.
You focus on errors even when they are minor compared with successes
Constant emphasis on errors undermines the confidence of your staff and leads to even further errors.
You deploy unfair practices
Employees quickly discover when you do not apply the same rules, expectations and punishments to all.
You do not accept ideas and initiatives of your people
Not every idea is a good idea. The possibility to come up with new ideas, however, greatly increases the motivation of the team, even though many ideas remain just heard.
You promise individual responsibility but retain the veto power even for the smallest decisions
The failure to keep promises is a fundamental managerial failure. Employees will quickly notice that what you say and what you do is not the same.
You are the man speaker during meetings, coaching sessions or performance evaluations
A working environment without the opportunity to speak for all leads to rapid and reliable demotivation.
You do not preserve the confidentiality of information from your employees
Lost of trust, that is essential for maintaining employee motivation, is very difficult to return.
You measure success of such aspects of work that your people can not influence
Well consider the causes of low performance and do not punish for anything they can not control.
You set unattainable goals and punish for failure
Goals should not be determined without feedback and communication with people who will be meeting them.
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