Long have business owners struggled to identify the key factors that could keep their own and their employees’ motivation on a high enough level to overcome all the obstacles that might appear on their way to success.

Unfortunately, sometimes it can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel due to numerous problems that are seriously affecting your workflow and your employees’ morale.

How to keep your staff motivated and which one is better for your business – positive or negative motivation? Here is our answer to this question.

What is motivation?

Simply put, motivation is our willingness to invest energy and hard work in order to achieve a goal we have set and then gain a reward.

Whenever you need to achieve something, motivation is the force that keeps pushing you forward and that does not allow you to give up so easily.

Experts in this field have identified two distinct types of motivation – positive motivation and negative motivation.

Which of these is more critical in the career you are pursuing? We will try to explain.

Positive motivation

Positive motivation is closely related to the concept of visualization.

In this case, a person feels motivated to complete a task because he/she expects some kind of reward in the near or distant future. 

Positive motivation is focused on the reward you get when you complete a task successfully.

Being able to visualize himself/herself with the desired reward is what pushes this person forward toward the completion of the requested task.

However, positive motivation is not the strategy to apply when your business involves the setting of long term goals.

If your employees cannot visualize a reward because it constantly seems too far away, it will be too challenging and even impossible to keep them motivated for long.

Hence, make sure you reorganize these long term goals you have set by transforming them into a group of short term goals that are considerably more achievable in the near future.

To-do lists are very helpful in this matter.

When you tick off items or tasks on these lists on a daily basis, you feel useful, efficient, and competent to get something done every single day.

Once you check off one task or item, you instantly feel motivated to start dealing with the next one and the process continues. 

Positive motivation causes a feeling of satisfaction and inspires loyalty to the employer who utilizes it.

Even if some new circumstances arise and you have to relocate your office premises with professional movers like relosmart.asia to a new address, odds are, you will not experience resistance and your employees will be willing to participate, support, and follow you every step of the way.

Negative motivation

Negative motivation refers to the situation where you make people complete errands and reach certain targets and goals in order to keep their job and avoid getting fired, for example.

It is more like a threat –  you will get a proper punishment if you do not meet the criteria your employer sets.

So, under no circumstances should this be your permanent approach, although, occasionally, it can be highly efficient with some rude, lazy, and undisciplined employees.

If you think you have hired the wrong person for the job, or you think his/her attitude toward job responsibilities might change with some strict measures, negative motivation might initially help. 

However, it never creates a sense of unity among the staff nor does it make people genuinely motivated to do their job the best way they can.

Negative motivation is justifiable only in the situation when you have tried and tested many practices but nothing else gives results.

Utilize it only as a temporary solution until you come up with a better, more effective, and employee-friendly approach.

Positive motivation is the way to go

If we take everything we have stated so far into account, it is clear that people always do a much better job when they strive towards a reward than when they are running away from punishment.

Hence, we strongly suggest using positive motivation in your business whenever you can.

Positive motivation is the right choice.

On the other hand, as a temporary solution, negative motivation sometimes might help you achieve what you want with your staff, but keeping it as a long term approach will not provide you with the desired effect.

As it is normally associated with negative feelings, negative motivation will affect their attitude toward the job in the same way and turn you into an employer they do not want to work for.

Finally, the answer to whether to use positive or negative motivation given your own specific circumstances lies in frequent analysis and observation of your employees and their working habits.

Only these findings can steer your approach in the right direction and prevent you from making a mistake that can have irrevocable consequences on the work atmosphere.

Be passionate about what you do

Loving what you do and being fulfilled by your job is the best motivation one can get.

Of course, there might be some aspects of it you will not be so fond of, but it is important to feel that your career is going in the right direction.

If you and your employees feel satisfied, motivated, and willing to invest time, hard work, and knowledge to achieve the predefined professional goals, you are certainly doing the right thing.

No challenge will be too difficult for you to meet. 

Similarly, a poor work atmosphere is a clear indicator that a change is necessary. No employee wants to work under constant pressure and threat that each mistake is a step toward being fired.

Finally, we have to stress an important fact for you and an important tip for all future businessmen: nothing will lead you to success better and faster than providing a pressure- and stress-free work environment where every effort is valued, respected, and taken into consideration.

Be the employer who motivates, supports, and respects their employees if you want to achieve success in the long-term.