When you’re in a leadership position, you can count on one thing to never change. That is the fact that human nature is very unpredictable.

Whether you just entered your first career leadership position or are an experienced leader looking to get the most of your employees, you need to know effective methods to inspire them.

Understanding certain fundamentals of human behavior lets you get your subordinates to function not just effectively but also enthusiastically. Here are eight of them:

  1. More Personal Attention: Individual conversations using a one-on-one basis is something of a lost art form in an age of digital and mass communications. Create relationships where you listen to everyone’s ideas, issues, problems, and suggestions.
  2. Identify Their Motivations: You might not think that what gets your employees out of bed first thing in the morning is any of your business, but if you want them to care about your business, then you better find out fast.
  3. Give Them the Resources They Need: If you ask employees to accomplish certain things and then fail to give them the things they need to get things done, you’re setting them up for failure. The resentment and poor morale will doom everyone.
  4. Constant Praise and Compliments: Good qualities and high-caliber work need to be pointed out and emphasized regularly. Praise everyone you can at least weekly, if not more often than that.
  5. Purpose and Meaning: People don’t just want a paycheck and benefits. The market has many places to get that. They also want to know that what they’re doing matters. Help them see how they’re serving others and creating a better world whenever it’s truthfully possible.
  6. Skill Development: Helping employees develop new skills doesn’t just help them become better employees, it helps them become better people. Think win-win by helping them develop new skills they can also use outside of work or to advance their career.
  7. Involve Them: Leadership isn’t sitting in your office emailing out instructions and delegation of assignments. Involve anyone you can in the decisions and information crucial to your work.
  8. Make Them Believe: Make them believe that you have confidence in them. Better yet, make them believe in themselves.

Find employees you can trust and work with along these angles to make the most of your business.

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