Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees

Wharton management professor Adam Grant maintains that a simple five-minute interaction with another person could dramatically improve one’s productivity. Grant has extensively studied what motivates employees. In many situations, employees who know their work has a positive impact are likelier to have better morale, and better productivity. Grant gives the example of callers seeking donations, who can easily lose heart after suffering frequent rejections on the phone. The solution, says Grant, is to introduce them to someone who will benefit from the donations the callers collect. Even in industries that don’t directly help others, employees within the same organization may take heart when seeing how their work helps others work.

Check out the Wharton article here. (registration required)

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