Tweet

Creating Organizational Change, Motivation and Momentum

Guest post by: Philip A. Foster

Article Overview: Change is the one constant that businesses can rely on today. Navigating such change can be a challenge to organizational leadership. Helping employees understand the need for change must be a focus of leadership. Understand the motivational needs of the employee base while clearly communicating the needs of the company will become a much-sought skill for leaders today. This article addresses some challenges faces by organizations within the ever-changing business environment and offers insight into the change process, organizational communication and motivational attributes of the employee base.

Creating Organizational Change, Motivation and Momentum

There is no question that the business environment of late faces the unavoidable truth that change is constant and organizations will experience changes at an increasingly rapid pace. Constant change is occurring in market trends, consumer demands, the global economy and just about all aspect of the business cycle. The greatest asset a company may obtain is the ability to remain agile and ready to meet the demands of an ever-changing world. The economy itself has created the need for organizations to find creative ways to do more with less. As an answer, organizations and business owners will likely spend millions of dollars to understand the art of creating change, motivating their employee base and creating a sustainable momentum toward success. Understanding motivational theory can go a long way toward creating effective organizational change. For example, many times individuals will understand the need for change yet they have no clear understanding of what will come next. This may cause stress and lower motivational morale of the organization. Unfortunately, there is often a tendency for organizations and individuals within them to find a comfort within their present situation. This comfort often creates both a conscious and unconscious resistance to any change and in some cases a great deal of anxiety with employees. The worst-case scenarios are those organizations that may not even be able to recognize the need to change. This myopic view of the business environment will create inefficiencies, which can be detrimental to the long-term health of the organization. Leaders must not only develop the ability to communicate the needs for change but a clear vision for how the change process will unfold. This vision or blueprint will help employees understand where they are going and what it may look like in the end. This may require leaders to dismantle old ways of doing business and creating new business structures, affiliations, and ideas that will create effective organizational change.

One attribute of change that leaders must learn to understand is what motivates their subordinates to meet the demands of the ever-changing business environment in which they operate. It is understood that leadership is defined as an ability to have an influence over others to achieve a given objective. Part of this influence requires leaders to understand those things, which will motivate their subordinates to act on a given goal or required directive. The basic definition of motivation typically relies on internal and external influences to activate an earnest desire to reach a given goal or objective. Some may be motivated by basic needs such as income and the necessities for living a certain lifestyle while others may be motivated by affiliations with others they associate themselves with or even the power and influence over others. Understanding these motivational needs is helpful to organizational leaders in determining the rewards systems used to increase performance and profitability within the organization. While employee salaries, bonuses and celebrating employee wins go a long way toward motivating the workforce, leaders should further look to the types of jobs employees are doing as well as the atmosphere in which they operate.

Organizations have begun to discover that when employees like their jobs, feel safe and treated fairly within them, they are likely to be more motivated to reach organizational objectives.

Successful change will not happen overnight. It will take time and great effort, which begins with the employee's willingness to devote their attention to it. Leaders must learn to swiftly construct a vision for change and then be able to communicate the need for the change to their subordinates. Employees must understand the need for change and it must be consistent with what motivates them. Leaders must understand the motivational needs of their workforce long before the need for change arises. Finding a blend of effective communication, mixed with motivational attributes such as money and work environment will likely limit employee stress and aid the organization with their expressed need to make the required changes to remain competitive in the fast-paced global market place we now operate.

Related Articles
  Momentum
  Motivating Employees in the Workplace
  Why Motivation Malfunctions at Midlife
  Team Development Sales Presentation Meeting Theme
  Momentum and Branding
  Top 5 Tips for Maintaining Momentum
  Building your Leadership Culture for Today’s Business Climate
  Motivation with consequences
  Productivity Leadership - Part Four 'Development'
  Making the Team
  What is a “Meta” for? (Make that Metaphor)
  Driven to Distraction: How Latest Trends Will Hurt You
  How to Use Inspiration or Desperation to Sell More
  Are your goals in writing?
  My Advice For Other African Startups
  DO SOMETHING!
  Successful ways of leadership & business development
  Five Rules For Success In Your Internet Marketing Business Opportunity
  Improving Organizational Effectiveness in Turbulent Times
  Five Essential Steps for Creating a Coaching Culture

Article Tags: Change, Coaching, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Training



Related Forum Posts
Re: What exactly do you need to start a business - Momentum, that is what you need the most. Momentum moves you forward, regardless of what gets thrown at you. Build Momentum and things will start to happen.
HRPreneur - Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and I recently started my own Human Capital (HR) consulting firm called HRPreneur Inc. HRP focuses on making human capital a strategic differentiator for SME's. Below is a summary about HRP; Who We Are: HRP is a Human Capital consulting firm with 30 years of experience that becomes an extension of your company by providing a full array of services to help you create a highly engaged workforce focused on achieving strategic results in order to build a long lasting great company! Mission: HRP provides small and medium sized businesses a Strategic HR Business Partner to increase employee engagement, resulting in cost savings, increased productivity and results at an affordable rate! Vision: To inspire and warrant SME's reach their full competency! Cost Effectiveness: We provide over 30 years of experience at a fraction of the cost at a strategic executive HR business level You will save between 50% to 60% in costs per year on salary, bonus, benefits, training, office space alone We will provide you additional cost efficiencies through our services Services: • Strategic Human Resources Planning • Organizational Redesign • Change Management • Organizational Culture Development • Employee Engagement Programs • Leadership Assessment and Development • Compensation Design • Talent Acquisition • Assimilation and On-Boarding • Performance Management • Talent Management & Succession Planning • Human Resources Due Diligence • Human Resources Audit • Full Service HR Outsourcing
Re: How To Stay Motivated In Your Business - Motivation spurs people into actions every time. When there is no motivation the reason to move forward seems lost. Thanks so much for this post Evan
Re: Can you outsource your product launch? - Yes that what I am talking about. Creating a buzz for your online product launch basically. Is this part of what you do?
Re: Social Media & Digg, Google, MySpace, and YouTube - Hi Kathy, What I meant about it being worth it was in the sense that I described. Creating multiple accounts for various sites and posting and ranking your own stuff. It's very time consuming to say the least. I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there that has done this and thinks it's beneficial.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Web Design in 30 Minutes - Can this be Right?

Attracting Passionate Employees

Convening a focus group for a niche product

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.