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Guest post by: Bob Urichuck Become an Author

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Sales team motivation can be an easy task, especially when appropriate disciplines are demonstrated by the sales leader. That is when employee motivation happens naturally.

It is kind of like "monkey see, monkey do" approach. Motivation, no matter if it is self motivation or employee motivation, is defined as a motive to act. What motivates you and gets you to act, does not necessarily mean it will work for others, or lead to employee motivation.

No one can motivate you, only you can motivate yourself. You cannot motivate others. As a sales team leader all you can do is demonstrate appropriate behaviours and create an environment where employees motivate themselves

There are two types of employee, or self, motivation. There are external motivators and internal motivators.

External motivators are the things like awards, bonuses, titles, promotions, money, etc. The problem with external motivators when it comes to employee, or self, motivation is that they are never lasting. As soon as you get one of them, you want a bigger one.

Let's pretend we are a team and we had a great year. We decide to give everyone a $5,000 bonus. Everyone is happy and employee motivation is at an all time high.

A year goes by and your organization did not have such a great year and may have to lay off some team members. But you meet as a team again, as you always have. What would the employees be expecting in terms of a bonus?

To maintain employee motivation, you would have to consider giving them more, as that is what they are expecting. However, you cannot even match the previous year's bonus. This will then lead to employee de-motivation. The old donkey and carrot story.

External motivators are never lasting and that is why sales leaders should focus on the alternative, internal employee motivation, as it is ever lasting.

Motivation, like success, comes from the inside out, not from the external to the internal.

To know internal motivators first means getting to know oneself - what you want to be, do or have in life. Combine that clear definition with passion and you will be self motivated.

When you are self-motivated, you can then demonstrate appropriate behaviours. When you go the extra step and recognize or reward your appropriate behaviours, those behaviours will get repeated.

However, we can only give away that what we have inside. If, as a sales leader you are self critical, you will criticize others. If you recognize yourself for the good that you do, you will see it in others and recognize them too.

Recognition is ranked as the number one motivating factor when it comes to employee motivation in the workplace. You may find it hard to believe, but recognition is the most powerful employee motivator of all. Research has shown that there is a stronger need in society today for recognition than there is for sex and money. Now, that says something about employee motivation.

Employee motivation is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcements is what builds our self-esteem. Our self-esteem is the way we see and feel about ourselves either internally, through our own beliefs, or externally through what we accept as the beliefs of others.

If we feel good about ourselves and we believe others feel good about us, we perform better than we would when we see the opposite side of the coin. Employee motivation starts from within.

People perform in a manner that is consistent with how they see themselves conceptually. So, the key as a sales leader is to help your salespeople build their self-esteem. That is the foundation of employee motivation.

Employee motivation through recognition is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement of actions gets those actions repeated. Recognition and praise reinforces beliefs about oneself and helps make one think they are better than they thought they were. That is what employee motivation is all about.

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