The 4 Languages of Motivation in the Workplace

Most adults must work for a living. It’s part of life. Doesn’t matter if you have your own business, are part of a small company or a huge corporation, there are certain duties, responsibilities, rules and regulations that you must do and keep in order to pay your bills at the end of the month.
If you consider that most people spend up to 40 hours and more per week at work, it makes sense that personnel who feel they “are part of the company” and that “they make a difference” will be happier at work. Happier staff members equal higher productivity, better time-management and in the end better service or products to your customers.

The general assumption is that people quit their jobs because they want more money. In fact, studies have shown that only 12% of employees quit because they are looking for better salaries. A staggering 88% of employees leave for reasons other than money, including not feeling trusted or valued.

How motivated is your team to work? Do they feel appreciated? Do you? It’s astonishing to see how many people leave relatively high-paying jobs because they don’t feel appreciated.

While things like a good salary and a yearly bonus, sure help to pay the bills, for lots of people money are just not enough. Some would like to hear a “thank you for your hard work” or a “well done on a good job” every now and again, while others prefer to be named “employee of the month” to feel they matter to the company.

People do not only want to feel they are appreciated by their managers but also their colleagues. The main problem is that we all tend to act and speak from our own primary emotional language that we have learnt in our childhood homes. Some people, therefore, feel appreciated if the manager thanked them in front of the group; others wouldn’t like that at all and would rather prefer a thank you note on their desk.
We all have to learn how to communicate in all the languages of appreciation in order to really work together as a team.

Before we go into greater detail about the languages of appreciation, it is important to establish who is responsible to make you happy and feel appreciated. Your manager? The CEO of the company?

I certainly hope not. Imagine giving another person so much control over you! You need to take responsibility for your own happiness by taking responsibility for your own behaviour, thoughts and feelings. You need to let go of the idea that anyone is going to make things better for you. Obviously, things happen that are out of our control and people treat us unfairly, but we are solely responsible for how we respond to these things.

If you accept that you, and only you, are in control of your feelings, you can move on and acknowledge that we do not live in a perfect world and that there is no such thing as a perfect job. You will encounter bad days at the office. Some days will be harder than others. That’s life.
Furthermore, it will help if you know what your first and second languages of motivation are. If you know what motivates you, it can help in your communication with your colleagues, team members and managers. Lastly, ensure that you have a basic understanding of all the motivation languages. This will help you to establish what will motivate those around you. If you start talking to people in their preferred language of motivation, you will be surprised at the motivational snowball effect it can have on everyone.

Let’s look briefly at the 4 languages.

According to The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman & Paul White: “Words of Affirmation is the language that uses words to communicate a positive message to another person. When you speak this language, you are verbally affirming a positive characteristic of a person. As with all the languages of appreciation, there are many dialects. A dialect is a unique way to speak a particular language.”

The various dialects of Words of Affirmation

The most obvious one in the workplace would be praise for accomplishments. Usually, this is done verbally, but it can be in the form of an email or text message too. It’s important to note that people prefer that acknowledgement should be specific. While an overall “Good job” could work, it’s better to be specific for example, “Your report on the project was well done and on time. I like the way you incorporated colours to differentiate the categories.”

The second dialect in this category is affirmation of character. While it’s easier for most managers to praise a specific task, it’s just as important to recognise the good character traits in your team members. A person’s character is what makes them who they are. It’s all those traits they show even when no-one is watching.

If you acknowledge a person’s best characteristics, you acknowledge them as a person, not just as a worker.

Never take your team members for granted. Tell them what they would like to hear. When was the last time you told your personal assistant that you really value the way in which she always handles your travel arrangements? It might be part of her job description, but what about the time you called her on a Sunday afternoon and she managed to fix your hotel booking without one word of complaint?

Words of affirmation should be a required skill for every team leader and manager. Learn how to speak this language if it is not your first language of appreciation.

As a language of appreciation, quality time can take on many forms. Team members who “speak” quality time, would probably enjoy team building sessions, lunches and year-end functions. Where possible try to keep your quality time efforts within working hours.

Your team members and employees need to get the chance to spend time together without management. Yes, they are together every day in the office, but then they are working. Create opportunities where they can just socialise and get to know each other on a different level. Make sure to not make this compulsory, because this is not everybody’s primary language, but for those who do feel appreciated if they can spend quality time together, this is invaluable.

Identifying people who have Acts of Service as their primary appreciation language is relatively easy. They are usually the ones who are forever doing everything for everybody else. They also tend to do all the jobs that nobody else wants to do like organising the office party or going around to get everybody’s contributions to the tea club.

They are usually well-organised, in control and everywhere. That’s why their managers and colleagues can be left totally baffled when these friendly, busy bees suddenly break down and complain that they don’t feel appreciated. This could seem a bit unfair seeing that they are usually the first to be thanked for their contribution and hard work. That’s the problem. These people usually hate it to have the spotlight on them. Do not thank them in front of everybody.

What will make them feel appreciated? Your assistance without them having to ask you!

You will find that some individuals really blossom when they receive a tangible gift. That is what makes them feel appreciated and part of the team. While it is important to speak a person’s primary language, when it comes to this particular language, you have to be very careful as giving the wrong gift can have the opposite effect of what you would have liked to achieve.

Gift giving in an organisation can be a tricky business, but to ignore it completely means some of your employees will be left feeling disgruntled and unmotivated.

If you know that someone’s primary language is gifts, then make sure you reward that person with gifts. These gifts can range from giving them a gift voucher from their favourite shop to tickets to watch a game. Just make sure you give them something that will fit their tastes and personality.

In the end, all these different forms of appreciation send out a message that you care and that you notice the work and effort your employees and co-workers are putting in to make a success of the company. The bottom-line is… keeping your employees happy will put your business on the fast track to success.

Good news, my new book You and I in the Corporate World (A guide on how to deal with different temperaments at work) will soon be available for purchase at www.lynettebeer.co.za. This book will guide you through the 4 Temperaments at work, as well as, help you with dealing with the Languages of Motivation in the workplace.