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How To Increase Motivation And Energy In Tired Employees

How To Increase Motivation And Energy In Tired Employees

There are many reasons why people look and act (and feel) tired. In this article, we look at 3 of the most important reasons for low motivation and energy for work and offer 3 corresponding strategies to increase motivation and energy in tired employees.

It’s not fun to see tired people show up for work. They don’t have to call sick to demonstrate how tired they are. Often, just looking at them is proof enough.

There are many reasons why people look and act (and feel) tired. In this article, we look at 3 of the most important reasons for low energy and motivation for work. I also offer 3 corresponding strategies to increase motivation and energy in tired employees. 

1. Encourage Physical Movement

The first and the obvious reason is lack of physical activity, preferably activity that involves the whole body.

While you can always encourage your employees to get exercise (even provide incentives, by giving them discounted gym membership, for example) it’s even better if you create a physically active work environment where people are encouraged to move.

Here are some ideas to inject more physical movement in your workplace:

  • Encourage the habit of walking up to another in-office person instead of calling them on the phone. 

  • Hold your weekly meetings in a place where people have to walk a bit to attend. Incorporate some fun activities in your meetings and joint sessions where people have to move. 

  • Conduct some of your monthly or quarterly meetings in an open park and encourage people to bring their family and friends.

This solution is the easiest to implement but may not last very long, unless you make physical movement a habit in your workplace.

2. Reward Positive Thoughts And Encourage Positive Thought-Pattern

The second reason for low energy is negative habitual thought pattern.

Nothing sucks energy from a person more quickly than a negative thought that’s thought over and over again.

How To Increase Motivation And Energy in Tired Employees

It takes a little thought and some work, but it's possible to increase energy and motivation in tired employees. 

Thoughts produce emotions. Negative thoughts produce negative emotions. Positive thoughts produce positive emotions.

There is power - the effortless power, not the “lightning-and-thunderbolt” kind of power - in positive emotions.

A simple way to say this is: When we feel good, we are effortlessly productive; when we feel bad, we are not.

Agree or Disagree?: "Thoughts produce emotions. Negative thoughts produce negative emotions. Positive thoughts produce positive emotions." #awayre

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Some ways to inspire positive thinking in your workplace:

  • Encourage your people to always look on the bright side of every situation, no matter how hopeless it may seem. 
  • Work to infuse a sense of upbeat, positive tone in your work environment.
  • Encourage your people to immerse themselves in inspiring and uplifting media: books, audio, video and the like. 
  • Create a formal or informal reward system where people with positive ideas and attitude are publicly recognized for those attributes.

This solution is more subtle and requires keen observational abilities to notice the change.

3. Hire Right People For The Right Jobs

The third and perhaps the most important reason for low energy in your people is that they are doing a job that’s unnatural to them.

This one is hard to detect, especially when the person in question is highly qualified for her position.

Unfortunately, our society and family pressures often compel us to pursue professions that are not well-suited to our natural gifts and inclinations.

Agree or Disagree?: "Society and family pressures often compel us to pursue professions that are not well-suited to our natural gifts and inclinations." #awayre

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So people who look great on resume could be very wrong for the job they are doing.

What’s the solution? Put them through some personality assessments, preferably before you hire them, that will tell you if your people are well-suited for the job they were hired to do.

Careful though! If you use personality assessments after the job interview, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. People that you fall in love with in the job interview may very well turn out to be the wrong people for the job after the assessment.

That’s why it’s a great idea to use such assessments well before the job candidates show up for the job interview. 

This solution requires a higher level of proactive thinking and more up-front "work," but will yield the longest-lasting results. 

Conclusion: How to Increase Motivation And Energy in Your Employees

If your employees are showing up tired tired for work, you can consider three strategies to reengage them:
 

  • Encourage higher physical activity and movement and perhaps make them a habit in your workplace. 

  • Encourage and reward positive thoughts and positive ideas over negative ones because positive thoughts create positive engagement.

  • Only hire people whose personalities are well-suited for the positions even if they otherwise look good on resume.
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