A key role for a leader is to be a motivator.  Certainly, you recruit and hire enthusiastic individuals, but your role is to sustain their joy in being a member of your team.  How do you do this?

Show you care about them personally.  Be there for them in times of triumph and during life’s difficult moments.

Invest in their success.  Provide professional and leadership development opportunities to help them grow and excel.

Aid them in career planning.  Learn their goals and help them get there.

Recognize them for a job well done.

Coach privately.  Never criticize them in public.

Foster a genuine team environment at work where everyone sees aiding in the success of others as their responsibility.

Provide a mission which inspires them.

Keep them well informed.

Supply the tools and resources they need to effectively perform their responsibilities.

Listen to them.  Put down the phone and look away from the email.  Focus on what they are saying to you.  Ask questions.  Be open to their ideas.  Pay attention to the concerns they bring you.  Take action when appropriate based upon what they are sharing with you.

Get to know them.  Learn their hopes, fears, needs, and goals.  Find their motivators and demotivators.  Employ this knowledge to bring out the best in them.

If they leave for a better opportunity, celebrate with them.

Do everything you can to retain them.

Treat everyone professionally.  Trust and respect them.  Always be honest with them.

It’s not difficult to keep good employees looking forward to coming to work instead of dreading it.  Treat others how you like to be treated and everything should work well.  As one CEO likes to say, “Take good care of your team and they will take good care of you.”  (Abrashoff, 2002; Collins, 2001; Maxwell,1998; Staly, 2017; Wanchick, 2007; Welch, 2005).