Most people enter their occupation with a fair amount of idealism and motivation. They want to do the job well, suggest improvements whenever possible, impress their boss and receive promotions. But after we’ve held job for a while, it’s easy to become lethargic and unintentionally compromise our creativity and efficiency. As an employer, you doubtlessly know this scenario well, and you’ve probably found that even raises and promotions eventually fail to serve as motivators for individual achievement. Why is this? Isn’t money the greatest motivator of all?
Perhaps it is, but the prospect of more money has a way of making employees work hard only until they receive their next raise, at which point they know that they won’t be receiving more salary any time soon, which can leave them feeling lax and unmotivated. So, what can you do inspire employees who would be too valuable to let go if only they rediscovered the energy and the commitment that they possessed when you hired them? Instead of appealing to their pocket book, it’s time to start refreshing their mentality, and one of the surest ways to rejuvenate an employee’s drive is by incorporating great business quotes into daily memos and conferences.
Most great business quotes have the advantage of being spoken or written by someone who’s an acknowledged business guru on a national or an international level. What this means is that their reputation has a way of making their words seem irrefutable. The point, however, is not that so-called great business quotes can simply cruise by on the lofty reputation of their author, but that the author’s reputation allows you to make a valid point while minimizing the possibility of an ensuing debate. Great business quotes are similar to scientific theories. They are tested over and over again, and if they fail to deliver results, they are typically abandoned.
Incorporating great business quotes also puts your employees in touch with something larger than your company and its contacts. As valuable as your company’s products and services might be, the practices that support them won’t transcend the everyday office existence of your employees, for they’re too “near” to these practices to see them at work in the larger scheme of things. But when you use the words of a well-known business luminary whose presence overarches everyday industry and commerce, you transport your employees from their everyday existence into a world where business is equal parts practice and philosophy.
Occupational lethargy comes in a variety of forms, but its effect is always the same: inefficiency, which is a polite way of saying wasted time and wasted money. From company moral to client relationships to quarterly profits, there isn’t any aspect of business that it cannot invade and render inefficient. To help keep your employees from experiencing corporate lethargy on a daily basis, you have to strike at where the apathy takes root: in the mind. By motivating your employees with great business quotes, you can improve the internal health of your company and thereby increase its standing with the business public.