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		Staff Motivation: The Quick Fix and the Long Haul By Dawn Weakley, University of Georgia Motivating a staff, whether it is a staff of Desk Assistants, Hall Directors, or Resident Assistants, can be one of the most challenging aspects of supervision. It is also one of the most essential parts of leading an effective team. An unmotivated staff is generally an underachieving staff, in my experience. The way I see it, there are two main methods to motivating a staff—the quick fix and the long haul. The quick fix is useful when one of your staff members needs a quick pick-me-up. It is also the simplest way to think about motivation—rewarding good work. That’s what motivation is all about right? Well, I think it’s a good start. Here are a few quick fix tips and examples from my experience supervising Resident Assistants: Get a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul! Or you can try A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Chicken Soup for the College Soul, etc. These books are a virtual cornucopia of motivation. You can read the stories to your staff, type up one of the stories and give them to your staff members, or simply lend the book to staff member in need of some motivation. Learn what kind of candy each of your staff members really like. I supervise an RA who absolutely loves chocolate. So, I have found that chocolate works well to reward her hard work. It’s also important to know what candy to avoid—one of my staff members is allergic to nuts, therefore Payday bars wouldn’t motivate her to do much of anything. Do something fun with your staff members—either as a staff or individually. This past semester I not only went out to eat with my staff, but I went out to lunch, went for walks, and got ice cream with individual staff members. I have usually done this as part of a formalized meeting, but it is sometimes even more motivating to do fun things with staff members more spontaneously. This shows them that you genuinely want to spend time with them. Reward staff members when they do a great job. I think it’s important to point out here that it’s not always motivating to reward staff members for everything they do. If everyone gets the same reward no matter how well they are performing, then where is the incentive to do anything more than the bare minimum? Here are some ideas for rewards: ABCD (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty) Award Cute Candy ideas: Kudos bars, Life Savers, Nestlé’s Treasures, 100 Grand (and a million thanks!) bars, Milky Way or Mars bars (You’re Out of This World), M&Ms (Magnificent & Marvelous Award), etc. You get the idea—basically any candy bar can be turned into motivation. Some sort of “Of the Week” or “Of the Month” Award. This year I have a “Bulldawg of the Week” Award; I’ve also celebrated the “Programmer of the Month” in the past. You can also utilize National Residence Hall Honorary’s OTM Awards. Tell your supervisor or your supervisor’s supervisor about particularly great work so that they can also congratulate your staff member. Encourage staff member’s to reward one another. One way that I do this is with my “Bulldawg of the Week.” I am not the person who determines who the award will go to—the previous week’s winner gives out the award. It somehow means a little more when a coworker notices your good work. A simple, sincere thank you note can be one of the best ways to keep your staff motivated. It isn’t as easy as it looks (as many of us know) because writing an individualized note to even five or six people can take a long time, but it’s worth it. It’s important to know what each staff member does well so that you can highlight that in the note. As important as these quick fix tips are to reward staff members, it is also important to remember that staff motivation is important to maintain for the long haul. The long haul is really the tone you set for your staff. Actually, the quick fix tips won’t make much sense if you don’t set a motivating tone from the very beginning. Here are some long haul tips: Don’t set them up to fail! This is a phrase that I have heard used quite a lot. I interpret this as meaning that a supervisor should always expect staff members to succeed and should give them the resources and support that they need to succeed. This starts with comprehensive training and ends with good communication so that you know whether or not a staff member feels comfortable with all job tasks. For example, you should never tell a staff member to mediate a roommate conflict without also ensuring that the staff member feels comfortable with the mediation process. Learn what is important to each staff member, and show interest in it—even if it’s not something that you have had interest in in the past. One of my staff members absolutely loves NASCAR. I know absolutely nothing about this, but I try my best to share her excitement about it. It’s also important to show interest in your staff member’s studies if they are students. I try my hardest to at least know what my staff member’s majors and most stressful classes are. Give them ownership in the work that they do. You can call it buy-in, investment, commitment, etc., but if your staff doesn’t feel that they can make their mark in what they do, they won’t go above and beyond. There are many ways to give your staff buy-in. First of all, instead of setting their goals for the year, ask them to set their own goals. The same thing can be done with expectations. Also, try to always give them a rationale with policies and procedures. This isn’t always possible, but it is important, especially when they are the ones enforcing the policy. Hold them accountable! This may not seem like something that would motivate a person, but I have found that having small consequences when they don’t meet expectations actually motivates my staff to do a better job. Here’s an idea that I got from a list-serv that I have found to work very well (thank you to whoever thought this up!). It’s called a task jar. Basically, at the beginning of the year, I have every RA write down five things that they would want other staff members to do for them. I put some restrictions on this, such as the task can’t cost more than five dollars and others can’t sit duty for them or plan a program for them. I put all of these tasks in a jar (actually a cup), and whenever a staff member is late to a meeting or with paperwork, they have to pull from the task jar. I have found this to be a very painless way of holding my staff accountable—and encouraging then to hold one another accountable. Play on their strengths, and encourage them to improve on their weaknesses. This requires continuous feedback and evaluation. Show enthusiasm and have a positive attitude—if you don’t seem to want to work, why would your staff? Especially in January and February, it can be difficult to stay motivated, but it is critical to remember that your staff follows your cues. So always try to remain enthusiastic about the work that you do! Hopefully these ideas have started your creative juices flowing. Don’t let these be your only ideas. There is a lot of information out there about staff motivation, and there is also your own imagination. However, if you aren’t the creative type, don’t worry. Most of these ideas were “borrowed” from colleagues, so you don’t have to be the one who comes up with all of the great ideas. Best wishes for a great semester, and have fun motivating! About the Author Dawn Weakley is a Masters student in the College Student Affairs Administration program at the University of Georgia and is expecting her degree in May. Currently, she is a Graduate Resident in the Housing Department at UGA, and supervises eight wonderful RAs. She is a proud graduate of James Madison University, and previously worked as a Residence Director at Elizabethtown College. Dawn would like to thank all those who helped her come up with these wonderful motivation ideas, including a number of very motivating past supervisors and coworkers, as well as her current staff members who allowed her to use them as examples in this article. Dawn can be contacted at dweakley@arches.uga.edu.