How can I motivate men at work?

41 comments

1. It’s completely subjective and there’s no right ‘general’ answer.

   Have a conversation with each person you manage and get to know them – they’ll tell you what works for them.

2. Work as in a job? It’s the same things that motivate women. Money, higher quality of life, finding purpose and keeping your family financially afloat.

3. Pay
   SMART goals
   KPIs

   If you are a leader or manager struggling with this, seek out some training. If your workplace doesn’t offer it, put forward a business case to see if you can get external training

4. Lead by example.

5. Money is the most obvious motivator, also show them career progression.

6. If you are a co-worker, don’t be bothered. Not you who will be in trouble. Also not your job to lead.

   If you are in a leadership position. Just order them to their stuff. They came to work, They should work.

   If they complain about wages, consider the wages.

   If they complain about their work environment, think about improving that.

   If they complain, but their complains make no sense. Consider hiring new people and see how much people accept the job.

   My work is used to hiring workers and losing them within 4 months.

   But once every 50 workers 1 sticks around for years.

7. It really varies. Some leaders lead best by expertise, some by charisma, some by rule of law/policy, some by example. It all depends on your own leadership style and the people you lead.

   Anyway, here’s what I’ve found works most often.

   Accomplishment. Either as personal growth or as knowledge that their work is yielding results and making things better. Communication, praise, positive feedback. Respect and affirmation work too.

   Group loyalty is a big one. Growing that with small, but somewhat frequent things like team dinners to celebrate met milestones or targets can help.

   Etc.

8. First is to realize that it is not more challenging because you’re a woman being a good boss isn’t hard, but a lot of people either don’t care or power trip. My boss is a woman and is one of the people I most respect, same for most of my colleagues. Just don’t be a dick, set clear and reasonable expectations, have reasonable consequences that are applied consistently, when things go wrong don’t just blame the employees but examine if the process has flaws or if maybe your guidance wasn’t adequate know the job inside and out (yours and theirs), and respect their time off. You do those things and you’ll be in a pretty good place.

9. I mean, more money is certainly motivating.

10. Money, no bullshit from bosses and no micromanagement.

11. What are they distracted by?

12. 100% money anything else is an insult we just wont tell you. I don’t want food I don’t want dumbass parties or any of that. I work to pay my bills stay out of my personal life.

13. >How can I motivate men at work?

    Offer them a Vegemite sandwich.

14. Money, formal recognition _with_ money, career advancements (with money), more satisfying work with a pay rise.

    Now you have me curious: what would you say motivates _women_ at work?

15. I know how to solve this issue. I have a plan to reorder society on a local scale.

    I plan to start a community like in the movie “The Village.” I thought it all through.

    If I were the eccentric cult leader of a hermit community, I’d rig speakers throughout the surrounding forest that typically played eerie, gibberish whispering that doesn’t quite sound human punctuated with loud moments of excruciating banshee screams echoing through the trees.

    Children or people that stumble on the speakers and learn the truth will be sent to the re-education cabin to alleviate their cognitive dissonance.

16. employee of the month😅

17. Money and career progression and not being micro-managed are the big ones for me. Friendly conversations and building a healthy coworker relationship even with your subordinated promotes positivity in the workplace.

    Also being able to listen to music or podcasts at work helps me not feel bored while I’m working which speeds up my productivity. Idk if everyone is like that.

18. I think any team needs the following from their management regardless of gender: clear objectives, enough freedom to do their job, fair assessment and feedback, fair conflict resolution, and fair compensation.

19. 1. Give lots of praise and social standing for people, men like being complimented.

    2. Don’t play favourites. Your bestie shouldn’t be the one you give all the best assignments.

    3. When there’s plans and initiatives, involve men in the enactment of these things and ask their opinions. Men like feeling that they have a meaningful impact on things that are happening to them and that they are more than a cog in a cruel machine.

    4. Pay men appropriately for their market value. Money and career progression are important.

    5. Don’t do meaningless KPIs and goals that don’t matter. A lot of men like a logical progression of their career, and meaningless goals that have no impact on their career and waste time massively annoy many of them.

    6. Be straightforward about what you want and need from them. Most men are fine doing what you want. Don’t be unclear about what work they need to do.

    7. Promote your team to senior leadership, especially if that’s how people get promoted. Men like a clear hierarchy, and learning you don’t care and are fine if they wallow is bad for morale.

20. Money.

    No amount of team building corporate horse crap actually works, it just wastes time.

21. I cannot presume to speak for all men, but here’s what does it for me.

    Tell me what you need. It’s that simple. I find that much of the time people (women especially) tend to think that I should just know what they need without them telling me. They expect me to just sit at my desk and work and all of a sudden I’ve made their lives easier. I cannot overemphasize the extent to which this DOES NOT WORK.

22. Not unlike women, men like to be recognized for a job well done, sometimes that is in the form of compensation, new opportunities/responsibilities for career growth, being able to offer an opinion without judgment.

    I have had mostly female managers in my career and when thinking of the ones I would work for again: the best ones always led by example and I know they advocated for me and the rest of the team. These women took shit from no one and would have defended (from upper management/executives) her people to the grave. When I see she would fight for my best interests, it makes me want to be the best employee for her.

23. It really depends on the type of work you are doing and the types of men you are leading.

    Self starters don’t need to be managed really, they just need to be given tasks and some direction.

    Others need a clear outline and expectations of deliverables. they paint by numbers and thrive on structure.

    And there are some that you might need to return to light the occasional fire under their ass to get them moving.

24. how many men r u in charge of?

25. This will have 100% nothing to do with the gender of your employees but will have 100% to do with the respect you show your employees.

    First I noticed that the top comments in this thread are about money. This is true, any worker who has a good income where they do not need to stress financially and can spend on leisure and pleasure will be happier. Also compensation for work outside of contracted hours or tasks should be rewarded, if not financially then perhaps timewise, ie get off time of work for doing overtime or increased workload.

    In addition to this a good work life balance is very important. Any stressors in the private life will effect working life, hence if someone is always at work then they are always stressed by their lack of a private life.

    Show that they are important. Small things like recognition, validation and encouragement are very important as well.

    Basically any work you do to improve the state and situation for the individual will benefit you. There is a real story about the soviet nuclear project during and following the second world war. The workers involved were completely isolated from the rest of the soviet, no contact with extended family or the outside world, lived in a guarded area and were under a lot of scrutiny. The workers though, were compensated with good living quarters, good working environment and good pay. They felt exclusive and well taken care of. As a result they were very loyal to the program and they had in effect little to no information leaks or infiltration of the soviet nuclear program.

    Why I’m telling this? Even the soviets realized if you want people to be loyal and content you have to take care of their needs and make them feel like they’re worth something.

26. The force tell them to make money for example.

27. What exactly is their jobs if you don’t mind me asking?

28. If their work for the day is done, let them leave for the day.

29. Another pointlessly gendered question. All employees are motivated the same way. Do you believe men are fundamentally motivated differently than women in the work place? Like we men work for our pride while women work for flowers and perfume?

30. Say youll show your tits if they do a good job……

31. Performance based salary increase. If they know that working harder results in more income, they work harder.

32. Fair compensation, positive input, rewards for meeting and beating quotas. None of that “you did it, here’s a gold star sticker” bullshit

33. Establish expectations, be consistent and clear in your expectations, recognize exceeding expectations, ignore meeting expectations, and punish ignoring expectations.

    If expectations are not met, do not immediately go to punishment. Asses if your expectations are reasonable, if you have resourced your team appropriately, if the training, experience, and makeup of your team is correct.

    Trust your team. Build an environment of mutual trust and facilitate open communication and feedback. Do NOT micromanage.

    Men like clear lanes, directions, and roles. We also like an environment of open communication and trust.

34. I am personally motivated by the competency of my leaders. Show me you know what you’re doing and can do it well. Demonstrate that you can problem solve the deviations from normal. Do your best to impart your knowledge on your subordinates. I tend to be much more interested in doing a good job myself when I observe my superiors executing their duties in this manner.

    “Fluff” (parties, recognition, etc.) doesn’t do much for me. Sure it’s nice once in a while, but for the most part that’s all secondary to my first comment. No amount of fluff will mask incompetence, and it irritates me when people try to emphasize the former when they don’t have the latter. If you tell me I’m doing a good job then it better be sincere. “Hey Jim that project came together really well. It’s clear that you worked hard and produced a quality product. Good work, and thank you.”

35. Treating them like people helps.

36. How much does their gender actually have to do with their work?

37. Try to build a team.

    Talk to them every week or 2 weeks in person. Doesn’t have to be long, just ask what they are doing, what is going well, what is going bad, what is on there mind, say what the organisation is doing and tell them how you would like to organise things and discuss it.

    Talk about there strengths & weakness every few months, see if they want to work on them or not.

    Guys like performance, skill, hard work, … some just want to do a minimal job and go home.

    But that is your team of strength & weakness.

38. It’ll depend heavily on your field, but having worked under several female bosses my primary complaint, is if I ask a yes or no question, the only acceptable answers are yes, no, or I don’t know. It’s ok to not know, it’s great to offer your help to find out, but if you answer a completely unrelated question or tell me a load of information that I didn’t ask for, it ends up a waste of time.

    I haven’t had this experience with all of my female bosses, but it’s a problem I’m currently addressing with my boss.

39. Money. Give me a path to make more of it instead of this 3%/year shit.

40. Learn how to speak “man”. If a group of men come together to build a deck, they don’t excessively praise each other. When they’re finished, they stand back and look at the finished work without speaking, usually nodding their heads.

    When you notice a man doing good work, walk up beside him, look at the task he’s doing. When he looks at you, look him in the eyes and nod a few times. Say “good work”, maybe a light slap on the shoulder blade, then walk away.

    If someone catches an error, you give a nod, a fist bump, say “great catch” and walk away.

    None of this should be excessively loud or demonstrative. This is not a spectacle, but a quiet acknowledgement of professionalism.

    I work in QC and my greatest assets are the men who bring issues to my attention. There is a quiet trust between us. One that I built recognizing their work ethic and attention to detail.

41. Have their back. Show that you’re not just a corporate bot trying to squeeze as much out of them as possible, but that you’re a part of the team and are willing to go to bat for them. It’s a fine line of representing the company while taking care of your employees at the same time, while not allowing them to walk all over you. You don’t need to know their jobs better than them, you just need to show that you’ve got their backs when it counts in order to get their respect. Money is a good motivator, potential for advancement is even better, but not wanting to let down someone you respect is the best.

    This is based on my own personal experience from years of managing a department.