This is actually a subject about which I write articles every so often--Management Style.

My own motivation philosophy: If you're in a position to be motivating people in your business, that likely means that you're in a position to manage people, even if you work for someone else.

Coming out of college, I started at an entry-level hospitality job with a company that had literally only one person in 80+ office buildings throughout a major US city. I got promoted to Team Leader when my Team Leader became one of the managers The team size varied, depending on our staffing, but it was always at least six people, including me. The highest team size I ever had was 9, which was 10% of the company's business at the time. Usually, my entire team had the same company as its major client, out of different offices, working with different people.

My management style is a combination of "Management by Walking Around" and "Lead by Example." It's exactly what it says it is--I would walk around downtown and visit one or two locations every day, on a randomly rotating basis. I wanted to actually see what was happening at other locations. Since I was their supervisor, I wanted to meet their clients, because I performed the same function that the other employees did, with supervisory duties added in. Sometimes, I'd sit at their desk rather than leave it empty for 30 minutes while they went to lunch. If they had a large event and needed support planning it or during it, I was there.

I didn't get paid for that extra time--or for having lunch with an employee to see how things were going/ I worked for someone else--an Inc. 500 firm--but I treated that small portion of it like my own small business, and I had the lowest attrition rate in a company whose staff turned over completely, from top to bottom, at least once in the six and one-half years I was there.

I even did the same when I was in a conference housing management position in college, at a major state university. The residence halls became a big, 6000-bed hotel every summer with guests spread out in about 20 buildings and staff in 3/4 of them (some buildings with guest rooms had no lobbies and were unattended.). That was 24/7 every summer. And I was never afraid or shy to work side-by-side with my staff.I think over four summers (I worked there the summer after graduation) I'd been involved in training or managing a total of about 200...many came back to work for us every yea. Eight years and halfway across the country after we left there, one of my former co-workers was my best-man. (I also attended his wedding)

I got the work ethic from my two people: the first was my very first boss-when I was a teenager. I worked at a small location of one of the biggest retailers in America at the time--and she ran the store exactly the same way I wound up supervising staff in the future. She would sometimes sit and have lunch with us, sometimes relieve us for lunch, always be out on the sales floor.. Her employees were very loyal to her and our store was almost always the tops in sales in our region, beating out stores ten times its size.

My boss in college, even though working with college students in shorts & staff polo shirts, was suit & tie every day. And he wasn't above sitting at a desk in a lobby of a building, making a bed, or even vacuuming a floor.

Encourage others to devise new ways of doing things and be ready to reward for a job well done--it can be as simple as a certificate of a recognition. You'd be surprised what a simple piece of paper can do.

After reading Wikipedia's entry, it appears as if my management style, while it had qualities unique to me, was similar to Hewlett-Packard's philosophy:
"Active strategic management required active information gathering and active problem solving. In the early days of Hewlett-Packard (H-P), Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett devised an active management style that they called management by walking around (MBWA). Senior H-P managers were seldom at their desks. They spent most of their days visiting employees, customers, and suppliers. This direct contact with key people provided them with a solid grounding from which viable strategies could be crafted. The MBWA concept was popularized in 1985 by a book by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin.23 Japanese managers employ a similar system, which originated at Honda, and is sometimes called the 3 G's (Genba, Genbutsu, and Genjitsu, which translate into “actual place”, “actual thing”, and “actual situation”)."

My boss at the first professional job even gave me a copy of Peters & Waterman's iconic management book, "In Search of Excellence," lists eight key principles, all of whivh I've unknowingly used along the way to where I am now.:

"Peters and Waterman found eight common themes which they argued were responsible for the success of the chosen corporations. The book devotes one chapter to each theme.

1. A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control
2. Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.
3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.
4. Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.
5. Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.
6. Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.
7. Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.
8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.

Read that book and Donald Trump's Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life." (I've read that one four times cover to cover, every word. Most people only know him from The Apprentice, but I grew up in NJ watching NYC television when he got his own start in real estate. (You can see a little about that in the link in the sources.) He was always well known since I was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. The book talks about how to overcome obstacles and the people who say you'll fail, and discusses how he started The Trump Organization with one phone call. (I subsequently started a business the same way). Unabridged version--don't leave anything out. Co-written with Bill Zanker, founder of the Learning Annex, but the book is decidedly Trumpesque. Click here for a preview of Chapter One:
http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=9780061547836&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true&excerpt=true

Good luck.

Be positive, don't put your employees down. Reward good behavior, and be friendly with your workers so that they do not want to let you down by doing a poor job. Emphasize the importance in their work, and let them own whatever they are working on so that it is their responsibility from start to finish.

Spending time customers who appreciate our products and services motivates us.

Hope this helps:

Give candy to a baby and they won't cry
Reward your employees and they stay a loong time. they'll be happier in work and so try harder in it. same with school really. if you've got a good teacher, everyone has a heck of a good time. you got the head of behaviour.....not so much.

It is not the good but the most important factor of success. Motivation is a way to retain top performers and to attract new employees. Money and incentives not all time work for the employee satisfaction, there are many intrinsic or inner aspects that must be considered. Employees which are motivated and have learning opportunities are more satisfied internally as well as externally.
I think motivation is a kind of 'building trust' and 'practice of increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy'. Sometimes employees feel insecure or avoid doing some extra because of lacking trust and confidence. With the help of motivation, you can solve these issues and increase employees morale and confidence level.
Some tips that I think best work for raising up motivation.
1- Proper communication System. Employees are communicated well.
2- Developing a learning environment
3- Frequent meeting with employees and providing feedback to employees on their performance couple of times a year
4- Friendly environment and recreational activities for employees.
5- Employee participation, recognize them on little efforts and listen and work on their creative ideas.
6- Work life balance, provide flexibility in job timings, if they need.

My example is of something tangible you can do to create motivation.

Community events that everyone can participate in is movivating, and creates a closer knit organiziation.

I LOVED pot lucks at my old job. At the job I have now, we haven't had a pot luck in years. We have recently had a company sponsored luncheon though, those come around once, twice maybe three times a year at most. And it's nice, because you get to see the people you work with outside of their position, and see how they are.

I was an in-house consultant to management on improving the way the company did its work.

Walking down the hall, I saw the Exec's secretary posting the "Department of the week" as determined by milestones completed ahead of schedule or by the development of a money-saving work innovation. "You do know that John and I think we are bribing people to do the job they are getting paid to do." she told me. I asked her when did she do something just to get a piece of stale sheet cake. These folks were receiving acknowledgment for doing thei r work.. Later, this exec was named buy the project team for the coffee hour reception. His secretary called me to the conference room. Looking around, the Exec did not recognize the department being honored. The room was full of all his section heads. Finally the assistant project manager thanked the Exec and named him "team of the week.". I was sitting close enough to see him choke up. No one had ever told him "thanks and well-done." This Exec was an ogre to work for - until that day.