Some times leaders may question if motivating employees is really their responsibility or important enough to invest in as they may feel all people should be self motivated.Remember the old saying-"Emotions control Behaviors and Behaviors control Results!" Emotions can be fragile and be negatively impacted when the company has to restructure, the salaries have been frozen, the boss is critical of your work. Now may be time, if high employee performance is important to your company, to consider how to encourage and motivate high performance in your employee. In interesting research by Jim Kouze and Barry Posner they asked an important question. Approx 60% responded "Yes".Similarly, if we look at and study mastery and excellence in the skills required to perform at high levels we begin to understand this usually come from a willingness to repeat time and time again menial tasks or activities that don't always create a lot of excitement and passion.In another study by Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Author of Positivity she indicates that employees need a minimum ratio of 3:1 positive versus negative feedback in order to be engaged and perform at their best!To a large extent motivation is an emotional experience transmitted through leadership and resonance not instructions or mandated by the company and management or written up in the employee handbook.Another excellent means of motivating your team is to encourage, nurture and reinforce these desired behaviors and attitudes.If you feel it can help perhaps it would be worthwhile to review current motivation levels in your workforce and examine what motivational strategies can help your team get to the next level of performance!Without real motivation to engage the problems that make up the work we do or encouragement of employees to exert the full effort necessary to resolve them, nothing gets done well or at least not to the highest possible potential.Given how busy, exhausted and stressed people are already in their careers is it realistic to tackle these challenges as simply part of their daily routine?In short these functions take a lot of plain hard work and in many cases people wont make the effort or at least not to the full extent of their capability without some form of motivation.Are there any challenges, problems or difficulties where employee motivation could help resolve or create solutions?The process of solving these problems can be tedious, long, boring, complicated and fraught with difficulty.Our species tends to be lazy and clever, when someone else wants us to do something we have no personal incentive or desire to accomplish.Now I am sure some managers feel that this is simply their job and they therefore must complete assignments as required and almost all employees will but perhaps this does not elicit their best effort or possibly their mind is elsewhere and not focused on the job at hand.This was below their expectations so the questions was rephrased to "When you get encouragement does it help you perform at your best?" In this case the response was an overwhelming 98% answering "Yes".Consequently they may not invest time, resources or capital in specifically motivating employees.One effective way to motivate your team is to show employees what it looks like to feel motivated-show them what you want their behavior to look like.Model the enthusiasm and determination that you want them to express.Do you believe motivation is important in your workplace?"Do you need encouragement to do your best?""Lead by Example!"