Forget Raises -- Here's What Employees Really Want From You

I found a club we all would like to join: The approximately 115,000 U.S. households that have fortunes worth over $25 million.

Or maybe not.

According to researchers at Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, many of the super-rich are deeply unhappy and feel their wealth has contributed to significant anxiety and stress regarding love, work, and family. (Have to admit I didn't see that coming.)

Worse, most respondents don't feel financially secure. They want more. A lot more. Just like the rest of us.

And just like your employees -- even though studies show, for example, that pay increases only serve as a short-term performance motivator.
If money is not a long-term motivator, what is?

You: What you say, what you do, and how you treat your employees, each and every day.

So instead of simply hoping pay increases will produce results, add a different approach to your motivational toolkit. Give the reward of caring -- and delivering.

Here's how. Today, ask an employee for one simple thing you could do to make their job better. Cure a nagging problem. Take care of a continual headache. Remove a roadblock. Eliminate a task no one cares about anyway. Get past, "But that's how we do things... and besides, it's your job," and make a small difference.

And above all, don't make the employee be part of the solution -- take care of the issue for them.

All you have to do is ask what could be better, take responsibility for making it better, and most importantly deliver.

That's a reward that truly will make a real difference to your employees, creating a lasting effect on how they view their jobs, how they view themselves... and how they view you.

Related:

• 7 Things Employees Are Thinking -- But Won't Say
• 5 Great Leadership Lessons You Don't Want to Learn the Hard Way
• The Fine Art of Praising Employees