Motivate Staff To Increase Productivity Than Training Them — Dr Richardson

A Management Development Educator and Consultant, Dr Pikay Richardson has advised Ghanaian business owners and leaders to use motivation to increase productivity rather than using training.

According to him, although training “is a necessary condition”, it was not a prerequisite to increasing productivity.

He explained that productivity could be increased only when workers are motivated by their leaders or managers.

Dr Richardson made the remarks when he delivered an open lecture at the African University College of Communication (AUCC) on Monday on the theme: “Running a business in today’s world: what it takes”.

The lecture, attended by students from the Business School of the university as well as lectures and administrators was held at the Sam Jona School of Business at the university.

This is the second time the lecture has been organised by the faculty to bring experts opinions on best practices in business administration.

Dr Richardson explained that no matter the quality of training workers are given, if workers are not motivated, their training would not reflect in their output.

He said well-motivated staff was key ingredients to increasing productivity in any business entity, hence the need for business owners and leaders to motivate their staff.

He expressed the worry that many business owners had invested heavily on training while their staff are left unmotivated.

Dr Richardson, who is currently a visiting Senior Fellow at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, said “success does not come from magic; it comes from hard work and determination”.
"If you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting what you keep getting", he said.

He said often times, workers did not even understand the bigger vision and mission of the organisations they work for.

According to him, the fast-changing behaviours of consumers has become necessary for business owners to adopt new ways of meeting the needs of their customers.

Dr Richardson explained that businesses that are not proactive would fade out in the changing competitions in the business world, noting that it would only take innovative business managers to survive under the turbulent business environment.

He was of the view that business owners should not only think about their traditional competitors but to find out what could possibly become a competitor in future to their business and adopt new technologies to meet such competitions.

According to him, competition could come from anywhere and not just the known competitors, explaining that many big companies had collapsed as a result of lack of innovation.

He said success in business is never permanent, saying “if you are successful today, you have to work to sustain it because success is not permanent".