Teambuilding expert and business consultant, Peter B. Grazier once said, “Employees want to contribute with their minds and abilities. They only have to be asked.” No one starts out wanting to be mediocre. We each have an innate desire to please, to excel at something. So why then do so many employees seem to work beneath their potential? More importantly, how can managers and employers turn under-performing employees into high performing ones? Here are ten ways to do just that.

1. Find out what motivates your employees. To do this, you must first discover what people value. Until you get in touch with what people perceive as valuable, you'll never be able to motivate them effectively. Don’t be fooled – it’s not always more money either.

2. Give employees a reason why. Managers and employers are often good at telling their employees “what” to do, but seldom give them a compelling reason “why” they are doing it and why it is important. Busy managers often resort to “Do it because I say so” mentality treating their employees like disobedient children in need of reproof.

3. Make a way “up”. Develop your employees. Find out their career goals and aspirations and help them achieve them. Why would someone want to excel at a “dead end” job? Would you?

4. Be a leader – not a dictator. Demand best from your employees, but develop them in order for them to make good decisions. This will instill in them a sense of ownership and confidence in organization.

After two years in business, she was still networking with wrong people. As a project management consultant, her ideal target market consists of large corporations with a designated budget for managing processes in their company. The problem is, she isn't talking to right people.

"I feel absolutely defeated. I'm not sure I can do this anymore. Maybe I should be selling something completely different. People either want what I offer but don't want to pay for it or they don't see value in what I offer. I meet prospects at networking meetings and call them to set up a meeting. Then I spend a day researching their industry, so that I can speak intelligently during meeting. Then on day of meeting, I spend half a day driving to and from their office. Within next few days, I put together a proposal for them and send it off. Then I follow-up with them every week to see if they want to move forward with project."

I felt need to jump in. "Okay, can I stop you for a minute? It sounds like you're spending a lot of time up-front. Let's say it takes you 3 hours to drive to/from and attend a networking event, 30 minutes to follow-up with a prospect to set up a meeting, 4 hours to research their industry to prepare for meeting, 4 hours to drive to/from and attend meeting, 3 hours to put together a proposal, and 1 hour to follow-up several times. That's 15 1/2 hours pursuing one prospect."

"And biggest issue here is that they may or may not end up being a qualified prospect because it doesn't sound like you spend any time during your initial conversation making sure they want your service, can afford your service and are person to make decision to purchase your service."

Laura was floored. "I never even thought about it that way. I just need to get more business, so I feel like I need to be out there meeting people and at least getting chance to send them a proposal. I don't really have anything else to do at my office sometimes. If I wasn't doing this, what would I do all day?"

Like Laura, many early-stage business owners feel better if they are busy, making calls, going to networking events, meeting clients, doing proposals, etc. But if you're staying busy just to stay busy, you end up spending a lot more hours working for a lot less money which usually results in feeling need to put in even more hours to make business "work."