Dear God. Nothing creative, intelligent or fun will ever happen in this room. So, what's the best way to help people to do their best work? First, never, ever, ever place "motivating" quotes on your office walls. Instead, just help people take one step forward every day. The authors in this Harvard Business Review story provide a checklist that people can use on a daily basis to see how we are doing. In an analysis of knowledge people’s diaries, the authors found that nothing contributed more to a positive inner work life (the mix of emotions, motivations, and perceptions that is critical to performance) than making progress in meaningful work. If you are motivated and happy at the end of the workday, it’s a good bet that you achieved something, however small. If you drag yourself out of the office disengaged and joyless, a setback is likely to blame. Leaders have deep influence over our colleagues' well-being, motivation and creativity. The key is to learn which actions support progress—setting clear goals, providing sufficient time and resources, and offering recognition—and which have the opposite effect. Even small wins boost inner work life tremendously. On the flip side, small losses or setbacks can have an negative effect. And the work doesn’t need to involve curing cancer in order to be meaningful. It simply must matter to the person doing it. The actions that set in motion a positive feedback loop between progress and inner work life may sound like Management 101, but it takes discipline to establish new habits. What it does NOT take is bland, reductive nonsense like this. hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of…