To most effectively motivate your employees, you must fulfill four distinct roles:  subject matter expert, individual superstar, leader, and catalyst. 

Subject-matter expert

There are few things less motivating to employees than working for someone they perceive as not having a clue about the work being done in the department.  You must be able to see the big picture as to how the work that your employees do fits into the larger scheme of things within the company.  You must also be knowledgeable enough about the department's work to make good judgment calls.  If a problem comes up in a grey area, it is your responsibility to provide direction to your staff, which you can only do if you are well-versed in the subject matter.

While it's true you may not be able to do your staff's job tasks as quickly or easily as they do them, you must be able to perform them in a pinch.  You also must be able to train someone else how to do them in the event someone quits unexpectedly.  You must keep up on changes in the industry and within the company so you know you are providing the proper tools and equipment for your staff to be efficient. 

Another reason to be a subject-matter expert is so that you can represent your team well in meetings.  For example, if you are in a meeting to prioritize projects for the IT team, unless you know what your department does and how it does it, you are likely to let other, more well-informed managers hog all of the IT resources for their own departments, leaving you with a stone tablet and a chisel.  It's pretty hard to convince your group to enhance productivity if you can't provide them with up-to-date resources they need to excel.

Or perhaps someone from the corporate office calls you into a meeting and wants to cut staffing in your department by 15%.  You will need to know exactly what your staff is doing that justifies its existence so you can argue why the cuts are a bad idea.

I am not making this up:  I was once in a situation where I was to close an office, and I wanted to make sure I had all the bases covered as to what would have to be picked up by the manager of the office that was taking over the territory.  When I asked the manager of the soon-to-be-closed office to describe a typical day, he couldn't say more than, "Well, I get the mail every morning."  After that, he had no clue as to how he filled the rest of his day.  Seems he was either extremely forgetful or very unproductive, which was very probably the reason our corporate headquarters had decided his division was no longer needed.

Individual superstar

In the case above, it was very easy for me to understand why I didn't need this manager or his team.  He couldn't point to any numbers that indicated he was an asset to the company.  Can you?  How did your personal actions add to the bottom line of the company?  Did you bring in new business worth a certain amount of money?  Did you reduce waste?  Did you bring your company into compliance with a new law? 

It's never a bad idea to keep a running list of significant accomplishments, both for yourself and for your division.  You never know when someone will want to close out your department or buy out your company, and you will need to prove that you are vital to the continuing success of the enterprise. 

In addition, even if you are not an acquisition target, it's much easier for your employees to respect you and be motivated by you if they know you have accomplished something in your own right.  Too many managers rely on the skills of their employees to make themselves look good.  No one wants to work for someone who takes credit for the work done by the staff.

Leader

It may seem obvious that you need to be a leader, but too often, managers don't realize the difference between managing and leading.  In short, it is the difference between putting out fires as they arise and preventing fires from ever getting started. 

For example, what do you do when one of your employees becomes ill and has to take a day or two off unexpectedly?  A manager will wait until the employee calls off and then spend the first hour or so of the day re-arranging tasks so that everything gets done.  The manager may even have to pitch in to cover the open desk, leaving his managerial tasks until the next day.  A leader, on the other hand, recognizes that people do get sick every once in awhile and has a plan in place to keep the office functioning when someone has to be off.

In some cases, that might involve having a recent retiree on stand-by to come in at a moment's notice.  In other cases, it might involve having the work prioritized so that on a day when staffing is a little short, everyone in the office knows which jobs absolutely have to be done and which can be put off until the next day.  Still other companies might have a forced overtime rotation so that whoever is at the top of the list knows that there is the potential for overtime until he or she has a turn, then that person can relax while someone else takes a turn at the top of the list.

Catalyst

What is a catalyst?  In chemistry, a catalyst is s substance which enhances or speeds up the reaction between two other chemicals.  For example, when air touches steel, it can cause the steel to eventually rust, but the rusting process happens much more quickly in the presence of water.

In business, a catalyst is someone who speeds up or enhances the reaction between each employee's individual talents, the company's goals, and the customer's needs.  Working one-on-one with your employees, you must reach inside each person and draw out his or her unique talents to find out how the employee can best serve the company's interests while also meeting his or her own personal goals and ambitions.

When you take the time to get to know your employees in this way, it can be very empowering and motivational to them.  They will realize that they are appreciated and valued, and that you actually care for them not only as company assets but also as people.