Great things get done, when energy and motivation meet each other. If you can figure out what motivates others, the tasks will get accomplished faster, and the results will be better too. While motivation is like personal hygiene, wherein the individual is responsible, as a manager, you have a role to play to keep your colleagues and team members brimming with it.
People come in different shape, sizes and motivation drivers. As a manager you need to be cognizant of the diversity and that the one shoe fits all approach is doomed to fail. You can use these tips and tricks to keep your colleagues motivated.
Take help from research
While there are many theories around the top motivation drivers, Most of the researchers and industry experts agree that these are the major five ones.
- Job challenge
- Accomplishing something worthwhile
- Learning new things
- Personal development
- Autonomy
You would have noticed that friendliness; pay, praise and chances of promotion are not in the top five drivers. We tend to use these insignificant drivers more than the higher rated ones.
Use the power of goal setting
Most of the people are turned on by reasonable goals; they like to measure themselves against a standard. As humans, we like to see who can run the fastest, score the most and work the best. It’s a good idea to set stretch goals. However, they must be realistic. The idea is to make them get out of their comfort zone and set a higher benchmark for themselves and organization, for this, the results must seem achievable. If you set unrealistic goals, demotivation will set in, and the whole purpose of goal setting will be defeated.
Suspend judgment
Unless you are running a court and intend to prosecute people who don’t sound motivated, judgment calls have to be suspended. It is not important that you agree every time; you and your colleagues can agree to disagree and keep the relationship from going sour. Your motivation drivers may be very different from the ones that your colleagues may elect to have; this does not mean that they are demons, you have to respect their choice and help them feel motivated by using the means opted by them.
Give them the perspective
It may be a good idea to help your colleagues understand how you look at issues and deliverables and how do you go about planning its delivery or resolution. To work with you, your colleagues need to understand your working style and pressure points. By knowing your working style, the chances of miscommunication or misunderstanding can be minimized. Once they know your working style, you should spend time with them to share your vision or key deliverables over the next one or two years. By syncing or making them a part of your journey, you will be able to solicit their support and trust and at the same team keep them motivated.
In addition to these tips, spend time with your colleagues to figure out what drives them, the best case scenario is to have your and team’s motivation drivers aligned for a common cause.
