Who Doesn't Want a More Motivated Team?

For those of us engaged in business, there is one subject that seems to be on our minds every day, every hour, perhaps even every minute - "Motivation." As a leader, you are always thinking about it and always being asked about it by your boss. How is the team's morale? What do you need to motivate your team? (Your boss asking you this question is not to be confused with making any promises about giving you what you ask for, of course!)

Even when your team does have motivation, you want more or you want to channel that motivation more effectively -- and in the right direction. If you don't have motivation, you are wiling to do anything short of (insert choice of felony here) to get it! In this article, I will focus on strategies for leaders and managers to use in motivating others. Since we can't do it all on our own, motivating your people is critical to success. (I understand that this observation doesn't come to you as a "news flash," of course!) I also believe these principles and tips will be invaluable in helping you to motivate yourself. Before we discuss these strategies however, I want to share a few building blocks to get you into the right mindset.

Here is the rub. Ultimately, you can't really motivate someone else over the long haul. They have to find the motivation inside themselves. (I touch on this point a little later in this article.) You can motivate them for a day or a week or so, but that motivation is likely to fade very quickly in a flurry of meetings, emails, personal issues, etc. In my experience, the best approach you can take as a leader or manager is to create the right environment for your team to succeed, give them every opportunity to motivate themselves, and then help see why they should do it and why all this effort will be worth it. Work is hard even when you love what you're doing. Achieving and even exceeding goals (when possible) is hard and even harder when you are counting on others to see it through, just as we all do. To motivate people to do the job, task, or project and do it well, your team has to do it all -- the easy stuff, the hard stuff, and the monotonous, tedious stuff, not just the fun and exciting stuff. All of it has to be done equally well for the project to really succeed. If the individuals can't find the motivation to do it and maintain it, then the team's results won't be as good as they could otherwise be.

The other principle that is critical to keep in mind is that every situation is "motivationally neutral." We have the habit of looking at things as "motivators" or "de-motivators." Actually, there is no such thing. For a situation to be one or the other all depends upon your perspective. Some of you cynics out there are probably saying, "Bill, that sounds like you're saying a situation is good or bad purely depending upon the way you 'spin it.'" That is what I'm saying, but I'd like to point out that the idea of "spinning it" gets a bad rap. I'm not encouraging you to pretend that some issue or challenge isn't hard. Instead, I want to urge you to look for the upside or opportunity in a challenging situation. Here is an example.

The legendary Harry Houdini started out as magician, and evidently not a very good one. Since traditional magic wasn't working for him, he changed his act and cut back on the card tricks and sawing his wife in half every night. He shifted his focus, and became a world famous escape artist. I think everyone knows just how successful Houdini became after that shift in focus.

Houdini faced a situation that was neither motivating nor de-motivating. It was just a situation. Some people (perhaps many people) would probably see the situation as a de-motivator, but other people -- frequently the more successful people -- wouldn't see it that way. Instead, they would use the situation to move on and get past the challenges. They found something in the situation that motivated them.

Now, let's talk about how you can motivate your people:

Know Your People. You have to know your people. It's not just about the basic easy questions or observation, although there is a place for that. To really help a person motivate him or herself, you need to understand them and know what's most meaningful to them. Do they like public praise or do they shun the spotlight? Do they like having a lot of things on their plate at one time, or do they want to handle one thing at a time? If they don't like the spotlight, for example, you have to dig and find why. Then, you can find the most appropriate way to recognize that person's efforts. You need to know what does and doesn't drive them, in order to help them find a strong enough reason to do it. If they can't come up with a good enough reason for self-motivation, help them. I remember reading about a car repair shop that faced this kind of challenge. The manager of the repair shop felt that the work of his repairmen was slow and shoddy. To help motivate his people, he learned what was important to his employees, and he reminded them each and every day how they were making people lives better and keeping kids safe as a result of their great repair work.

Get Them Fully Engaged. It's hard for people to stay motivated if they don't think they have the ability to influence the impact on a project or the final outcome. Most people want to share their ideas, suggestions or approaches. If all you do is tell people what to do and how to do it, you are not maximizing your team's potential and they feel less engaged. They may give you what you want, and you may even get more than you expected, but they still will not contribute everything they would have if they had felt truly empowered.

Be Specific. Although I just cautioned against spoon feeding your people, you should still make sure there is no confusion about what needs to be done and what the end game is. You can leave the strategy open to suggestions, but make sure it is clear what they are working towards to start. When you have 5, 20, or even 100 people working for you there is a lot of room for misinterpretation. You can avoid this problem by being very clear about what you want and need. If there are behaviors that need to change, clearly and openly talk about those issues. If the team tends to rely too much on anecdotal information, then require more fact-based recommendations.

Live up to your end of the deal. If you are asking people to step up and work hard for you, don't let them down. If they are asking for information, get it to them on time -- and get it to them early if possible. If you have promised to give them the time to do what they need, don't bog them down with extra meetings, projects or "busy work" you don't want to do or don't think you have the time to do. When it's "crunch time," your team doesn't have time for this extraneous work either, so do it yourself. If there are people hurting the team and everyone knows it then get these difficult people on board or get them out of the process.

Track and Celebrate Progress. Know what is going on. Nothing is more effective in moving people to action and keeping them going than a feeling that progress is being made. At the same time, nothing will kill momentum quicker than the boss being clueless about progress. If a person or your team asks for an update, you'd better be able to provide that update right there on the spot or in less than 5 minutes. If your response is, "I haven't checked the numbers in a few days" or "I'm not sure, but I'll email you something in the next couple of days, that's a very bad sign. You also can't recognize extra effort or progress if you don't know what is going on. If your team is ahead of plan by a percent or two earlier than you expected or if part of a project will be completed a few days ahead of an important deadline, celebrate that. You can't celebrate this progress, if you haven't been tracking it - and make sure that you don't just celebrate at the end of the project. Find opportunities to celebrate even small milestones along the way.

Use energy wisely. If you need to encourage people to tackle the less desirable parts of the assignment or activities they find very challenging, make these demands when they are at their best and when they have a lot of energy. None of us want to be forced to tackle something we feel is a weakness or want to be asked to come through at a time when our energy is at low ebb. For some of you, that time of low energy might be right after lunch during a "food coma" or after a couple of tough meetings. Make it a point to tackle the tough stuff when you are at your peak energy level or when you feel especially good -- like after receiving some recognition, giving a good presentation, or receiving a positive progress report.

Show your team that it can be done and will be worth the effort. It can be very useful to point to examples of other teams that have faced a similar challenge and come through with flying colors. I recently read about a manager who wanted his team to see that they could be a high-performing team. He made arrangements to have two of his people work on a high-performing team for three weeks. As a result, their experience extended beyond simply hearing that challenging results could be achieved. They saw firsthand that it could be done, and even participating in the experience. Also, getting your team to understand the specific results of successfully completing the project can be invaluable -- whether those benefits come in the form of profit sharing, recognition from the rest of the company, or some other reward.

I realize that these concepts just scratch the surface of this important topic. I'd like to hear your thoughts and experiences with respect to motivation. Please contact me through my blog or by sending me an e-mail note. I look forward to sharing your comments with the rest of our community in a future issue of this monthly newsletter.