The 5 simplest ways to motivate your teams..

Andy McComments off.

As leaders, we all want employees with a natural degree of self-motivation, a colleague which occasionally we have to reign in rather than be constantly pushing forward. Unfortunately, most of us learn that this isn’t how many people operate. The nature of professional employment is to be asked to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do (which is why we pay our colleagues), and that means a lot of people sleepwalking, going through the paces and doing just enough to earn their monthly pay and little else. Our core task as leaders is to help bridge that gap for our teams, helping them to get from “I guess this is good enough” to “I really need to achieve and do a great job here” by inspiring and motivating them.

But motivating colleagues can be challenging! If you’re naturally lucky, some will naturally be self-motivated and eager to jump into any task at full speed, but some will require you to do something more than directing them, to get the best outcome. This isn’t your colleagues’ fault. They’re not lazy, they’re not demotivated, they’re just people.

Our job as leaders is to help them become motivated by making their work more meaningful to them. You, as their leader, need to change how you assign tasks. You need to make sure that every employee understands why the work is meaningful, feels engaged, has flexibility, and makes a specific commitment.

#1:  Make the “why” meaningful to individuals and your teams

Your colleagues need a reason to work hard. And “because I said so” isn’t a good reason. I know many managers who say that the salary is enough, but expecting an employee to go that extra mile just because they’re getting paid is naive and unrealistic. It’s natural for people to cut corners and take shortcuts unless they have a good reason not to.

If you want your teams to give the effort required for motivated, consistent achievement, you need to be able to explain, in a way can be easily understood, why the work is important and why doing a great job is important. Why is this task being done? How is it helping the organisation? How is it helping our customers? Is it saving time/money or increasing efficiency?

Colleagues need a reason to care. They need a reason to give more than a minimum effort on things you’re asking them to do. And the reason has to be meaningful to them. Do you know what your colleagues care about? Are they competitive? Are they compassionate? Do they like feeling accomplished? Connect the work you’re asking for to things your teams care about. How are you supposed to know what they care about? Ask them!

#2: Demonstrate that you want their buy-in – and mean it!

Nobody wants to be told what to do. Everyone wants to feel like their involvement is being requested, not mandated. Explain tasks and approaches to your team with patience. Repeat yourself if needed and be prepared to give good reasons why the task is being done. Ask for their questions, sincerely. Listen to their concerns and complaints. When they make good points, take time to consider them and revisit the conversation if you need to adjust the plan.

You need to show that you care about their buy-in. Sometimes, that means saying: “it’s important to me that I have your buy-in”. Other times, that means showing that it matters by not mandating their participation, but by explaining the task clearly and showing why it’s important. People are much more likely to do a task well if they volunteer for it themselves rather than if they’re forced into it. So by showing that their buy-in is important to you, you’re much more likely to get it.

#3: Empower them with flexibility

Allow colleagues to negotiate aspects of how the job gets done. If you give them flexibility on parts of the task that might be the most challenging for them and their skillset, then they’ll be less likely to procrastinate and skip the task altogether. You’ll be surprised how many employees skip over work because there’s one aspect of it that they feel bad, unsure or frustrated by. Find a way to give them flexibility on that part of the job. This helps with buy-in and encourages your teams to be problem solvers and part of the solution.

For teams with more natural autonomy, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the overall goal, you should consider giving them as much input as they would like. Tell them the parts that are non-negotiable, and then let them know that the rest is up to them. “[Step 1], [Step 2], and [Step 3], are the most important, everything else is up to you.” This method shows that you trust their skills and judgment, which both builds your relationship with them and gives them skin in the game.

4: Ask for an explicit commitment

What’s the one word answer most disengaged teams give when they’ve been asked to do something?

“Okay.”

This isn’t a commitment! The only thing “okay” communicates to you is to confirm that they heard what you said. You need your colleagues to make an explicit, verbal commitment to do the work you’ve assigned, especially if the work requires attention to detail or levels of complexity.

Ask your teams to repeat back to you what they’ve been asked to do and to reiterate the most important aspects (from their perspective). Then, ask them if they believe they can make a commitment to getting this work done. It seems simple, but getting your employees to make the commitment verbally is going to underscore the importance and make them feel like they’ve given a promise.

5:  Encourage happiness & remember it’s not all about work!

Happy colleagues are enthusiastic and positive team members, and their attitude is infectious. Keep an eye on whether or not your people are happy with their work, their workloads, and you.  If they’re not, you can count on this unhappiness to spread.  A cohesive team is one which feels they know each other well enough to enjoy most of the time they spend together – give individuals time to converse on a more natural, non-work level and be genuine when asking them non-work questions

Conclusion

As a leader, you ask your team members for lots of little things, so by being more intentional with important tasks, you give the assignment more weight and importance. And, if after all this your colleagues still seem reluctant, then you might have two larger problems:

1) you don’t have the right people, in the correct roles, for the task/responsibility or

2) you’re not being reasonable about what you’re asking the team members to do.

Is this assignment something you’d be willing to do if you were in their shoes? Do they have the bandwidth to complete the tasks or are your colleagues overburdened and drowning in other work? Be sure you’re plugged into your team and how they feel about their workload. If 50% or more of your department can’t seem to perform the work to your satisfaction, then you probably have a larger problem.

 

authenticity, colleagues, empowerment, happy, leaders, leadership Posted in: Culture, Leadership