Highly skilled managers and team leaders recognize that when it comes to motivating employees, there is no one size that fits everyone. Every member of your team is motivated by a combination of external and internal motivators. What may work for one employee may be detrimental to an employee. Your toolkit for motivational development needs to be reviewed and refreshed often if you want to keep everyone active.
External Motivators
Consider extrinsic or external motivations as incentives that are not part of the employees’ control. In the workplace, these motivators might include benefits and compensation such as incentive and reward programs, as well as the company or departmental objectives. If a person has responsibilities for their family or responsibilities for their family, then maybe their financial needs drive them. Physical security requirements can also be considered external motivations. What degree of control do you, as a leader, control over external influences? If the answer to that is “very, very little,” then you’re in the right direction.
Internal Motivators
However, intrinsic or internal motivations can be less tangible elements such as personality and work ethic. The attitudes of authority, personal goals as well as the degree of self-esteem employees display are all “inside task.” The psychological needs of each employee determine their actions and decisions. When you think, “I do not have much control over these internal forces also,” You could be missing the opportunity to encourage your team. In reality, you’re capable of influencing individual performance by paying attention to the individual’s motivations. You can help create conditions where everyone in the team is able to satisfy their own internal motivations.
The Most Common Motivators
Within the NetSpeed Leadership training session, coaching Smart People, we conduct an exercise that requires participants to decide on their top motivations. Here is a list of motivators that participants choose their most significant motivator (you can ask your team to conduct this exercise as well):
Find adventure
Feel acknowledged
Get autonomy
Relax and feel safe
Connect with others
Find your own way to be inventive.
Be educated
Get efficient
Get experience
Get expertise
Enjoy yourself or have fun.
Promote yourself
Be recognized and be recognized and
Get rich
Make sure you score the best.
Do the things you need to do
Imagine for a second that someone on your team decides to choose the motivational person to receive appreciation. If you were to ask him, “How can you tell when you’re being appreciated,” you might hear him reply, “I like working in an environment where everyone is able to sincerely acknowledge one another. I don’t need to hear every day that I’m appreciated, but I would like to feel that what I’m doing is contributing to the overall success of the team. If I put in the effort to complete an assignment, I would like my boss to appreciate the effort, even if she must hold the project back or make me alter certain aspects of the outcome. I prefer to receive the feedback in a one-on-one manner rather instead of in a large group. I prefer having a private conversation with my team leader regarding my contribution to the company. If she says this in front of a large group, I’m actually very embarrassed, which is not an enjoyable experience.”
If one member of your team chooses to be the person who motivates them to connect with other team members, you could ask her, “What is it being connected to others?” You might hear her say, “To me, it’s the relationships between people which make work enjoyable. I’m always saying ‘the more fun, the better’ whenever there’s an opportunity to accomplish something, let’s get our hands dirty and do it together. I am a huge fan of working together with my colleagues in pursuit of important issues. I enjoy the exchange of ideas and the feeling that we’re all together. I’d hate to sit at my desk all day long without any human connection. It is a great motivator and causes me to want to sprint into work every single day.”
Maybe you have a team member who chooses to be the motivator and is acknowledged and recognized, and rewarded. You could ask him, “How do you like being recognized or rewarded?” And he could respond, “I’m constantly tracking how I’m doing in relation to my personal objectives and, more importantly, against other people. You could claim that I’m more competitive. But, as you know, work and life can be a game for me. If you put me in an event to determine who can make the most sales calls within 24 hours, I’m in. Suppose I can make the most amount of phone calls. I’d like my boss to place my name on the list as the person who came out on top of the list. I appreciate this kind of recognition from the public. If you simply bring me to your office and tell me “good job,” I’m frustrated. If I’ve done amazing work, then why don’t you tell everyone?”
For a final instance, imagine that one in your group decides to become educated. You could ask her, “What is it for you to become educated?” Then she could answer, “I guess you could say that I’m an eternal learner. I’ve earned a few university degrees and hope to start my Ph.D. in the next couple of years. I am a reader on a regular basis. If you’re looking to feel great, take me to an excellent training session, or gift me your top business book. In fact, I’m eager to get home and dive into the most recent research into the process improvement tools that we’ve implemented here. I suppose I’d like being the one who is an expert in the group.”
These are only four examples of how people might describe their primary motivations. Their descriptions ought to provide you with some suggestions on how you can motivate them.
Be Gratitude
Be sure to conclude every one-on-one session with a positive acknowledgment of his value to the team and you. Send an email to a friend or write a note of appreciation. Think about posting a sticky note on his laptop that is visible to him when he gets at his desk early at dawn. Be straightforward, sincere, and generous with your praise. It might be beneficial to invite him to a cafe or lunch and then have an intimate chat about the progress and how you can help him with the ongoing initiatives.
Connect with others
It’s all about relationships. The first step is to pay attention to the way you interact with her. Clear up any miscommunications or miscommunication that could be keeping you from having a good more time together. Let her know how much you appreciate the fact she is an active participant in the team. Make sure that she’s informed regarding goals as well as obstacles, goals, and issues. When you assign an assignment, inquire who she’d prefer to collaborate with to complete the task. Invite her to stop by to discuss problems or concerns when they arise. Introduce her to mentors and other leaders. Honor her for the strength of her interactions with coworkers, customers, and coworkers.
Be recognized and rewarded.
He’s among the most straightforward person to identify. Be sure to do it in public and frequently. He likely values plaques certificates, along with “employee of the month” prizes (as they’re perceived as valid achievements). If your job requires regular reports on deliverables, be sure that the reports are reviewed during the team’s meeting. If you send an email that praises his performance, ensure that the boss is informed in the email. Include his accomplishments and achievements in the company’s newsletter.
Learn to be educated
The most effective motivational tool for her is the chance to expand her knowledge and impart it to other people. Many times, she is regarded as “the most knowledgeable one around” she excels when it is her turn to update everyone on the latest information. You can share your most-loved books. Forward EzineArticles. You can ask her for her advice as you develop your project plans. Be sure to praise her expertise in the areas she is keen on. Allow her to conduct some background research. If she is able to write, then request her to write about the results of her research.
Whatever motivators members of your team select, there’s an opportunity to have rich discussions which will reveal what you should know about how to interact with them. This is your strategy:
1.) Set up a team meeting for the team.
2.) Request team members to pick one or two motivational factors.
3.) Have them talk about the reasons this motivator is essential to them.
4.) Set up one-on-one meetings with each participant to go into the issue.
5.) Find individual methods to motivate each individual and then test them.
6) Examine your results, and then make changes when you have learned.
The creation of a motivating workplace is among the most challenging and satisfying actions manager can undertake. The benefits for you are increased productivity, higher satisfaction at work as well as the capacity to retain the best team members.