How often have you heard observations like “my people don’t seem to be fully engaged” or, “my team needs more energy”? While the symptoms of a team lacking engagement and energy may be easy to identify, practical solutions that are easy to implement are hard to find. I did a Google search on “motivating teams” and the top results included: “25 Ways to Motivate Your Team to Greatness”, “15 Effective Ways to Motivate Your Team”, and “10 Unique Ways to Motivate Your Team”. In my experience leading many dozens of teams over the past 25-plus years, and talking with hundreds of team leaders, is that we are regularly asked to do the equivalent of changing tires on a car while driving at high speed. I don’t know about you, but doing 25, 15, or 10 different things to improve motivation just isn’t going to happen.
Motivation at Work
From a behavioral science perspective, a simple (but not very practical) description of motivation is that it is ‘energy that is directed by our thoughts and feelings. When applied to the world of work, where people are oriented toward taking action to achieve specific outcomes, the phenomenon of motivation helps us understand what drives individuals and teams. One of the most widely tested and cross-culturally validated frameworks of motivation at work, Self-Determination Theory, was developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (1985). Self-Determination Theory is a framework of motivation that describes the conditions under which people realize their potential and optimize their development and performance. In their work, Deci and Ryan identified people’s basic psychological needs for purpose, competence, and autonomy in their work. Understanding these core needs is the key to improving the motivation and well-being of your team.Motivating Your Team – Three Actions
The core psychological needs of purpose, competence, and autonomy are universal and cross-cultural. Fulfillment of those needs is fundamental to fueling motivation at work and driving individual and team performance. As a team leader, focus on the following three actions and you will increase the levels of energy, engagement, and well-being of your team:
- Find purpose. Ensure that every team member has a clear purpose. Finding meaning and purpose in our work is at the heart of positive energy and motivation. Make sure that there is clarity in how each team member’s work contributes to the purpose and goals of the team, the broader organization, and the aspirations of the individual.
- Develop competencies. Identify and invest in the competencies and skills that each team member needs in order to realize the purpose of his or her role. There is a strong relationship between competencies, confidence, and results. Invest in developing the capabilities that lead to your team having confidence in their ability to win.
- Foster autonomy. Give each team member the level of freedom to do his or her role that is consistent with their competencies. Ensure that team members have the freedom to determine how to deliver results. This autonomy is essential to keeping talented people energized and engaged.
Satisfying People’s Basic Needs
Find purpose, develop competencies, and foster autonomy. Those basic psychological needs reflect decades of research into human motivation and the essence of motivation at work. From a practical perspective, you can easily work those needs into your regular conversations with each team member. The key is balancing them. If you allow imbalance, say not giving a highly-competent person the autonomy to pursue their purpose, you are micro-managing. Or, if you are giving a team member too much autonomy without clear purpose and sufficient skills, that is likely to lead to stress and burnout. In both cases, the imbalance will cause motivation to deteriorate. To create balance, think of the three actions as representing the sides of an equilateral triangle. By developing the habit of identifying gaps in the length of the sides of the triangle through team member conversations and feedback, and taking steps to close those gaps and bring the three sides back into balance, you will improve motivation and well-being without having to change more tires at high speed.
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Image Copyright: March 30, 2013 REUTERS/Mohamed Al Hwaity
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