If the theme of this article, motivation at work, has caught your eye or is making you lose sleep, you may be asking yourself one of two things: “how can I motivate other people at work?” or even, “how can I myself become more motivated at work?”
These questions arise for several reasons and in different moments of our career. It may be that you are going through a period of lack of motivation or maybe even realize that there is something important that you need to accomplish, and to achieve such a goal, you will need motivated people.
It doesn’t matter the reason! What really matters is that motivation at work is something that directly affects the quality of your life and without it your daily work becomes more difficult and painful, as you may already be experiencing….
I’ve already been in your shoes, and will certainly find myself in that place again, so I’ve decided to share some suggestions on what you can do to improve motivation at work. I will address this topic in three separate articles: in this first one I will 15 give tips on how to motivate others, in the second I will give another 10 tips, and in the third, I will suggest what you can do to increase your own level of motivation, okay? So, let’s get down to work.
There are a few factors whose presence in your daily work causes lack of motivation in people. They constitute a negative source that are a constant drain of your team’s energy. Although their elimination won’t complete motivate someone, your first step should be to identify them and help your team reduce or eliminate each one of these factors.
Some examples include inadequate or frozen wages, insufficient and/or fewer fringe benefits when compared to those of the competitors, poor working conditions, difficult relationships with bosses and peers, inadequate internal policies, excessive bureaucracy and so on.
I remember one time when I hired an excellent executive who had been unemployed for a year and was very happy about the possibility of going back to work. He soon proved to be even more capable and well prepared than I had imagined, taking on more and more responsibilities. However, he became demotivated when he found out he was earning less than other executives in the company.
We would talk about it almost every week and, although he was aware of his decision to accept the job initially and that we could not change the situation in the short term, he only felt happier about it at the time of the annual wage review a few months later, when we were able to sort out the situation. During all that time, that issue was a thorn in his side, which prevented him from doing his best and from enjoying a better quality of life at work.
This point is critical when dealing with a team of professionals. There is nothing more harmful to a relationship among people from the same team than a boss who treats them differently, who uses double standards when evaluating each worker. The same is true if you treat them with disrespect or even if you criticize them disrespectfully when they make mistakes and fail to praise them when they do a good job.
If the team feels that you are fair when you praise or criticize them and that you treat everyone equally and without prejudice, regardless of hierarchy, gender, race or social status, you will gain their respect and admiration. Few people actually behave this way and it is an opportunity for you to make a difference in your favour.
Colleagues chatting (Photo: Anna Vander Stel / Unsplash)
Nothing is more special to an employee than when their boss takes an interest in subjects that are important to the worker, but are not necessarily related to the activity they perform. Asking them if they’re okay, how their weekend was, how their son’s party went or how their son did in the swimming competition. This shows your interest in the human being before you and not only in the worker you hired. The secret here is that it should be genuine and real. Otherwise, forget it!
I once had a director who, knowing that this concern was important, asked his secretary to prepare a list of the employee’s birthdays. Every day he would go down to the factory floor, something he never did, and go around the departments asking: “Does a Mr. So-and-so work here?” When the worker showed up, he would ask: “Are you So-and-so?” After confirming that he was indeed the worker, he would cross out his name on his clipboard, and briefly wish him a happy birthday. Hours later, when crossing paths with that same employee in the cafeteria, he would not even look at him, showing that he didn’t even remember who he was. That’s not what we’re talking about!
Perhaps this is a tip that seems as easy as it is difficult to actually apply. It is about giving decision-making power to your subordinates. I’m talking real trust here. That is, to leave in the hands of the people actions that, if well done, will all profit from it but that, if poorly done, all in the team will perish from it as well.
There is nothing more pleasant and exhilarating for a team member to realize that you have delegated to him a greater responsibility and that from now on you are both available to help him and also cheering for him to perform well. At the same time, he also needs to understand that you will not be interfering or checking on his work every step of the way. Empowering your team is an act of trust that produces extraordinary mid- and long-term results in terms of motivation at work.
It is very different to an employee’s motivation when he receives an assignment, where someone tells him exactly how he should perform it, from a situation in which he has the possibility to define which activities are to be performed and in what form.
It is clear, however, that things need to happen inside an organization and that people cannot always decide what they want to do or how they want to do it. The secret here therefore is to work together: engage them, ask their opinion and build with them. By doing this, you will see that team motivation will be much greater.
Clarifying goals (Photo: Cecilie Arcurs / iStock)
Not knowing how the organization is doing can be a very negative factor for the motivation of the team. If you are the CEO, general manager or commander of the organization, you will have the complete scenario and you can position your direct reports on the future of the organization. If this is not your case, you also run the risk of being immersed in daily activities and processes for a long time without knowing “how the company is doing”.
This is also true for the members of your team. Sharing with them the situation of the organization as a whole helps to give them a better understanding of the environment around them, providing more security and confidence while helping them recognize if they are all on track. Failure to do so can cause a lot of unnecessary insecurity and fear.
It is very difficult for a person to feel motivated when they do not know what is expected from them or what they are expected to achieve. On the other hand, when you make clear what you expect from each team member and what goals they need to achieve, it is much easier for each person to understand how well or badly they are doing and to know they can talk to you or to colleagues and ask for help if necessary. It is very stimulating for people to exceed their targets and the first step on this path is to communicate clearly where they should get to.
Soldier at attention (Photo: Mtmcoins / iStock)
I once had the opportunity to witness the commander of a training school for Sergeants in the Armed Forces approaching a group of students attending the course for Corporals. As the main mission of the school was the graduation of Sergeants, who are of a higher rank than Corporals, this group was usually marginalized among the students of the school.
For over an hour, I saw the Commander use his experience to talk to those students and show them the importance of Corporals to the Air Force and explain that without them, there would be no planes available to fly. The result in the troop’s morale was incredible and those future Corporals who were already there to advance their careers began to feel even more relevant to the military organization and even more motivated to fulfill their mission.
It is of little use to be aware of your targets and to have clear goals if along the way you are not clear on how you are marching. Am I doing things correctly or not? Am I closer to the target or not? Regular feedback, even if in small and simple doses, helps your team understand this and gives them more confidence and helps to improve motivation at work.
This type of interaction allows people to be closer to you, to talk things over and ask for guidance. Make sure you do not only give feedback in the formal annual evaluation. This way, you’ll be giving up a valuable tool to motivate the people who work with you.
There is nothing more stimulating for a team member than to be complimented and publicly acknowledged for a job well done. Although it is something they expect, by receiving this recognition people are assured they are doing the right thing and working properly and correctly.
On the other hand, when they fully dedicate themselves and no one recognizes their achievements, the result can be morally devastating. If you are that kind of person, who does not recognize and congratulate the people on your team, do not expect good long-term performance…
Another blunder is to criticize or berate team members in public. Never do that! The result is bad not only for that person’s motivation, but for everyone on the team, since they will know that if they make a mistake they may be the next one to face embarrassing exposure.
If, however, they make serious mistakes and you call them for a private talk, guiding them on how to improve, they will feel very grateful for not being publicly exposed. They will also feel that you are there to help them at a bad time, which generates not only more motivation at work but also increases their loyalty to you.
I once experienced this myself when I inadvertently bypassed my boss and cancelled a deadline he had with another director, which impacted the whole schedule of a joint project between our two departments. At that time my boss invited me to a meeting room and told me that he was always available to me and that in making such a decision as this, he should have been be involved. He asked me to proceed in this manner when it happened again.
I was grateful that he had not embarrassed me in public, and my admiration for him increased even more when I learned that when he was surprised by the other director’s complaint, he acted as if the decision had been his and I had just been the messenger.
Happy hour (Photo: Vadimguzhva / iStock)
It’s great to celebrate and everyone likes to do so. It does not have to be just those formal celebrations, after a big successful project or as the result of a whole year; after all, although important, they only happen once in a while. Small victories, if remembered, emphasized and celebrated generate a lot of motivation at work for the people on your team.
A pat on the back, a congratulatory coffee, a happy hour to celebrate a birthday. Take every opportunity to reinforce achievements and encourage the team’s good work. The secret here is to celebrate small achievements consistently, as this generates a desire among the team to always strive for more and encourages them to keep up their commitment.
This is one of the most powerful tips not only to motivate people but to motivate them to work with you. You know that manager or director that says, “I won’t hold down any member of my team if a good opportunity comes up”? Well, that’s not enough.
People are extremely motivated to grow in their careers, and if they realize that your objective is to help them achieve this, you will be perceived as someone who helps people to grow. With time, word spreads throughout the organization and you will have a long line of good professionals wanting to work with you. Better yet, the people who have been on your team will feel grateful and always motivated to continue to help you.
Learning new things (Photo: Štefan Štefančík / Unsplash)
The effect of this tip is similar to the previous one: by learning new things, people feel better trained professionally, better prepared, and closer to advancing their careers. Even if other things are lacking at work, the simple fact of learning something new generates personal and professional growth, and that alone is a great motivator.
How many times have you noticed an unmotivated colleague and asked him over a cup of coffee why this was so and heard the comment that he felt “stuck”, that “he never learns anything new”. That’s what I’m talking about. Be recognized as someone who encourages and facilitates people to learn and you can be sure that there will be a lot of good people motivated to come and work with you.
Several companies create wellness programs, such as working out in gyms, healthy snacks at work, breaktime, among others to improve employee motivation and performance.
The problem is that the organization culture does not always allow people to really take care of themselves and the benefits imagined do not happen. Your mission here is simple: get your team’s microculture to help people take care of themselves.
I remember when I took on a team that was exhausted, and I said immediately that I would teach them to work well, to perform well and to leave on time. At first they were kind of skeptical towards me, even though that was their dream. I deployed a new way of working (prioritizing activities, empowering people and supporting them with deadlines with other departments), and over time, what I said would happen actually happened.
Within a short period of time, the team became a role model and object of envy in the department. I remember as if it was today the joyful, proud faces we had the day we went out to lunch and didn’t come back to work. Each one went their own way to do their personal things that day, since we had completed every single tasks planned for that department on time!
Cover photo credit – Boy having ice cream (Photo: Jared Sluyter / Unsplash)
