Motivated employees are vital to the success of any organization. Leaders at every level must be able to motivate their team members to reach the highest possible levels of creativity and productivity. Leaders who know how to motivate others are able to engage their team members so they are satisfied and appropriately challenged by the work they perform.
Motivation requires finding a stimulus, or motive, for an action. A motive is an internal reason or purpose behind people behaving in certain ways. Leaders must search for what drives, inspires, and excites a person to determine the reasons for his or her behavior.
Motivating others comes with two challenges:
- Motivation varies greatly from person to person.
- Keeping others motivated in the presence of obstacles can be difficult.
Once the leader has communicated the expectations for a task or responsibility to be completed, it is up to the employee to whom it was assigned to carry it out. CMOE has worked with hundreds of teams, and when we’re asked why it is that employees don’t always live up to expectations, the answer is almost always a lack of motivation.
Instilling Motivation as a Leader
Each task an employee is assigned has a different degree of difficulty. As such, the motive for accomplishing a certain task has to be greater than or equal to its degree of difficulty. Motivators can be either external or internal to the employee.
External motivators include things like the undesirable consequences of being tardy to work, guilt over leaving a customer waiting, or fear of lost incentives or income. Internal motivators originate within the person. For example, a person may want to be on time to show respect to the employees who would have to cover for him or her otherwise. It’s a self-motivator.
To provide an environment where employees feel more self-motivation, leaders must understand the different ideas, attitudes, and behavior of their staff.
An employee who is authority-driven will have a strong need for stability and seek approval from the leader. This person will be motivated by recognition and encouragement from his or her manager.
A social person will be motivated by opportunities to engage with others while they work. This person wants to build cooperative relationships and appreciates being accepted by and belonging to a team. Leaders can provide projects that allow these individuals to engage with committees and communicate with others.
A self-directed employee will value the opportunity to set goals and work with some autonomy to solve problems and complete work in their own way. They need assignments that will allow them to grow, learn, change, explore new territory, and be original and creative.
CMOE has helped many leaders identify the unique motivators of their team members and find the levers to inspire higher levels of success. Visit our website to learn more about how to motivate your team for maximum success.
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