Written by Paul Turnbull, Senior Performance Consultant at Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?. Paul already has a MSc in Occupational Psychology and is now currently studying a MSc in Performance Psychology at Bangor University.
Whose job is it to motivate your team?
This is a question that I’ve been asked frequently in the Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? Leadership Performance Programmes I’ve run over the last year. Many assume that it’s down to them to motivate their people, leading to frustration when the things they try don’t seem to work, at least not in the long term.
Others counter that if individuals can’t motivate themselves then they are obviously in the wrong jobs and should look elsewhere.
The truth is a little more complicated, but an overview of motivational theory can help shed light on how both parties can be more involved in creating the conditions for motivation.
But before we get into that, a question: Why do you go to the gym?
What do you mean you wouldn’t be seen dead there? Sounds like a case of Amotivation, or zero motivation to me. This is when an individual has no interest whatsoever in an activity and no amount of bribing or cajoling will make a difference. If your team’s full of these, then maybe it’s time for you to look elsewhere and we wouldn’t blame you for doing so.
But sticking with the gym, in the instances that people do go, they do so for a variety of reasons which give some indication of their level of motivation or self-determination. So, which of these, or variations of these do you recognise?
The lower down the list you get, the closer you get to being intrinsically motivated. Doing something for the love of doing it. If you didn’t get too far down when considering the gym, then substitute in an activity that you do feel motivated to do.
The point is it’s situational. No individual is either totally motivated or demotivated. It depends on what we’re doing.
So how can this help you manage ongoing motivation at work?
Some of it comes down to hiring the people who genuinely want to do the job you’re recruiting for. Just because someone’s done a similar role before, doesn’t mean they’re necessarily motivated to do it again so asking questions that tease this out in an interview are a must.
But if you’re working with an intact team, then your one-to-one performance conversations are incredibly important. These are a great opportunity to not only check on progress but to check in with your people.
What are they enjoying?
What’s leaving them flat?
What gives them energy and why?
What drains them and why?
What do they need from you?
This last question is one of the most important. It’s not a case of raising expectations but it is a good way to get feedback on your management approach. By doing so, you can influence how intrinsically motivated your team become by building a culture that attends to three fundamental human needs. No more nagging or making people feel guilty. Here’s how:
1). The Need for Autonomy:
We all want the freedom to choose what we do and they way we do it. This can feel difficult in large organisations with complex reporting lines. At the same time, by asking more than telling, empowering more than controlling and involving more than dictating, you can support people’s need for autonomy and create greater levels of psychological safety.
Put simply, this means people will feel trusted and will take greater ownership over what they do and the way they do it.
2). The Need for Competence:
Autonomy and trust contribute to a desire for improvement. This can come in many forms. Modern organisations espouse the value of learning on the job as arguably the most valuable way of gaining new skills and building new networks but there should still be room for mentoring, coaching and of course training.
When managers truly support learning and development rather than see it as something they just sign off, individuals feel this and so invest more time and energy in getting better. They win, and you win too.
3). The Need for Relatedness:
The days when we saw our manager as the boss who holds all the decision-making power are gone, or at least they should be. People at work want a relationship with close colleagues and a manager they feel they can open up to, who has their back and is a normal human being.
Social distance doesn’t just mean 2-metres apart. Good managers balance the need to get things done through others with an ability to relate to their people. Hierarchical lines become more blurred and genuine followership is built.
So, what can you do?
Put simply, people will be more motivated if you actively and consciously support their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. While a tray of Krispy Kremes occasionally won’t hurt morale, if you truly want a team that’s motivated to perform at the top of its game, give them enough freedom, put in place structures that help them build capabilities and relate to them as you’d want a guide or mentor to relate to you, not a boss.
And if you’d like to know more about this, seek out anything about Self-Determination Theory by Deci and Ryan.
