Are You Trying to Motivate Your Team?

In new orga­ni­za­tions we work with, man­agers often ask how to moti­vate the peo­ple on their team.

I absolute­ly love this ques­tion! And espe­cial­ly the moment I say, after a pause, ​“You don’t”.

Your job, as a man­ag­er, is to find peo­ple who are already moti­vat­ed and give them a plat­form to do great work.

One caveat: just because some­one isn’t moti­vat­ed in one com­pa­ny or one role, does­n’t mean that they’re not moti­vat­ed. Every­one is moti­vat­ed in dif­fer­ent ways, and to do dif­fer­ent things.

Nat­u­ral­ly Motivated

When you think back to the best peo­ple you’ve ever worked with, chances are they are all high­ly moti­vat­ed, dri­ven peo­ple who want to make things hap­pen and be proud of what they accomplish.

So, moti­va­tion starts with hir­ing and pro­mot­ing capa­ble peo­ple who desire that kind of work and are nat­u­ral­ly going to thrive in that role.

Over the years, we’ve tried many dif­fer­ent tools, method­olo­gies and frame­works and now have a tool that we believe can help our clients to be the most effec­tive, to under­stand people’s nat­ur­al moti­va­tions and dri­ves, through the inter­view and assess­ment process.

The Right Fit

A leader’s job is not to make the job fit the per­son but to find the per­son that fits the job — some­one who is capa­ble, will­ing and excit­ed to be in the role, in your orga­ni­za­tion. Then, your job is to:

• Ensure there is a great cul­ture peo­ple want to be part of
• Pro­vide the guid­ance, tools and tech­niques to help them be more effec­tive and to progress in their role.
• Rec­og­nize and reward their good work.

The Chal­lenge

• Who on your team is nat­u­ral­ly moti­vat­ed and thrives in a role? Why?
• Think of some­one who doesn’t seem to be moti­vat­ed in the role. What could change or be done dif­fer­ent­ly to free up their nat­ur­al moti­va­tion? And be open to the fact that nat­ur­al moti­va­tion might be in a dif­fer­ent job or a dif­fer­ent company.

If you’d like to learn more about the best tools to help build a strong team, just ask.

Addi­tion­al blogs

• Cel­e­brat­ing Suc­cess & the Accom­plish­ments of Your People
• How to Make Peo­ple Decisions
• Build an Amaz­ing Peo­ple-Mag­net Machine
• Build­ing Con­fi­dence by Breath­ing Belief into People

Old­er Podcasts

• Get­ting the Right Peo­ple on the Bus
• Why Should Peo­ple Want to Work for your Company?

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.