Motivation is the will to do something. And that will, comes from within. Herein lies the most difficult of challenges. How to motivate the team for achieving organization’s goals? Managers must direct individual efforts in the right direction.
Most managers tend to think motivation as a subjective factor. Difficult to measure, almost impossible to set the processes for & so on. But different management theories have proved otherwise. Building a motivated work environment needs setting up of a reliable process.
Read on to know different attributes of this motivation building process.
Set Targets
It is hardly a secret that people perform better when they have clear targets to achieve. Put together a system in place to set quantitative goals. Goal setting frameworks such as OKR provide handy guidelines for this.
Make sure onus of completing each goal lies with only one person. And that there is clear definition of success/failure. Timeboxing the whole process is a must.
Engage People
Traditional performance management used to let managers dictate targets to their team members. Modern, agile performance management values collaboration.
Involving employees in setting targets creates a sense of commitment. Increased motivation, better chances of success are byproducts of the engagement and mutual agreement.
Offer Feedback
Continuous feedback culture is the backbone of a high performing team. Team members need to receive regular feedback on progress to perform well.
This feedback shouldn’t necessarily be a formal one. Tea time discussion works equally well, if not better. Take it one step further by documenting this feedback and making it handy accessible. This ensures continuous improvement and not just lip service.
Give Credit
A good manager is someone, who is eloquent in celebrating his team members’ achievements. Most individuals appreciate public recognition, don’t miss a chance to motivate them.
Giving credit where it is due, is one of the virtues of highly effective managers. Culture of celebrating each others’ success should be an integral part of a peer to peer relationship.
Align Goals
The goal setting method OKR, recommends alignment of goals from company to individuals. Translate organisation’s goals into objectives that directly relate to each individual’s job.
The alignment gives a sense of purpose to all the team members about why they are doing the tasks day-to-day.
Y Type Managers
Besides, the kind of beliefs managers in your organization have has a huge impact on team motivation.
Douglas McGregor, created two extreme management approaches in his book – The Human Side of Enterprise. Managers whose beliefs are inclined towards Theory X tend to be control freaks and most likely demotivate the team. Whereas managers with Theory Y inclination try & appeal to higher level needs of their team members.
Here is a quick run through of what X & Y type of managers believe in:
Theory X:
- employees do not care about the organization’s goals and need to driven to perform better.
- they lack ambition and need to be spoon fed for what they are supposed to do.
- they are lazy.
Theory Y:
- work is a source of satisfaction for most employees.
- they learn to accept responsibility as the time progresses.
- they will work towards objectives to which they are committed.
What other things do you take care of to increase motivation at work? Let us know in the comments.
Reference: the book of management, DK Limited
