In the pursuit of Motivation (at work)

Like many leaders, I have tried everything to motivate teams to reach peak performance. I have spent hours reading, attending seminars, and speaking to my network and peers. In the end, everything comes back to one thing, work culture. Believe it or not employee motivation is driven by intrinsic values not external ones.

When I reflected on the best and worst work cultures, the most common theme was how motivated they made me feel and in turn how I felt about the leaders doing the motivating. The sad fact was that I have experienced far too many cultures that demotivated me, driving down my performance.

As a leader I don’t think I have personally motivated anyone directly. Unfortunately, the cult of personality and our very hierarchical leader centric approach to business suggest that there will be some activity or magical oratory that transform performance and motivation. What I am proposing is not quick, there is no magic switch, but it is the only way I have found to achieve sustainable success.

For the past 15 years I have refocused a large part of my time on the development of a healthy work culture, where I have been able to get this right, teams have been motivated and we have achieved incredible results. 

The post is for all Leaders trying to motivate their teams to peak performance, it is based on my experiences and what I think really matters.

People Motivate themselves

The reasons why two people come to work can vary significantly so it seems unlikely to me that a single idea will stretch across all staff. The motivations across roles, age, gender, culture, heritage and beliefs are going to be very broad. 

I have found that if I focus my time on creating a culture of openness and humanity, this in turn gives me the opportunity to understand the “Why” behind people’s motivation for work. For some people it is about making important people in their lives proud. For others it is about achieving a personal goal such as buying a home or a holiday somewhere exotic, or for others it is their personal or career development. 

Building relationships with people to have these discussions and coaching them into making the right internal connections in their own minds to set their personal standards leads to them building their own motivation. You can’t make anyone do anything (you can for a brief time, but they will resent you for it), however people will do anything to achieve their individual goals and desires.

Creating an environment for success

Once you have connected your people to their motivation, your role is then to create the environment for success. Nothing will motivate them more than seeing their personal goals realised by having the resources to achieve their professional responsibilities.

What resources does the team need to be successful? How do you create a culture of responsibility and accountability? What are the standards for the group? In my experience your team already knows this, getting them to voice that is a different matter. This is one of the subtle arts of leadership. Start small and ask your team what is the one thing that would improve their ability to do their job. You might be surprised by how simple things make a dramatic difference. 

You won’t achieve this in a single meeting, there is no magic whiteboard which has the answers. The very first thing you need to establish is that you are here to help and that you can resource their needs within the organisation.

The basic premise of transferring ownership from you as the sole provider of answers to enabling the team to problem solve independently is that everyone is working towards the same professional outcomes. The resources you provide need to be the ones that the team identifies they need for success. Of course you can provide insight and guidance, but allow this to be as bottom up as you can. Remember you are empowering their journey.

What is in it for you?

It is easy to reflect on the approach above and think of it as a soft “nice to have”. However the research suggests otherwise, in the excellent HBR article The Neuroscience of Trust Paul J. Zak carried out a neuro scientific research project over 10 years. His findings show that compared to low trust companies with poor culture, those with high trust and a positive culture have the following benefits:

• 74% less stress
• 106% more energy at work
• 50% higher productivity
• 13% fewer sick days
• 76% more engagement
• 29% more satisfaction with their lives
• 40% less burnout

If only one thing here catches your eye it should be 50% more productivity.

It is a fascinating read as he has studied brain activity, for those like me, with a scientific and data based leaning it is compelling evidence. He suggests a number of ways to enhance trust in line with some of the suggestions in this article (coincidentally).

Be the boss you wish you had

When I have reviewed studies about why people leave organisations, it invariably has nothing to do with money, it is always to do with your boss. You and the managers that work for you will have a huge effect on how people feel about their work. To get the most out of them, they need to be able to respect you.

This doesn’t mean being a pushover, it is about being consistent, and being fair. If you treat people fairly your teams will feel confident in your decisions, even if you must make tough ones. If they feel safe around you then communication will remain open and you are much more likely to be able to hear what needs to change to support them in meeting their goals. 

I’m not going to tell anyone how to be a good boss, if you don’t know that then perhaps consider a different career. All I will say is that we have all had a great boss, and a bad boss. Be the boss you wish you had. You know the one, she made you feel like you could make a real difference. The effect on teams is dramatic. In my case it was a man called Richard Betts, he made us all feel like we mattered and we could make a difference. Guess what? We did.

Final Thoughts

There is a quote, from the godfather of modern business theory, Peter Drucker, that rattles around in my head. I paraphrase but it goes something like this. Management is about getting things done, leadership is about doing the right things. 

Do the right things, there is no shortcut and the research is clear about the benefits you can derive from it. Business people, especially commercial ones, are already motivated, so you just need help them to release it. Then, stand back and revel in the power of self motivated people, it’s a beautiful thing.