How to inspire a team

Imagine walking into a workplace where every team member is not only satisfied but genuinely motivated to excel. How does a leader cultivate such an environment? Understanding the science of motivation, as explored by renowned psychologist Frederick Herzberg, is a good starting point.

Herzberg’s Theory on Workplace Motivation

According to Frederick Herzberg's popular theory on workplace motivation, individuals have needs that affect their actions. Herzberg conducted a series of experiments and identified two groups of factors that contribute to job satisfaction: motivation and hygiene.

Hygiene Factors: Wages and salary, company policy, work conditions, etc.
Motivational Factors: Achievements and recognition, responsibilities, decision-making involvement, etc.

While hygiene factors do not help to motivate, their absence can lower motivation and lead to dissatisfaction with the work environment. Conversely, the absence of motivators does not necessarily cause dissatisfaction, but their presence can increase satisfaction, stimulate development, and boost efficiency.

Understanding and Applying Motivation

To effectively motivate your team members, it’s essential to understand what drives them. Some may require recognition, while others might be more stimulated by career growth opportunities. Their jobs should align with their values and goals.

Practical Tips:

Balance Routine and Challenging Tasks: Necessary routine tasks often offer little mental stimulation. Assigning a mix of these tasks with more interesting and challenging duties can keep employees engaged. For instance, in a tech company, pairing routine debugging tasks with opportunities to work on innovative projects keeps the work dynamic and motivating.

Create Diverse Teams: A team of experienced and less-experienced specialists can be mutually beneficial. What is routine for one can be a professional challenge for another.

Maintain Competitive Salaries: Money is a hygiene factor, not a motivator. However, it's important to keep salaries within the average market rate for a role to avoid dissatisfaction.

Clear Path for Rewards and Recognition: Ensure that employees understand the requirements for earning raises and promotions. Results must come first, and with a salary increase should come an increase in responsibility or contribution to the company’s success.

Aligning Company and Individual Goals

Motivation is closely related to goals set at an organizational level and their relationship to individual employee goals. Company-wide Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) can create focus and motivation.

A common challenge is demonstrating the connection between the company's goals and personal goals. Without this understanding, terms like strategic goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) can seem abstract and disconnected.

Implementing Cascading Goals:

Cascading goals translate high-level objectives from the organization down to every employee, ensuring strategy alignment. However, this process can face challenges:

Clarification Time: The variety of choices to achieve a high-level goal can consume time and effort.

Implementation Speed: Multi-project implementation may run slower than expected.

Sustained Support: Initiatives often receive initial support but may remain untouched as time progresses.

Addressing Common Challenges

Avoid Bystander Apathy: Don't reach out to the whole group; each call to action should be directed to a specific person. Actions requiring more than two people should be coordinated by an individual. Discuss the steps, sequence, and responsibilities for each task.

Ensure Task Relevance: The impact of each task on the overall goal should be clear to each performer. If a task’s importance isn’t fully grasped, it may be ignored. Track the sequence of all tasks or explain the final goal in context to allow prioritization.

Measure Results Transparently: The results of everyone’s work should be measurable and transparent. Without clear progress data, team members may question the importance of their tasks. Regular updates can help show everyone’s contribution to the common goal.

Reflect and Implement Change

Take a moment to reflect on your current goals from an outsider’s perspective:

What projects/initiatives are currently being implemented in your company to achieve this quarter’s business goals?
What is the current status of these projects?
What are the next steps to implement them?
What is your role in their implementation?
How do you know if you did a good or bad job?

If you’re stumped while answering one or more of these questions, it’s time to think about implementing change.

Conclusion

By understanding what motivates your team and aligning their personal goals with the company’s objectives, you can create an environment where every team member is driven to excel. Remember to mix routine with challenging tasks, set clear responsibilities, and ensure transparent measurement of progress. Reflect on your current practices and be open to change for continuous improvement in team motivation and performance.