Does this refrain sound familiar? In countless offices and organisations, managers and leaders are wringing their hands with the issue of staff motivation. Here are a few points that can help you:
Here’s the bad news – no one can motivate anyone. Anyone who claims to be able to do must also be selling some snake oil by the side. People motivate themselves through a combination of a higher purpose in their life e.g. be financially free, raise a great family, and everyday behaviours that manifest these desires. Work with them to discover what these are, and help them translate these into daily behaviours which not only help them get to those goals , but also help the organisation achieve its targets. Ask, ask ask! In short, create an environment where intrinsic motivation can flourish. This may include appropriate rewards, an empowering work relationship, conditions to succeed, tolerance of failure and so on.
You can’t work with people unless you and them share a connected, desired future – in whatever way. If you are a boss of a team, ask yourself how skilful you are in seeking to build rapport with your team. By doing so, you begin to appreciate their perceived universe. Once ‘inside’, you have a much better chance of making people see what direction you would like them go with you. What do you do, say, appear to be like when at moments of great rapport? Model these, repeat, see the results, adjust your behaviours again until you get the desired level of ‘ connectedness’
Once you begin to get a desired state ( OK, there may be some relapses, sudden loss of faith etc ), practise testing the elements you introduced that brought about that mood, state, attitude that you wanted. Reinforce them if they are identified to be the ones that worked – discard the others; make it part of the routine . This can be as simple as having rituals unique to your team to celebrate ” wins”.
Do some of these things and let me know your results!