Some managers believe that each employee operates within a simple equation: Do their job properly and gain advancement, do it badly and suffer the consequences.
This attitude displays a phenomenal lack of understanding of what makes people tick. It takes effort and time to develop a more sophisticated approach, but the rewards of building a high-achieving team are worth it.
To get the best from a group of people, you need to understand what the levers are, how to pull them, and when.
First, consider what each person in the team wants out of their job. It varies and different people have different priorities and mind-sets. Generally, the answers will be a combination of these items:
· Money - salary, bonuses, benefits · Job satisfaction – pride in what they do · Enjoyment - of tasks, interaction, success and achievement · Advancement - within company, career overall · Quality of life - inside & outside workplace
Second, what are the circumstances in which you need to exercise motivation?
1. The long haul
In other words, you always need to exercise motivation. Each member of staff needs to come in every day with a positive attitude, a determination to do their job well and the knowledge that they are gently moving onwards in their career. It is your job as a manager to create that context for them. Failing to do so is often characterised by indifference, meaning that you have begun to take your team for granted. It can take a while before the consequences become apparent, but once they do, you have already lost a great deal of ground and it will take a big effort to recover the situation. The simplest measure of the ‘context’ is morale. Each individual performs a continual subconscious calculation with the factors that matter to them (see list above) and the on-going result of that calculation represents their morale.
2. The project
Each project covers a span of time, during which you need to sustain the energies and application of the team. You need each member to align their personal objectives with that of the project, so that they regard the success or failure of the project as something personal, not a vague goal they don’t feel invested in. Therefore, you need to consider how best to do that, using your knowledge of the individuals and the dynamics of the team.
3. The emergency
This can be the hardest time of all to lift the team to greater efforts, particularly if the project has been going on for some time and there have been previous emergencies. It requires that you be candid with them and use the tools of motivation carefully, but bravely. Do not underestimate the consequences of asking staff to give up evenings and weekends for the cause. There are knock-on effects in their personal lives, with those of their families and close friends. Those outside people are not invested in the project and may not understand the need for the extra hours. Repeated emergencies are morale crushers, as it suggests that all the effort put in last time was to no avail. Of course, an emergency suggests bad planning, but this article isn’t about avoiding an emergency, it’s about dealing with it.
Now we’ve considered the circumstances in which you need to exercise your motivational skills, what are your tools?
They fall into three categories, the three ‘P’s. I’ve listed them in my personal order of preference.
· Positivity · Promises · Punishment
Positivity
I’ve used the term ‘positivity’ to cover approaches that don’t involve tangible rewards or punishments. Here’s my top six tools for motivation in this category.
· Team spirit
This is the good old ‘three musketeers’ factor and is the most important one of all. Use things like whole-team meetings, close collaborations, social events, speeches and light-hearted competitions to create an atmosphere of ‘all being in this together’. When you achieve this, each individual is motivated to perform well for the sake of the team. We are social animals by nature and instinctively work hardest for the community we belong to. By creating a sense of community in the team, you are encouraging great morale and enthusiasm.
· Ownership of success
Encourage each individual to regard the objectives of the project as personal goals. Make sure they understand their importance and value to the team in attaining those objectives. By making them feel invested in the success or failure of the project on a personal basis, you are giving them a sense of ownership. When the project goes well, that reflects back on them automatically. This will drive them to make it a success.
· Sense of achievement
To an extent, this involves finding square pegs for square holes. Find the correct niche in the team for each individual, based on their skills, experience and personality. When someone is working in a role that gives them personal scope to do well, they can take pride in their achievements. As their manager, you can reinforce that. Point out their achievements and their potential for further successes. Encourage them to feel good about them. Where appropriate, you can use parenting tricks as well, such as wall charts showing individual achievements or progression. Certificates and status symbols are also useful ideas. Take care to keep competition between team members friendly and co-operative. Keep prizes modest and discourage anyone from deserting the team ethic in favour of personal aggrandisement.
· Praise
It doesn’t matter how old and cynical you get, if someone tells you “well done”, it makes a difference. Never forget to show your appreciation for a job well done. Take care to spot when someone has made it to the next level, mastered a new skill or technology, done something faster than expected, overcome a problem, or just done a really good job. Say the magic words; be it “well done”, “nice one” or “thank you”. If it was something significant, take them to one side and explain why you think they’ve done a really good job and express your appreciation. This kind of exercise is the grease in the wheels of your team. Encourage the team to praise each other and keep the feel-good factor alive. One word of warning. Don’t over-praise. There must be something worthwhile that you are commenting on. If you keep saying ‘thank you’ all the time for everyday work, it loses its value rapidly, and also leads to a credibility problem for yourself.
· Big picture – personal
It’s useful to remind someone that it’s not just about the current project. Each individual is also on a career progression, although that can mean different things to different people. It’s a powerful motivator to put that individual’s current activities into the context of their long term goals. Show how what they are doing now is taking them along the road to long-term success. By doing this, you are helping them to think of their work as part of their life plan. You’ve made it personal to them and because it’s personal, they’ll want to do well. Offering training and certification is a great way to enhance this sense of the big picture.
· Big picture – corporate
Each project undertaken is also part of the big picture for the company. The business rises or falls on the consistent ability of the team to deliver a good product or service. It’s useful to remind the team of this and explain how the success of the business will benefit them through increased opportunities, pay and other benefits. Give them a sense of the big picture for the whole business and they’ll want to help it succeed.
Promises
This category is about tangible rewards to motivate individuals and teams. Members of a team have a strong sense of equality. This doesn’t mean that everyone in the team has to be at the same level, but they should all be treated in an equivalent way. Therefore, rewards used as motivators need to be applied with care. Where possible, the whole team should receive the reward, not selected individuals. There’s some flexibility however. For instance, a junior or probationary member of the team can be advanced to full membership status for performing well within the team and this will usually be greeted warmly. It’s a ‘rite of passage’ situation whereby the team accepts a new member by virtue of them proving themselves. Similarly, if someone in the team is viewed as overdue an advancement, then awarding that to them will again be seen as a vicarious reward for the whole team. As long as you consider any potential reward in the context of how it will be perceived by the team as a whole, then you will be on firm ground. Here’s my five reward tools:
· Cash bonus
This is a potent motivator, but one that can detract from the team spirit. It risks focusing each individual’s mind on what they can do with the money. Nevertheless, if you are asking staff to sacrifice their personal time in an emergency, it’s a very direct way of compensating them. Lose a few weekends now, gain a holiday in the Mediterranean as recompense. It’s a very simple equation and importantly, one that can be taken home and used with spouse and family. There are several dangers. Don’t let the cash bonus become the norm. Many companies pay an annual bonus to their staff and this is fine because conceptually it is regarded as an add-on to salary, not an exceptional event. If you keep running into emergencies, you should seek other ways of dealing with that. Not only can you not keep a team operating effectively at an abnormally high tempo for very long, but if the team come to expect a cash bonus in these situations, it loses its power as a motivator. It really does become money for nothing at that point. Use it in exceptional circumstances, make sure those circumstances are rare (spot the tautology), balance it with reinforcing the team ethic and don’t be cheap. The bonus has to count for something in the employee’s personal life to be effective. A £10 voucher won’t cut it.
· Salary rise
By and large, salary rises should be progressive based on long term performance, not on short-term achievements. You can’t keep rewarding specific achievements in this way without un-balancing the salary structure within the company. Nevertheless, there are times when it is appropriate to either increase a salary as an earned reward, or to promise a salary increase at a specific date in the future as a motivation. As with the cash bonus, pick instances where exceptional achievement justifies the reward. Remember that you need the salaries being paid within the company to reflect the relative value to the company of each individual. This allows for flexibility but not distortion.
· Advancement
Advancement, like salary, should be progressive. It should reflect skill and experience, but also length of service. It will be destructive to morale if the relative status of someone is perceived as unfair, bearing in mind that this does not mean that an obviously talented individual cannot rise rapidly. That’s the point, status should be seen as appropriate, not fickle or based on bias. However, there are two scenarios where advancement can be used as an explicit motivator. I covered both in the introductory paragraph to this section. The first is the ‘rite of passage’ situation where someone new is given full membership of the team through their personal achievements. The second is where you comply with a general perception that someone deserves an advancement. By awarding it, you show that achievement will be rewarded and thereby motivate the team.
· Extra benefits
While useful in some circumstances, this is dangerous territory. Giving an individual a benefit like a parking space singles them out as favoured. It can create tension and dissatisfaction in the team. Ironically, it can backfire on the recipient if they are subsequently ostracised. Therefore, award benefits to the team, not to individuals. This runs the risk of scaling up the problem to an inter-team squabble instead, but that can be managed. Ideally, make them time limited. For instance, give them all a parking space but for a six month period only. Or a year’s gym membership. It depends on your budget of course. The important thing is to be aware of how a benefit will be perceived by everyone. It can be a nice gesture and an effective motivator, but beware it backfiring.
· Treat
This is the safest and also one of the most effective motivators for the team. While it’s a nice reward when the project is finished, it is also a fantastic way to reduce tension and improve morale in the midst of an emergency. Give just enough notice to allow for people to plan their lives. That way, it acts as a pleasant surprise, an unexpected time of enjoyment in the middle of the madness. Grab a moment during the event to stand up and do a bit of rabble rousing. This goes back to the intangibles I described in the ‘positivity’ section. You can reduce tension, feed the team spirit, praise their efforts and tell them why it’s all worthwhile. And then buy another round of drinks. You can also have some fun in getting the team to propose events; bowling, ice skating whatever. Make sure the event ends on a high. Award prizes, send them home happy. The next day should see a more relaxed, focused and productive team, better able to deal with the emergency. Like most of the motivating tools I’ve described, the treat can be over-used. However, in this one case there is a difference. The anticipation that a treat will happen when a new emergency is announced can soften the blow and act as a beacon, something to look forward to and discuss. In that sense, it’s a great way to keep morale high when the chips are down.
Punishment
This last category should be avoided.
It is only suitable in extreme circumstances where you are dealing with a difficult employee you can’t do without. Even then, you should seek ways to interact positively with them. One hostile individual can destroy the morale of the whole team, so you should try to resolve the underlying reasons for the hostility and re-integrate the person. If this is not possible, then exclusion in some form should be considered. People are rarely ‘that’ indispensable.
Nevertheless, arrogance, anger, laziness and disruptiveness are all traits you’ll come up against when managing people. Most will respond to positive measures and can be led towards being productive members of the team. Others can still be used effectively if they work solo. Sometimes, however, a shock can be the right motivator to change their behaviour. Such tactics can include:
· Salary drop · Removal of benefits · Demotion · Exclusion
The purpose should be to shake the person out of a pattern of behaviour that is detrimental to the success of the business, the individual concerned and the people they work with. While negative in aspect, this must be done with motivation in mind, not malicious intent. Remember, your objective should be to make their employment work. If you genuinely believe that won’t happen, then you should let them go.
While I’ve said that this kind of motivation should be avoided, most people fall into the trap of under-performing at some stage in their life. As a manager you need to take the time to understand what is going on with the person before acting. Often, someone will be acting up because of troubles they are having outside of work. If you punish them at this point, you will make it very hard indeed to recover them as a useful employee, not to mention making their lives even harder than they already are.
Remember, this is the category of last resort.
Summary
Thank you for reading this article. Much of what I’ve said is the common lore of management and nothing new. What I’ve tried to do is subject just one aspect of managing, that of motivation, to analysis. I hope you’ve found it interesting. As always, comments welcome.
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