What Is The Best Way to Motivate Your Team?
On a leadership forum elsewhere on the Internet someone asked, “What is the best way to motivate your team?” I responded by drawing on the four-dimensional definition of leadership in chapter one of The Three Levels of Leadership and I thought some readers of this blog might be interested in my answer.
“Interesting question. This is where I’d go back to the basics of leadership.
As you know, I define “leadership” in my book as a process of paying attention simultaneously to four dimensions: (1) Motivating purpose (2) Task progress and results (3) Group unity (4) Individuals’ needs. So I’d say that paying attention to all four dimensions should motivate your team.
Dimension #1: Motivating Purpose
To take the first dimension, as others already suggested, you need a common motivating purpose. A purpose they care about, that they want to achieve.
It could be a vision, but it doesn’t have to be a vision. It could instead be expressed as a mission, a goal or a target. Whatever it is, it must provide a motivating purpose.
And as [another contributor] said, the leader doesn’t have to provide this common purpose. He or she doesn’t have to be like Moses coming down the mountain with tablets of stone; the team members can decide the purpose together.
A clear, shared, motivating purpose is the first key, in my view, to motivating a team.
Dimension #2: Task, Progress & Results
Moving onto the second dimension, if you don’t translate the vision/target/goals/mission into purposeful activity, then it’s just a dream. So people have to work on making it happen.
That’s when you all need a plan, people need to have clear responsibilities, they need to be following up, solving problems as they arise, adjusting plans as failures occur or surprises happen and so on.
You also need an emphasis on quality and timeliness of execution, not just from the leader, but from peer pressure too. I’ve found that having a clear role and feeling pride in being part of a team with high standards is itself motivating.
Dimension #3: Group Unity
But there’s the third dimension too. It’s motivating, in my experience, to be part of a team that feels like a team. Where every individual is subordinating his or her selfish interests to the team’s aims and supporting each other. This is what the French call “esprit de corps” and we call “team spirit”.
It’s the sense of working for a cause that’s bigger than us; it gives us the all-important feeling of belonging that’s so important to motivating a team.
For me, this means making sure that everyone feels included and noticed; that everyone understands how decisions will be made and that they’re okay with that; and ensuring there are no hidden agendas – that people are saying what they’re really thinking and feeling and have learned to conflict productively, not brush big issues under the carpet.
Dimension #4: Individual Attention
Now people say “the team is more important than the individual,” but the paradox is that every team is made of individuals. And individuals differ. That’s why we’re individuals. We have different skills, different levels of confidence and resilience, different ambitions and different things going on in the background of our life.
This is where the fourth dimension of leadership comes in. In my experience, you can’t treat every member of the group the same. You have to treat individuals as individuals.
You have to understand what makes them tick, how much autonomy they want, what’s worrying them, what their ambitions are and, of course, you have to be good at selecting them in the first place. You also have to give them the opportunities to grow themselves as members and leaders in their own right. Just as important, you must be ready to have the tough conversations and fire or discipline people when necessary. This is all part of paying attention to individuals as individuals.
Attention to Basics
So in a sense there’s no one best way to motivate your team. That’s because great team leadership isn’t one-dimensional.
For me, it’s about attention to basics, which means attention to the four dimensions of leadership. Get them right and your people will be motivated, performance will be good, creativity will be high… and members of the team will most likely feel they’re having a fulfilling experience.”
The author of this blog is James Scouller, an executive coach. His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published by Management Books 2000 in May 2011. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE.
