Do you find it hard to keep yourself motivated at work? How can you motivate yourself so your team can follow suit?
Jemma Roedel asserts that understanding how to motivate yourself and others is another important quality of a good leader. If you lack engagement and drive in a leadership role, it can be difficult to come to work and do your best every day.
Continue reading to learn how to motivate your team as a leader.
How to Keep Yourself and Others Motivated
Your own poor performance can negatively impact your team and the quality of their work. (Shortform note: Specifically, unmotivated leadership is associated with high employee turnover, reduced morale, and low productivity. When you don’t know how to motivate your team as a leader, you’re less likely to make employees feel engaged and valued, which means employees are less likely to put in their best efforts.)
One way to ensure that your sense of motivation endures throughout your time in a job is by assessing your reasons for pursuing the position in the first place, especially when it involves leadership. Make sure you have clear reasons why you want to be in a leadership role before accepting it. For example, you might choose to accept a leadership role because you’re passionate about helping other people achieve their goals. This passion can provide you with continuous motivation as you watch the people on your team grow under your watch.
(Shortform note: According to researchers, people have three primary motivations for choosing a leadership role. First, some people choose leadership simply because they like to lead. The position of leader is inherently motivating. Second, others make the decision based on the benefits of leadership outweighing the cost. For instance, they decide the pay increase is worth the extra responsibility. Third, some choose leadership roles because they feel an obligation to. They may feel like being a leader is the only way to effect the change they want to see, or they’ve been pushed into leadership by other people.)
Roedel says that it’s also your job as a leader to find out what will encourage each member of your team to put their best effort toward your shared goals. Remember that every person is driven by different things. For instance, one person may be motivated by frequent verbal affirmation, while another may get more work done when they have a flexible schedule. Roedel suggests making time for individual meetings with each team member to get better acquainted with them and their motivators.
| Motivation Questions to Ask Employees As you determine what motivates your team members (likely during your one-on-one meetings), use the following questions to guide your conversation: Which of the company’s values do you share? Typically, employees feel the greatest motivation to complete work tasks that contribute to their sense of purpose and fit with their personal values. If they see you upholding the values they care about, they’ll be more motivated to stay with the company. Are you fully clear on what’s expected of you and your role? Some team members may not do their best work because they’re unsure of what’s expected of them. Asking this question gives them the chance to get clarity and feel more confident. What outside factors impact your ability to complete your work? External factors like health issues, family responsibilities, and other personal issues can affect how your team members perform. Knowing these factors allows you to work together to find solutions that make balancing their work and home life easier. Keep in mind that asking employees questions is just the first part of motivating them. The second part is listening effectively to what they have to say. In You’re Not Listening, Kate Murphy describes effective listening as more than just processing someone’s words; it also requires making the other person feel heard, reading their body language, and trying to understand how they’re feeling. In this respect, women may have an advantage: Some research suggests that women and men listen differently, with men taking words at face value and women paying attention to nonverbal cues to get a better read on the speaker. |
