Motivating Your People

When talking with Leaders a key issue faced is, how to motivate staff. I am often asked how do I motivate them, what do I have to do? I often reply with a question - what motivates you? As you might expect answers differ from leader to leader. That said, there are some common themes:

• Influence - being able to influence the work and way forward · Expectations - clarity about what I am expected to do and how these meet or not my own personal expectations
• Reward and Recognition - not just financial, but recognition for doing a good job
• Respect - my values/beliefs and ideas are respected and treated fairly by others
• Direction - clear direction and goals - both for the team I am part of and personally
• Autonomy - the amount of responsibility I am granted and want.
• Connectivity - being part of a bigger and successful team.
• Problem Solving - recognition that things go wrong and that I won't be blamed and that I and others can work together to sort things out.
• Development - that I will have opportunities to develop and grow my skills, when and if I want to.
• Consideration - I might not like my boss, however, that they at least care for me, i.e. they will work on the things above and take time and trouble to create a culture that delivers the things above.

Motivation has two directions

All leaders think about motivation as a positive motivation. It has two directions, positive and negative. Get any one of the lists above wrong and you have the potential of positive motivation being switched. No wonder that leadership is not easy. It is leaders that inspire and every action you take creates the team culture that switches on or off your people.

What can I do differently to change my leadership and create a team culture that enhances positive motivation? The following leadership practices create the right culture:

• Create real clarity about the purpose for your team; it's reason for existence, its values and clear long-term objectives. Share these and be willing to incorporate feedback
• Authoritative, trustworthy and consistent leadership that walks the talk. Your integrity is always on show.
• A friendly, open and accessible leadership style where you are willing to be influenced by the people you work for and with.
• Your staff feel more equal than you - you will stand up for them and be sympathetic to feelings and problems.
• Clarity about what you expect from your people and clarity about they expect of you. Be willing to raise expectations - keep setting the bar higher and be demanding of yourself.
• Give your staff opportunities to retrain, relocate or redeploy when needed to reduce stress or to develop themselves.
• Remove any "us and them" attitudes, including perks, favouritism - treat each person as an individual with real worth.
• Listen to your staff - their ideas, concerns, problems and encourage them to see what opportunities they can take in solving these.
• Allow and foster social activities to develop friendly relationships.
• Use teambuilding exercises to build trust and develop a team culture where ideas, issues are openly debated and team agreements on how things moves forward.
• Expect and hold people accountable for decisions and actions. Give honest and open, timely feedback
• Catch your staff doing things good - not just wrong. Recognise good work as well as excellent work.
• Focus on developing your people's strengths - don't spend appraisals, etc. on what they are not good at. Help them find ways to overcome weaknesses so that it releases them to perform.
• Set a climate of "be the best" you can - individually and as a team. Set high standards, seek to maximise productivity.
• Be both rational and sensitive. Use established tools and techniques to ensure your team is effective.
• Excuses are unacceptable and not required in a "blame-free" culture. Only tolerate the pursuit of underlying causes of mistakes and problems so that individuals and the team learn.
• Actively develop your tem and the individuals. You leave a legacy with each member - how do you want to be remembered (remember school? Are you like the favourite teacher, who inspired you to work in class, or the one that was hated and turned you off school)? Coach the team, encourage positive attitudes, morale and motivation.
• Above all else value the good work that your staff do and help them overcome barriers and obstacles to doing the work. See every piece of bad work as a failing on your part. Did I need to provide more training; more coaching; better tools; clearer instructions?

Staff bring their own motivation - positive and negative. You can switch them on or off. What are you going to do?

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November 2005