Stop Motivating Your Team

Just because you're intentionally motivating your team doesn't mean you're not unintentionally demotivating them.

I used to think the best way to motivate my team was to “be motivating.” Turns out it’s way easier and more effective to focus on identifying and ruthlessly eliminating de-motivators.

The “identifying” part is really important. Don’t assume anything. Even if you think you know what your team would say, ask them to be specific about what motivates and demotivates them.

The “ruthlessly eliminating” part is also important. If you identify your team’s demotivators but don't act to remove them, you may find yourself living in a van down by the river.

The primary drains on staff motivation that I’ve seen have been:

• Low trust in leadership: This can be caused by a wide range of issues. The fix can usually be found by better aligning culture with core values.

• Lack of context or clarity: If people don't see how their work connects to the big picture, it can feel pointless. The fix for this is some basic planning and open communication.

• Lack of input: People get demotivated when they don’t have a means for providing input into the decisions that affect them and their work. The fix for this usually involves overcoming the fear of inviting input.

• Too much fake work: People don’t show up every day to slog through hours of busywork, bureaucracy, and excessive meetings. The fix for this is to identify the fake work and make it stop.

Whatever it looks like in your organization, identify it and ruthlessly eliminate it. You should find that you can motivate your team this way without even having to motivate them.