How to Figure Out What Motivates Others


Great things can happen when people are motivated—but making that happen isn’t a simple task, because no two people share exactly the same motivation. The best leaders understand that motivating others is an important part of their role, and that doing it well means discovering and providing motivation that’s unique to each individual member of their team as well as building organizational values that foster motivation.
To really figure out what motivates others so you can work with them to build individual and team success is a skill that requires you to go deep. Here are a few suggestions for establishing individual motivation and a motivational culture:
Start with the basics. The first principle of motivating others is communicating to them how important they are—letting them know they’re valued and what they do is important.
Invest in their future. Show an interest in the career path of your employees. Get to know their best areas, what they enjoy doing, and what their aspirations are. Give them challenging assignments that play to their strengths and help them grow, then celebrate their successes.
Connect them with a mission and purpose. Help people stay connected to the big picture of what they’re working for to ensure they never think of their job as just a paycheck. Let them know about the mission they’re part of .
Help them learn something new. Learning brings with it enthusiasm and new ideas. Provide subscriptions so people can read and stay up-to-date in their field, sponsor learning within the organization with brown-bag lunches and workshops, and pay for employees to attend classes and conferences when you can.
Give them autonomy. One of the greatest motivators a leader can give is freedom—the freedom to make decisions, to come up with new ideas, to move things forward independently. Autonomy is the best motivator for many people. When you tell someone you trust them, you empower them to do great things.
Make it personal. Not everyone is driven entirely by work. The people on your team all  have hobbies and interests, families and friends. Find out what drives each person, and ask them about it. The better you understand the people who make up your team, the more successfully you can motivate them—and the closer the bonds that connect you all.
Praise with purpose. When an individual or team does something right, praise them with purpose, Be specific about how their accomplishments and achievements affect others. Remember to recognize those who work behind the scenes as well as those in the spotlight.
Delegate to empower. Get people involved in setting organizational goals and determining the strategies and processes to reach those goals. Ask for their opinions about decisions that have to be made. Assign work and trust people to do it well—and when they do, express your appreciation.
Skill-inside:  Motivation gives strength and inspires drive in others.


Tamer Elsagheer
Skillinside

Source: Lolly Daskal

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Make-Or-Break Career Skill No One Talks About

Image
It goes without saying that you have to be responsible and alert to succeed in your career, no matter what your career path is. You have to be reliable, of course, and you have to be a good team member. No one can really act surprised if they miss out on a promotion and their boss says "We all like you, Stan, but you have a tendency to let us down when it matters, and that's not something a supervisor can do. I gave the promotion to Anjali, because I can always rely on her in the clinch." There is another, critical career skill that makes or breaks careers and that we don't talk about as often as we should. It's a muscle that we don't grow just by getting older or by going to school or even by taking on more and more responsibility over time. It is possible to reach a ripe old age without growing this muscle, and it always a shame when that happens. At Human Workplace we call this must-have career muscle "Fast Learning." What does it mean...
Read more

22 Characteristics of High-Potential Employees

Image
  Even if your team is made up solely of supremely talented individuals, there are always a few employees who stand out from the pack.  According to the  Harvard Business Review ,  these high-potential employees  account for an average of 5% of any company’s workforce.  High-potential employees (HiPos) excel in their current roles, but they also possess the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in managerial positions and senior roles, too. Importance of identifying top talent for employers High-potential employees need to know that you recognize their potential. In fact, a  recent study  showed that 77% of HiPos feel that being recognized as high-potential talent is important to them.  These workers want help in identifying a career path and they also want support in carving that path. For these reasons, it’s critical that managers identify HiPos early on in order to retain them and keep them engaged.  Employers who identify top tale...
Read more

Eight Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Sales Closing Technique

Image
Many people who work in sales face a lot of rejection, especially early in their careers. That’s why there’s no better feeling than closing the deal with a new prospect. As you learn and grow as a salesperson, you start to figure out the most effective techniques for moving a potential lead down the funnel and turning them into a paying customer. We asked members of   Young Entrepreneur Council   to share their best tips for closing a sale, along with anecdotes of how they’ve put it into practice. Here’s what they had to say. 1. Paint A Picture Starring The Customer   The best way to close a sale in my experience is to gather a great deal of information about a customer, tie that information to aspects of a particular product/service, then create a visual in the customer’s head of how implementing this product/service can benefit their lives. This was an extremely effective technique I found in one of my earliest jobs selling cable subscriptions. I would ask ...
Read more