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| Yes, you *can* motivate people! |
Have you ever slogged away at some task, whether for work or school, and thought, "Why am I doing this?" I certainly have - whether it's because I didn't know why it was applicable to my life (during school - I won't mention which subject!) or why I was being asked to do what I was doing because I didn't have the appropriate context.
There has been no shortage of discussion on how to motivate people, especially at the workplace. During the past two years I've had the pleasure (in all senses of the word) of managing teams. I've learned a great deal from working with these wonderful people. Overall, I cannot emphasize enough that every manager should see their team for what it is - a group of distinct individuals who are wholly human, just like you.
It doesn't matter whether you have one person reporting to you, or 50 (as has been the case for me). The moment you begin to see a team merely as metrics of output, you've dehumanized everyone. That can lead to behaviors or actions/inactions that lead to disengagement. People pick up on these subtleties in communication, or lack thereof.
I'd like to share with you some of my most valuable learnings. They may seem like simple common sense, but often the obvious bears revisiting.
Know What Your Team Does
It's critical to know what your folks do so that you can connect with them and understand what they're going through. Otherwise if they come to you with a problem, you may not know its nature and how to best handle it. If possible, the best way to do this is to do the job yourself.
My teams' core directive is work that is crucial to the business and yet rather repetitive in nature. Team members can't simply "check out" mentally either, because the task itself requires a great deal of detailed analysis, research, and concentration.
To understand their job, I went through the same training as new hires, and placed myself at the mercy of quality control as I completed tasks. Having done this hundreds of times, I can understand what my team does on a daily basis and troubleshoot when needed.
Let People Know You Understand
In having done the same job as my team, I can also understand how easily one can become demotivated: Why am I doing this? It's repetitive, my work won't readily lead to significant innovations or recognition, why should I work hard?
In other realms, I know that I am willing to work on such "drudgery" as tendus at the barre for dance and scales on the piano because I understand the context, and I know what's in it for me: If I don't regularly practice these rote tasks to the utmost of my ability, I won't be able to dance well, or play music well. Everything, even the smallest thing, has its place in the overall goal of being an artist and performer.
As a manager, it's important to provide this context to people. I've found that it can make a real difference in motivation if you:
1) Acknowledge that your folks' work may be repetitive and boring in nature/difficult/whatever challenge they face …
… but …
2) Convey what ultimate impact their work brings to the business so they can make the connection
3) Encourage them to look for ways to bring their own creativity and problem solving skills into the mix within the parameters you work in - and to share any best practices they develop.
That way people know you understand what they're going through - the good, the bad, and the ugly - but they know they can bring themselves to their roles in a way that makes sense for the business.
We All Want to Learn and to Grow
Give people the opportunity to learn, and give them the chance to stretch the limits of their ability in ways that are manageable. In other words, promote good stress - present surmountable challenges. It creates a tough but scalable mountain for people to climb.
If you present Mount Everest and tell people to get to the top, which is so high that no one can see it from the ground, few are going to be motivated enough to even get up to base camp because there is no end in sight.
For example, I've looked for opportunities for my team members to work on special projects. Sometimes projects have come to us, but often I've reached out to the engineering teams to see what we can help them with. I give those folks who are poised for more stimulation to keep them growing and motivated the chance to work on these projects. And depending on how they do, they may get more in the future, or become mentors to others. They grow, and the projects break up the monotony of their core jobs.
A Few Kind Words
In general, I believe that people want to serve, people want to be of value, and they want to matter. I certainly do! As my mother said to me and my sister when we were kids, "Be a Useful Bunny!", referring to a coloring book of Bugs Bunny being such a slacker that he nearly lost his girlfriend before he finally shaped up. (He even let all her ice cream melt because he didn't turn on the freezer like he was supposed to - he took a nap instead!)
This innate desire to be of value is why acknowledgement of achievements and efforts is so important. Especially in a job function where the activity is rote and people can feel reduced to a set of quality and productivity metrics, it's a manager's job to bring back the humanity of the job to make sure people remain engaged.
Otherwise, people begin to lose the sense of personal connectedness to their role and to the greater good, and why they matter to the team, the organization, and the company. If they feel like they don't matter, why should they even try to do well? Disengagement is not where anyone wants to be, and it causes the organization and business to suffer.
Little things don't take much effort, and they can go a long way. When I saw that people on my team were making improvements in their productivity and quality, even if they hadn't yet met targets, I sent them emails congratulating them on their progress and encouraged them to keep it up. I asked them to let me know if there was anything I could do to support them in their journey. This not only showed that I actually noticed their individual progress; it showed that I noticed them at all.
This had a profound effect. People responded enthusiastically, and the morale improvement was palpable on the floor - there was energy and a heightened sense of connectedness. And, it only took me a few minutes to talk to my leads to see who they were concerned about, check the metrics, and send an email. Such a simple thing took almost no effort on my part, but I wanted them to know that each of the recipients was a valued team member - I took it upon myself to care, as I believe every manager should.
There's more to come - I didn't want to create an unduly long post, so please stay tuned for Part 2!
