Motivating others

Greater things can happen when people are motivated. Think of three accomplishments you’re proud of, then ask yourself how motivated you were to accomplish them. Similarly, if you can figure out what motivates others, their accomplishments and yours will be greater. Some managers believe others should be automatically motivated, thinking motivation comes as standard with the person. Some managers believe everyone should be as motivated as they are about the job and the organisation. That’s seldom the case. Fact is, people are different. Each person is different in the way he/she becomes and sustains being motivated. Being good in this area includes believing it’s a manager’s job to motivate – that all people are different, and that motivating each of them takes a different approach.

Here are ten actions to help you motivate others.

1. Follow the basic rules of inspiring others. Communicate to people that what they do is important. Say thanks. Offer help and ask for it. Provide autonomy in how people do their work. Provide a variety of tasks. Surprise people by enriching, challenging assignments. Show an interest in their careers. Adopt a learning attitude toward mistakes. Celebrate successes, have visible accepted measures of achievement and so on.

2. Know and play the motivation odds. Research by TEN has revealed the top motivators at work to be: (1) job challenge; (2) accomplishing something worthwhile; (3) learning something new; (4) personal development; (5) autonomy. Pay (12th), friendliness (14th), praise (15th) or chance of promotion (17th) are not insignificant but are superficial compared with the more powerful motivators.

3. Use goals to motivate. Most people are turned on by reasonable goals. They like to measure themselves against a standard. The like to see who can run the fastest, score the most, and work the best. They like goals to be realistic but stretching. People try hardest when they have some chance of success and some control over how they go about it.

4. Figure out what drives people. What do they do first? What do they emphasise in their speech? What do they display emotion around? What values play out for them?

5. Turn off your judgment program. In trying to reach someone, work on not judging him/her. You don’t have to agree, you just have to understand in order to motivate. The fact that you wouldn’t be motivation that way isn’t relevant.

6. Be able to speak their language at their level. It shows respect for their way of thinking. Speaking their language makes it easier for them to talk with you and give you the information you need to motivate.

7. Bring him/her into your world. Tell them your conceptual categories. To deal with you he/she needs to know how you think and why. Tell him/her your perspective – the questions you ask, the factors you’re interested in. If you can’t explain your thinking, he/she won’t know how to deal with you effectively. It’s easier to follow someone and something you understand.

8. Motivating is personal. Know three non-work things about everybody – their interests and hobbies or their children or something you can chat about. Life is a small world. If you ask people a few personal questions, you’ll find you have something in common with virtually anyone. Having something in common will help bond the relationship and allow you individualise how you motivate.

9. Turn a negative into a motivator. If a person is touchy about something, he/she will respond to targeted help. If the person responds by being clannish, he/she may need your support to get more in the mainstream. If he/she is demotivated, look for both personal and work causes. This person may respond to a job challenge. If the person is naïve, help him/her see how things work.

10. The easiest way to motivate someone is to get him/her involved deeply in the work he/she is doing. Delegate and empower as much as you can. Get him/her involved in setting goals and determining the work process to get there. Ask his/her opinion about decisions that have to be made. Have him/her help appraise the work of the business unit. Share the successes and de-brief the failures together.

William Montgomery
CEO of TEN

Through his workshops, William Montgomery has helped hundreds of organisations and schools plus thousands of people to achieve their potential. To discuss your continuous improvement requirements, please call 0117 325 2010 or send a message to info@askten.co.uk.