22 Nov Time to build motivation in your team with clear goals and a sense of purpose
Time to build motivation in your team with clear goals and a sense of purpose
Helping your team improve their skills is one of the most important tasks that you as their manager must undertake.
If you don’t help them improve, their skill level will become stagnant and they will likely get bored and may look elsewhere for more fulfilling work. But when you help them continually improve and get better and better at what they do, they will find personal satisfaction, and this will also reflect in the success of your business.
Clear goals, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities are the 3 elements that will deliver a sense of mastery, building intrinsic motivation.
Goals, tasks and feedback connected to what Daniel Pink calls ‘Goldilocks tasks’ – challenges that are not too hard or too easy, but just right. Avoid the mismatch between what your team can do and what they should do.
To further increase autonomy, why not have your team choose their own Goldilocks tasks and provide regular feedback. This can help ensure your people are more engaged in their work.
This engagement and commitment to their work and sense of autonomy is further enhanced when you bring a sense of meaning and connection to the work they are doing.
Humans by nature seek purpose – a cause greater and more enduring than themselves. When you connect your team to the meaningful and genuine purpose of your business, make it real and then ask them all to live by it, you will experience a greater sense of motivation and drive in them.
So, what is the purpose of your business? This is not a buzzword or a motto or HOW you do the work, this is the WHY.
For example, a hospital put up 3 signs above each wash station, and the one that had the greatest effect when it came to getting people to actually wash their hands said ‘Stop Patients from Getting Diseases’. The HOW is obvious, but this sign made the WHY appeal to everyone’s sense of purpose, and people acted appropriately because the purpose was clear and worthwhile.
If you want an inspirational story of true purpose, read this article about Kevin Sinfield. You may know him as the former Leeds Rhinos player, but ever since his friend and teammate Rob Burrow was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, Kevin has dedicated himself to the cause – he has run 7 marathons in 7 days, rowed canals and, in his latest challenge, is running 7 ultra-marathons in 7 days.
The HOW – well, that’s easy (or not easy), but the WHY, the purpose – that is for a cause so worthwhile and meaningful to Kevin Sinfield that motivating himself is not a problem. The WHY is because he is hoping the money raised will find a cure and save his friend and future sufferers.