Building a Motivated Team – It’s Not as Simple as it Sounds

Being able to build a team that can work collaboratively and deliver successful outcomes is an essential skill for a business leader. Being able to inspire and motivate teams of people is what sets a good business apart from the rest, but, as with so many aspects of running a business, it’s not always plain sailing.

Much has been written about the importance of "soft skills" for leaders in developing a team that can work collaboratively and deliver successful outcomes. These soft skills include motivating the team - because we all know that motivated people do deliver successful projects. But recently here at Ditto Digital we’ve been talking to some client teams who have suggested that people don’t want to think they are “being motivated”, but what does that really mean? 

If leaders are trying to motivate their people but the people don’t want to feel that motivational “tactics” are being used by their bosses or they see it as a cynical attempt at manipulation to increase productivity or some other metric that comes down to the bottom line, then just how can you effect change? Because surely everyone isn’t highly self-motivated all of the time? It’s an interesting thought…

Self-motivation

One of the skills that an experienced leader will often cite as essential is that of being self-motivated – so there is an implicit assumption that leaders are self-motivated but everyone else is not; that they need some external motivation and that should come from business leaders.

It is practically impossible to teach a grown adult to become self-motivated - to want to do a good job for their own self-satisfaction and sense of achievement - so how else can you attempt to motivate staff? Does it actually succeed in the long-term or should we just stop trying to motivate people who are unmotivated and replace them with people who are?

As with most things in the workplace there is never a simple answer.

The Shifting Sands of Motivation

You may have started out with a highly motivated team but unexpected pressures and unrealistic expectations can wear down enthusiasm. There may be more work than the existing team can realistically handle – of course it’s great to have the work for the business but not if the team become demotivated. Maybe people are having to take on more responsibilities for no extra recognition or pay.

This doesn’t mean the team are not capable of doing a good job or can’t be self-motivated given the right external circumstances, but self-motivation does not exist in isolation from the external environment.

Any good business owner will try to set realistic deadlines and recognise and reward individuals, but business realities do not always coincide with the needs and wants of the individual employees – especially in tough economic times. 

If an already overworked team have been assigned a new project that has an unrealistic deadline and expectations right from the start it is not surprising that they will be feeling pessimistic about the outcome and lose their motivation. So often, unwittingly, a piece of work arises that has to be completed but nobody is very enthusiastic – what’s the solution? Bemoan your fate and agree with the team that it will all end in disaster or get up, brush yourself off and try and motivate the team to do their best?

Certainly, there is an argument (that the powers that be at Google would probably agree with) that you can take a bunch of self-motivated, intelligent people and give them a good salary, a great working environment and plenty of opportunity to be creative and "do their own thing" (with some pre-defined goals) and there will be little need to actively motivate them. Unfortunately, perhaps, not all companies are like that and it would be unrealistic to expect them to change any time soon. But just how motivating is such an environment once it has become the norm?

Individuals are most likely to be self-motivated and driven to succeed when they are doing something that interests them, but in many companies, whether due to economic factors, company culture or other aspects of the workplace affecting enthusiasm, optimism and motivation, there are bound to be times when there will be a need to motivate a team and also to maintain existing levels of motivation.

Preventing De-motivation

If we believe that people will be motivated given the right combination of circumstances then it is important to identify the reasons why they are not motivated or have become de-motivated. Lack of motivation is the symptom, not the cause, of wider issues within the workplace (always assuming the people you have employed have inherent self-motivation).

Senior management and company culture can be contributing factors to de-motivation, as can sheer pressure of workload, but there are multiple other reasons too and these need to be identified in order to address them. So instead of investing time and effort into actively trying to motivate a team, instead spend that time and effort asking them for ideas on how to improve the workplace environment, productivity, etc. Get consensus across the team and implement the ideas that you can.

No business is perfect but we can all improve on the journey…