What Motivates Your Team? The Key to Inspiring Others
- Wanda Wallace
- Jul 10
- 4 min read
Jaime is a quick-witted and persuasive risk taker who is not afraid to shake things up. When she senses indecision in a client, she is great at pushing just a little harder to convince them. These traits have made Jaime a brilliant saleswoman. As a manager, Jaime runs her team in accordance with her values and drivers. Since she is motivated by change and fast pace, she assumes everyone else will be inspired the same way.
Paolo, Jaime’s direct report, is just like her. Unsurprisingly, Paulo thrives under the conditions Jaime has set. To Jaime, Paulo is the superstar on the team.
Tal, whose sales results are also excellent, is different. Tal is driven by mastery and recognition – she loves knowing the product thoroughly and being able to address client concerns with detailed insight. And, she really wants to be valued and recognized by her manager, Jaime. However, since Jaime values pace and change, she doesn’t appreciate Tal’s approach. After trying over and over to gain Jaime’s approval, Tal is now thinking about leaving the team.
What could you do in this situation if you were Tal, or her manager?
If you followed the last newsletter, you have identified your own values, drivers and motivators – the things that give you joy, satisfaction and a sense of purpose at work. But knowing what makes you thrive is only one part of the equation.
The real gamechanger lies in recognizing that there are people on the opposite end of the spectrum, who are unmotivated by the things that drive you and vice versa. As Dr. Ryne Sherman, Chief Science Officer for one of the largest personality assessment companies, says on my podcast: “The things that we value, the things that motivate us – we think that this is how life is supposed to be lived. When we see other people who don’t share those values, it’s very confusing to us.”
Creating the Conditions for Success
If you want to be an impactful leader, you need to not only motivate yourself, you also need to inspire others to do their best work alongside you. If your team isn’t engaged, they will never deliver exceptional work. Creativity and productivity will suffer, and the turnover will be costly.
Now, here’s the problem: you cannot motivate others. You can, however, create the conditions for them to motivate themselves.
That means you first need to understand what the primary drivers of your team members are. How do you determine what each person values most?
Exercise on Understanding What Drives Your Team
Write down the names of every team member. List one thing they want to learn and one thing they are excited by. Do they want to serve other people, do they care about innovation, do they enjoy working within the team? Do they want to be driving change, controlling risk? Are they looking for recognition, are they looking for fun?
What do you do if you do not know how to answer these questions for your team members? You can find a worksheet on how to ask your team members or look for answers as a group activity at the bottom of this newsletter.
Once you know what helps your team members thrive, your task is to find alignment:
Are there ways of highlighting that attribute within the work this team member already does? For example, when you delegate a task to someone who cares about innovation, could you emphasize the novelty of the product they are helping to create?
Could you find new ways where this team member can engage the attribute that motivates them? For example, if someone cares about helping, is there a mentoring program within your organization that they would like to be part of?
How Do You Set an Inspiring Goal?
When it comes to setting goals with each team member, clarity is key. If everyone knows where you are going and by when, and there are concrete next steps, boundary conditions and dates in place, you are more likely to finish the project on time (see more on delegating effectively here).
To ensure people are motivated to actually achieve the milestones you have set, you then need to make the goal intrinsically motivating for the team.
If your direct report is motivated by autonomy, allow them some space to find their own road to success (within the boundary conditions you have communicated). If another team member is motivated by altruistic drivers, emphasize to them how your project will help others within the company, or be of great service to clients. Someone else might really care about having fun at work, and a fourth wants affiliation and connection to others.
When Do You Encourage and When Do You Give Critical Feedback?
While you are working towards a goal, your team will need encouragement and critical feedback. As Dr. Ayelet Fishbach, Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing and author of the book Get it Done. Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation taught me, the mid-point towards a goal is the tipping point.
While a person is between the starting point and the half-way point to completing a goal or learning a skill, positive encouragement works best to keep them motivated. Once the individual has passed the midpoint, pushing or giving constructive feedback works best to motivate them.
Conclusion
If your team members are motivated because their work is in alignment with their drivers, productivity and job satisfaction will increase. If, however, you cannot engage your team as a leader, they will move on or start “quietly quitting”.
Jaime only learns this the hard way once Tal transfers to a different team. There, Tal’s approach is valued, her passion for mastery is recognized, and she quickly becomes that team’s top performer.
Tipsheet on Understanding the Values and Drivers of Your Team:
Reference:
Ayelet Fishbach, Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. New York: Little, Brown Spark 2022.
Comments