While performing the same task, some consider they are simply piling up stones, while others have the exalted sense of helping to build a cathedral! Managers play an essential role in shaping perceptions and their impact on motivation. How to help your subordinates feel useful and proud of their work?
Mobilize people around a project
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Point out how individual or team missions contribute to a collective goal. Make this goal tangible by presenting it in story form.
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Don’t just convey objectives—discuss them. Discussion is the best way to arrive at a real understanding of the desired outcome.
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Openly celebrate successes to make the results of people’s efforts tangible.
Organize jobs to be more motivating
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Focus on the variety of tasks and contacts and empower people to take charge of what they do.
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Give people a chance to develop their capabilities if they so desire.
Take action
Remotivate a staff member who has lost interest (1h)
To remotivate your team, you can leverage on the level of satisfaction generated by the work itself.
Suggest a meeting to a member of your team who has seemed demotivated for some time, in order to discuss this issue. Verify that he shares your opinion that his level of motivation has decreased.
Try to understand together the reasons behind this decrease in motivation. Ask him about how he considers his work and his role in the team. E.g. is he satisfied with the variety of tasks that he deals with? Of his relationship with his colleagues? Of his space for initiative? Is he aware of the value of the work he is doing?
Help him identify what could help in regaining motivation. Be clear on the solutions that can be considered and on those that cannot, and commit to putting in place the solutions that have been selected.
Give a collaborator an assignment that goes beyond his field of competence (20 min)
Giving a collaborator a challenge to address is a mark of trust and increases the interest of his work.
Select a collaborator whom you can entrust with an unusual assignment or task. For example, a collaborator who likes challenges, or on the contrary, someone who tends to underestimate him or herself, provided you can reassure the person on his/her ability to succeed.
Select a mission that enables him or her to develop new competencies. E.g. a cross-functional project to broaden knowledge of the company and its challenges; a more technical project.
Specify how you will accompany him/her during the assignment: methodological advice, exchanges on problems encountered, milestone meetings to evaluate the progress and the learning that have been achieved.
Present the missions of the team in a stimulating manner (30 min)
Reminding your team members how they contribute to the collective project is an excellent way to motivate them.
Seize the opportunity of a forthcoming meeting to discuss the ways in which the team’s missions support the vision and the values of the company. E.g.: “our role consists in provisioning the network with spare parts. It is our contribution to world-class client services.”
Make sure you express this vision in a personal way, showing that you believe in it. E.g.: “When I see a client who is reassured when he leaves, knowing that if there is a problem, we will be there, I think our work means something.”
Get your colleagues’ impressions of these missions. How do these meet with their own aspirations? Do they encounter dilemmas in their execution? This exchange will facilitate their understanding of priorities.
Practical Tips
> Organizing work so as to facilitate employee motivation
> Give your subordinates opportunities that will foster their skill development
Find out more
> You have a role to play in the wellness of your employees
© Managéris