Motivated employees are a cornerstone of any successful company. They stay longer. They go above and beyond, come up with new ideas, and work hard to succeed and to help the business succeed. They also boost profits (HR Zone found that "a 5% increase in the employee recognition rate can increase profitability by 25% to 85%"). Helping your team members stay motivated--and training your leaders on how to keep your employees motivated--is an essential part of helping your organization thrive.
So what do you do when your team members aren't motivated?
Before you can solve a problem, you have to properly define it and understand it. Let's walk through some steps that will help you understand your team's lack of motivation to set you up for success.
First, you need to better understand the lack of motivation - from what it looks like (and how it impacts work) to why it is happening - before you can craft a solution. By doing a bit of reflective work first, your solution will have a better chance of working than if you relied on assumptions.
Start by understanding why
Get curious. Reflect internally on what you know and what you have observed. Select a few key questions to ask your team members to allow them to share their perspective and give you more information to work with.
Questions to consider:
Do you know why your team members aren't motivated?
When did they stop being motivated?
What does a lack of motivation look like? How does it impact the work? The culture?
What have you tried, and what has worked or failed?
Do they know what they need? Are they vocalizing that to you? What opportunities for communication are available, and are they taking advantage?
Where is the disconnect happening? If you are a visual person, you could even map out their experience or feelings to help you identify where the roadblock is occurring.
Determine whether this is something that needs to be treated at an individual level or at the team level. Understanding the root cause thoroughly should always happen first, helping you craft a more effective solution.
Next, once you know a little bit more about the issue, you can start testing solutions. Talk to the team member. Try engaging them in different ways. Find out what they care about and see how they handle it when you give it to them - whether that involves giving them more challenging work, more responsibility, more strategic conversations, more complex work, more visibility, more opportunities for advancement...see what they value and figure out ways to supply that to them.
Reflect on your approach
Questions to consider:
Do you give your team members enough responsibility?
Do you give your team members enough visibility?
Do you give your team members enough flexibility or empowerment?
Do you talk about strategy and context with your team members?
Are you clear in your expectations and in goal-setting? Is everything documented that needs to be?
Do you challenge your team members with new opportunities? Do they want more of that? When you do, do you guide them with a proper balance of oversight and empowerment (which will likely vary per team member)?
Find opportunities for alignment
Questions to consider:
Do your team members know the vision? Are they bought in? Why or why not?
What do they care about? What are their values?
Do they see how their goals align with the organization's mission?
Do they get to do work they enjoy? What are their interests, and how they using those in their work?
Are they developing their skills? What learning opportunities have you given them lately?
Do they see how their skills are valued? How well do they understand the impact they have on the business?
Then, follow up. Keep a pulse on your team's motivation. Maintain it. Evolve it. Enhance it.
Open the conversation
Questions to consider:
Are your team members comfortable coming to you with concerns? How can you foster an environment where they can be brave with you?
How often do you talk about self-awareness, motivation, and professional development with your team? How can you do that in a way that works best for them?
What makes your team feel engaged? How can you give them more of that?
Where do they need more support, and how can you provide that?
How often should you discuss their motivation?
How will you know what greater motivation looks like? How will they know?
Encourage what you want to see
Questions to consider:
Does your team know how to succeed? Do they know your expectations?
How do they prefer to be celebrated? How can you do more of that?
What behaviors are you reinforcing? Which ones do you want to go away?
How do you express gratitude to your team? Does that work for them?
How are you modeling the behaviors you want to reinforce?
Connect on a human level
Questions to consider:
How do you connect on a human level, beyond the work? Does your team enjoy that?
How can you make collaboration fun?
What are the tenets of your team culture, and how does your team feel about that?
How does your team's ability to respect, trust, and help each other translate into productivity? Do they see that? Do you celebrate it?
How do you tailor your approach to each person's needs?
Do they get to bring their whole selves to work, for the most part, and know you will accept them and embrace them fully?
Motivating employees is important. If you can detect that your team members aren't motivated, don't ignore it. Ignoring it is enabling it. Reflect on it and tap into emotional intelligence and communication frameworks to help connect with your team member and find ways to motivate them in the ways they need to be motivated. This may be different per person, so it will take extra work to tailor your strategy for each team member. The work will be worth it in the end: Your employee will be happier, more productive, and more likely to stick around longer, giving higher quality work and enjoying more trust and respect from you, your team, and the company as a whole.