Motivation is a hot topic in many of my workshops and coaching sessions, so I thought I’d put together a few tips on things you might like to consider when motivating, recognising and rewarding your team…
1) Understand what motivates you – this helps you to see if you are currently feeling motivated; if you’re not this might come through in your behaviour and impact on others. It also helps you understand what kind of things motivate you and whether you’re projecting this on to others, i.e. are you motivating them in the way you would like to be motivated and rewarded, rather than specific to their needs.
2) Get a toolkit of options that you can use – this could be anything from the words you say to someone, where you say it, how you say it or what you give as a reward. The old saying ‘different strokes for different folks’ is a good reminder of why this toolkit is essential. Some people may like a reward that is loud and grand, some may like a quieter more personal ‘thank you’ and some might like recognition from a more senior person. Others may need more of a stick than a carrot approach. I had one team member whose performance and motivation always increased with a bit of pressure and a tight deadline (they also enjoyed a glass of champagne!).
3) Understand your people – so how do you figure out what motivates your people and how they like to be rewarded? This means getting to know your people, understanding their behaviour and what drives them. If they’re new to the team they might have mentioned a few things during interview, if they’ve moved internally you could ask their previous line manager and if they’ve been in your team for a while you’ve hopefully built up a picture of their drivers and motivators through open dialogue and two-way feedback.
4) Apply the Toolkit – you may choose to be transparent and ask your team directly what things work for them – you might find this works well with a bit of personal disclosure – “I prefer a personal thank you as well as a financial reward or voucher, what kind of appreciation/rewards do you like?” Or you may prefer to do the trial and error approach, observing how they respond when you do reward them. What they say (and importantly what they don’t say but perhaps give away in their body language) will indicate whether the reward worked or not. Whichever approach you choose make it authentic – if it’s not genuine then it’s not likely to come across well.
5) Remember the exceptional – in one of my favourite movies, ‘The Incredibles’, one of the characters says, ‘If everyone’s Incredible, then no-one is’. I liken this to managers with a good intention of recognising and rewarding everyone…often. The downside to this is that when someone does something truly exceptional through stand-out performance or contribution it’s even trickier to think of an appropriate way of recognising and rewarding them. Make sure you do. And make sure you do it differently to the norm.
