Team Motivation – Using Personal Goals to Invoke Success

Managing people is never easy. There are different motivation strategies that you as a business executive can use.

We have already discussed why it is wrong to lead your team with fear. Now we want to disclose another strategy – the personal motivation. It is really simple – if you know your team well and understand what are their short and long-term goals, you can use that knowledge to achieve better results.

Here are some great ways to start:

1. Talk to your team members – The easiest way to understand what drives people to do what they do is to ask them. You can do it when they join the team – but you might get not the most sincere answer as they might tell you what they think you are expecting to hear. Holding one-to-one meetings with each one of your team members regularly is another option. Discuss what is their career goal, ask them about their plans and how can you help them. They would appreciate your interest and desire to help.

2. Observe and make notes – When you know your team members good, you can see easily how they respond to small bumps on the road and bigger failures. Take a (mental) note and try to understand what made them the most disturbed. People don’t like making even the smallest mistakes if they see them as an obstacle to achieving their goals. You can learn a lot by just observing – but you already know that.

3. Use your new knowledge for good – Now that you know so much about their goals and personal motivations, start using it. Don’t blackmail them – it’s not going to help. If you see that someone doesn’t put all his efforts into his assignments, you can explain briefly how can this project help him achieve what he is thriving for. People tend to be work better if they can see the personal outcome.

4. Show them that you understand – If you know what they want to achieve, listen and use emotional intelligence. Try to assign tasks respective of what would give them more knowledge, what is relevant to their goals and what could help them stand out. If you need to assign some tasks to another colleague, be mindful of people emotions. People would easily assume sabotage if they don’t know the reason. Tell them why someone else is being made responsible for what they would have wanted to d and provide them with support and training to grow.

5. Don’t spare constructive feedback– I don’t say that you should tell them that they are not doing their job or they are under-performing. If you see that someone is not at the needed level, have a personal conversation. Let them know what they are doing wrong and how can they make it right. Don’t just list problems – suggest solutions for each one of them.

As you might have noticed, the key to successful team management is personal interaction. The added value to this strategy is that your colleagues would start trusting you more and this would lead to a better, more successful team.