Why are you here?
Lycra jumpsuit optional
I was recently asked about my most challenging experience as a people manager.
I had a list of possible answers, of course I did. We all do. And my list has some humdingers on it - performance management, restructuring, supporting people with serious health issues. All of which was challenging and difficult. But none of which were the example I gave.
The most challenging experiences I’ve had as a manager were with people who just didn’t really seem to want to be there.
One person stands out, from very early on in my career - one of the first people I ever line-managed in fact.
She was smart, confident and very capable. But she didn’t want to be in the role she was in.
She didn’t want to be helping me with the admin of my marketing department. She wanted to be in the press office.
So she delivered the bare minimum. Nothing bad enough for performance managment but nothing beyond what needed to be done, by the last possible deadline. And I just didn’t know what to do about it.
She had no motivation and I couldn’t create it for her.
Motivation is an often overlooked factor in leadership and team dynamics. We increasingly talk about our values and purpose at work (I talk about this with almost every coaching client I have and I’ve delivered numerous team workshops focused on those factors).
But we don’t seem to talk about motivation much despite the clearly massive impact it has on how we perform and how happy we are at work.
Motivation is what gives us energy to work towards a goal.
It determines how much effort we put into something, and how likely we are to keep going when things get tough.
In psychology, we talk about two types of motivation:
Extrinsic motivation is determined by external factors - what will happen to us if we do or don’t do something. This could be a reward (a salary or a bonus) or a fear of reprimand / punishment.
Intrinsic motivation is internal - it comes from the individual and is related to the inherent satisfaction we know we’ll feel on completion. This could be because we enjoy the task, or we feel a sense of growth or development, or because we are contributing to a bigger cause.
Lots of us work for extrinsic motivations. We need to pay our rent/mortgage and put food on the table. That’s fine. But it tends to be intrinsic motivations that drive strong performance, that keep people engaged and that, as leaders, we’re hoping we can find for ourselves.
I’m hearing more and more leaders tell me, confidentially, that they suspect people in their team want to move on, but the market makes it difficult so they are stuck. They feel resentful and their manager feels like they are not making an effort anymore.
This was my most challenging management problem precisiely because there was no simple answer. I had to accept my limitations in terms of how much I could influence the situation. Motivation is highly personal.
But thinking about intrinsic motivations can be helpful. Usually when someone is lacking motivation they feel that the role is not what they want or need anymore. Maybe it doesn’t pay enough, but more likely it doesn’t offer them enough opportunity to learn and grow, or enough work that they enjoy, or they feel they aren’t making a difference anymore.
A conversation about motivations can be really enlightening. Don’t assume you can guess someone’s motivations - ask them.
Why are you in this role?
What do you want to achieve?
What do you want to do more of?
Is there anything that would motivate you more?
Or, you could do what I did and simmer in frustration and resentment!
In the absence of easy answers I will leave you with the suggestion that you take some time to think about your own motivation. It can be really powerful to think about what drives you to work towards a goal - either professionally or personally.
How has your motivation changed over time? And if things are feeling a bit lacklustre, what could you do to give your motivation a boost?
*(Sorry about the picture. I couldn’t resist)
Something new from me - a leadership development programme
I’ve teamed up with Conservation Coaching to develop and deliver a leadership development programe for purpose-driven organisations: Leaders with impact
Built on our own personal experience, as well as on what we hear daily from people in the charity and not-for-profit sectors, the programme focuses on giving leaders the tools to make an impact in a world of change and uncertainty. We focus on embedding learning and reflection, and the skills that leaders need to respond rather than react.
At the moment, we’re offering this as an in-house course (so a group of leaders from one organsiation would work through it together). If you think your organisation would be interested, I’d love it if you could let your HR team know.
And if you’d be interested in an open course (which you would join as an individual with leaders from other orgs) please let me know as this is something we could offer with enough interest.