#2 Movating People as a Leader - The How

Motivating teams has been a consistent challenge throughout my career as a leader. Motivating people and keeping them motivated takes two key participants; the leader and the followers. The common saying; you can please some of people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time, gives you an idea of the challenges in motivating a team.

So, how can you motivate teams?  As the leader, your challenge is to figure out how to get people with different backgrounds, skills and goals moving toward the same goal. As you think through these questions, add your thoughts and solutions to your toolbox. You will need them in your future leadership efforts.

• 20 percent of the team does 80 percent of the work.
  How do you motivate someone who feels overworked and that others on the team are not "pulling their weight?"  
• Motivation incentives are almost always monetary in nature.
  How do you motivate if you take money off the table?
• Teams often reflect the attitude of the leader.
  How is your attitude?
• It is one thing to communicate with people because you have something to say.  It's another to communicate with people because you believe they have value and something to say.
  Are you listening enough and talking less?

Techniques must be tailored to motivate the individuals on the team.  The way you talk with your team members will vary based on each person's learning style and attitude. What types of people do you have on your team?

A team often has a mix of these types:

• Positive Attitude:  Usually is someone who is a strong performer, loves her job, and has a persistent positive attitude.
• Complacent Attitude:  Usually is someone who just does "whatever" is required.  They most often are quiet and do not adapt to change well.
• Complainer Attitude: Usually is someone who will complain about everything; good or bad. They're either overworked or bored, the weather is too hot, or too rainy, or too cold. There's always something wrong.
• Negative Attitude: These people are only in the building to collect a paycheck and are negative about any attempt to improve or change anything.  
• Snobbish Attitude: Constantly comparing themselves to others, they are quick to point out others' flaws, especially if someone else is promoted or achieved an accomplishment.

With a team of people comprised of multiple types of attitudes, how do you motivate them towards one vision or goal?  It takes hard work and perserverance.  Start with communicating with the people on your team who have influence with other team members. Influencers can change others' attitudes.

Not just work affects work. Everyone has activities and events that take place outside of work. Someone dealing with issues at home will face challenges at work with staying positive and focused. As the leader, stay informed of situations like this on the team so that you can assess and repair any negative effects on the team's motivation. Remember, people's attitudes may change depending on outside factors and the specific situations. Rely on your influencers and leaders to help assess the overall team motivation and morale.  

Let's get to the techniques that have helped me in the past. You may find that a situation needs more than one tchnique to mitigate impacts on motivation.

Let's take a look at this touchy subject:  Performance Appraisals. A person's performance rating for can affect their motivation more than any other factor.  Everyone believes they have done a great job and should get a high score.  It is very important for you as the leader to review the team's individal self-appraisals. A leader who knows how a person views himself will be better equipped to address any performance situations without causing the person to respond adversely. Another impact to morale during performance appraisal time is the discussion the team members have amongst themselves.  If the people feel they were treated unfairly, there will be negative impacts to morale and subsequently motivation. The list below contains tips that have worked for me. If you have others, please post up your tips and techniques in the comments.

1. First, as the leader, you need to be communicating at least once a quarter with each employee regarding performance. Include successes and areas for improvement.  Don't just run down a list; spend time telling the details about how they succeeded in meeting your expectations or how they fell short.  Give specific examples.  This is so important if you want them to understand clearly what is expected. There should be no surprises in an annual performance review!
2. One of key activities is for the leader to understand the direction coming from executive management regarding consistency of performance ratings.  Any type of rating system is subjective to the leader reviewing the work. Without clear guidelines and examples in place for the corporation, it makes it very difficult for leaders to be consistent across teams and departments.   
3. Visualize the different kinds of responses from employees and prepare your responses in advance:

• Mad/Angry - discuss what specific words or message has them upset and why.  It is important to find out the cause of those feelings and ensure you can respond.  More often than not, you will know which areas are touchy for this person.  If the conversation escalates, tell the person you will reschedule so you can review the comments that are upsetting them and determine if they should be modified.  I strongly recommend that you inform and review with your HR representative to ensure the language used in the appraisal meets corporate guidelines.
• Crying - again, ask the person what specifically causes then emotional distress.  Once you have this understanding, you can offer to change the words or ask them if they would like  you to reschedule the meeting.
• Disdain or Complacence - this is someone who is clearly not motivated or even engaged.  This has to be addressed so that it does not negatively impact others on the team.  
• Argumentative or Resentful - this is usually an individual who feels that even though there were guidelines expressed to keep the process consistent across the organization, they feel they are exempt from it and should get a higher score for one reason or another.  This is where you need to ask probing questions so that you can understand the superior feeling coming from the person and address it.  These two emotions will permeate through the team faster than any of the other emotions listed.

In summarizing performance appraisal impacts on motivation, the key is to understand the person's emotions, determine mitigation or method to defuse the situation, continue with the review of the appraisal or reschedule, and finally leverage the human resources department if the situation necessitates it. Please keep in mind that the person has the right to feel how they feel whether you agree with it or not.  Their perception is their reality, and open discussion is the only method to resolve any differences.  Even if you still do not agree with one another, you must arrive at a conclusion or escalate to get closure.

Let's look at motivation changes when the direction or vision is changing for the team.  John Kotter's book Leading Change is the best reference book I have found on this topic.  In the book, Kotter has an 8 step process to create/lead a major change successfully. One of the key steps that will impact morale if not handled correctly is step #4; Communicating the Change Vision.

There is an entire chapter dedicated to communicating change to an organization.  However, for the purpose of this post, let's focus on the impacts to the team and their morale.  When a team feels they were not included as part of the discusion in regards to the change impacts to them, morale and motivation will be greatly impacted.

• Include the team in discussions early so that they are part of the process.
• Keep the communication simple and specific.
• Explain the specific impacts to them and help them see their role in making the change a success.
• Frequently communicate the status of the changes and impacts through emails, casual conversations, team meetings, department meetings, etc. Ask the sponsor come talk to the team and talk about the difference they make.  This will boost morale and motivation.  
• Create a one page document and laminate it for all to hang in their work areas.
• Play a series of games that provide incentives to win. Competition is a great method for message retention.

In summary, make it fun and make it challenging.  The more that the team talks about the change, the more they will feel ownership and be motivated and involved.  In my experience, the team will rise to the challenge and be highly motivated for success. 

In closing, you will need to keep team motivation on your radar and address an issues seen quickly.  Motivated teams that understand the direction and will follow you as a leader are far more productive and happy in their jobs.  You as the leader must also exhibit the right attitude and motivation.  Lead by example.

Please respond with your tips and techniques in motivating teams.