How do you learn from your motivational successes and failures as a people manager?
由人工智能和领英社区提供技术支持
The first step is to understand your own motivational style as a people manager. How do you communicate with your team? What kind of feedback do you give? How do you reward and recognize achievements? How do you handle challenges and conflicts? There are various frameworks and tools that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a motivator, such as the DISC model, the Motivational Leadership Assessment, or the Situational Leadership Theory. You can also ask for feedback from your team members, peers, and superiors to get a more objective perspective.
-
Outside of assessments just take a look at your habits, style and preferences for communication, but more importantly, what makes you drained and energized. The lows and highs of your day signify your motivational factors.
-
Poor recognition experiences in previous organizations create a negative bias towards future recognition programs, while excellent experiences raise expectations. To address this, express appreciation early and often. Integrate symbolic gestures, like framed first checks or founder portraits, to amplify the impact. Recognition is fundamental to the employee experience, alongside compensation and benefits. Prioritize appreciation to foster a positive work environment, satisfaction, and engagement.
-
Motivation and recognition often go hand in hand to truly enable people. While the role as a leader is to support with clear direction, when and how we motivate and recognize team members should reflect what’s best for the individual employee to help them thrive. Consider this, motivate with the goal to inspire and recognize with the goal of building confidence and pride.
-
Are you worried because you don’t think you have a motivational style? Well, you do! It all begins with you. What are your core values? How do you express these values in your interpersonal interactions? How are your interactions received and perceived by others? How can you get this honest feedback? Where do you need to modulate based on the situation?
The next step is to learn more about your team members' motivational needs and preferences. What are their goals, values, and interests? What are their personality types, learning styles, and work styles? How do they respond to different types of incentives, challenges, and support? You can use surveys, interviews, or personality tests to gather this information, or simply observe and listen to them more attentively. The more you know about your team members, the more you can tailor your motivational approach to suit their individual needs.
-
This is the most important step and it's a maintenance step. Managers need to LISTEN well and develop trust with their employees. I recommend a few activities: - Self identity / branding exercise - good at / bad at & like/dont like framework exercise - laundry list of "personal development goals" and picking 2 to work on each performance cycle. This will then help managers understand what is needed from an employee development perspective, and matching that to the work that needs to be done. Then, when there is feedback or corrections, anchoring it back to what was agreed upon originally will help motivate and inspire the employees to self-correct.
-
You can segment a portion of your 1:1s (you should have them) for learning about their career interests, needs, and preferences. Create a living document that you can share with them too, that lists these aspects. Think of it as a professional development plan which you can integrate into their overall career goals which will ultimately increase their levels of engagement and job satisfaction.
The third step is to try out different motivational techniques and see what works best for your team. You can use a variety of methods, such as setting SMART goals, providing constructive feedback, offering recognition and rewards, creating a positive work environment, fostering collaboration and autonomy, encouraging learning and development, and inspiring with a shared vision and purpose. You can also use some creative and fun ways to motivate your team, such as gamification, competitions, celebrations, or social events. The key is to be flexible and open-minded, and to monitor the results and reactions of your team.
-
Overall, motivational techniques involve working WITH your employees. Everyone is different and some times people think they know what motivates them when it actually doesn't. Always check in on progress, and then adapt as neccessary.
The fourth step is to evaluate your motivational outcomes and learn from your successes and failures. How do you measure the impact of your motivational efforts on your team's performance, engagement, and satisfaction? You can use quantitative indicators, such as productivity, quality, sales, retention, or customer feedback, or qualitative indicators, such as morale, loyalty, creativity, or innovation. You can also ask for feedback from your team members, either formally or informally, to get their opinions and suggestions. You should also reflect on your own experience and feelings as a people manager, and identify what you enjoyed and what you struggled with.
The final step is to adjust your motivational plan based on your evaluation and feedback. What did you do well and what can you improve on? What did you learn from your successes and failures? What changes do you need to make to your motivational style, techniques, or goals? How can you keep yourself and your team motivated in the long run? You should also communicate your findings and actions to your team, and involve them in the process of creating and implementing your motivational plan. This way, you can build trust, rapport, and commitment with your team, and motivate them to achieve more.
-
You can increase the motivation of your team just by starting these discussions. Your level of interest, curiosity, recognition, and engagement will no matter the outcome (just the process) will make a difference.
更多相关阅读内容
-
Team MotivationWhat are the best ways to customize motivational programs for each team?
-
Influence OthersHow do you measure and communicate the impact of your team's motivation on performance and results?
-
Coaching & MentoringHere's how you can navigate the potential pitfalls of giving feedback to colleagues.
-
Team MotivationWhat are the best team motivation resources for new managers?