Motivation Path Can Take You Further

“Magic is believing in yourself; if you can do that, you can make anything happen” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity” – Amelia Earhart

You might have heard about Sisyphus and his sentence to roll a heavy boulder uphill. Every time he nears the top of the hill, the boulder rolls back down. It has never hit my mind before why he was trying to climb up again and again, for eternity, and then I came across the following idea: “Sisyphus teaches us to never give in to circumstantial disappointments or try to escape from the failures, rather accept failures the same way we accept our achievements. And most importantly, no matter how much we lose in our quest, we must never back down till we fulfil our potential”. Indeed, there must have been some internal force that made him return to the activity, no matter what. I suppose that force was motivation. Unfortunately, it is hardly possible to find out what exact goal Sisyphus was trying to reach, or whether he was motivated by the process itself. But one thing we know for sure - motivated people eagerly do their job and achieve better results.

I don’t know about you - people are different, after all - but when I am motivated to do a thing, it always turns out to be a good thing. Both process and result.

Long story short, it is obvious that motivated people are more eager to invest in what they do and tend to be successful in it. That is why most companies in general and project managers, scrum masters, HR managers and the like do their best to increase their teams’ motivation.

Most of you have come across the famous motivation pyramid, the theory of which states that without satisfying lower levels of needs, it is hardly possible for people to strive for more. (Ex. Due to the war in Ukraine and lack of safety, people will hardly long to satisfy their aesthetic needs and attend theatres or museums).

Yet, assuming basic needs are satisfied, do you always know what makes your team get engaged in the work they perform? Do you use it to optimise the system and the processes, to achieve better results together?

One of my favourite websites, management30.com, suggests there are at least 10 moving motivators. If you know what moves your teammates, you can adjust the system accordingly, and get amazing results and enjoy the process. For instance, if your team is led by Curiosity, new ideas that require investigation and unusual solutions will be more than welcome. In case Acceptance and Relatedness are your team’s moving motivators, pay great attention to the atmosphere within your team, don’t forget to express appreciation and encourage others to do the same. The website also provides practical ideas about using this approach. I am a keen amateur of discussing these things during face-to-face meetings. After that, the results can be easily aggregated and analysed at the team’s level. Then we can discuss them and see whether our ecosystem is good for us or if something should be changed.

Some people say that motivated people are engaged in their work regardless of their happiness level. Yet I believe that combined, these two aspects can bring even better fruits. That is why I would like to touch upon 12 steps to happiness from the above mentioned website. After all, it is not difficult to thank those who do their best to achieve results, to smile and inquire about their mood and well-being, to make sure the team can have normal work-life balance and so on. Help your team to be happy, and they will make you happy in return. This happens unconditionally. For those who are curious, I also recommend the book by Karen Brown “Happy Habits. Build 12 Positive Habits to Become Happier & More Resilient”.

Photo by?Szilvia Basso?on?Unsplash

If so far I haven’t convinced you about the great importance of motivation, think about Scrum Values. I personally see them as directly connected to motivation.?

OPENNESS. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work.

In the atmosphere of openness, people are not afraid to share bad news, and they are more eager to reach better results, to share those with their peers.

RESPECT. Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people.

It’s simple. If you have the feeling of being respected, if you see your point of view is taken into account, you step up and speak. That is the way best ideas get born.

COMMITMENT. People personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team.

Forgive me, but to explain this simple truth I would like to refer to some examples from children-and-parents psychology. If you force people to do something, it often happens they do it ‘for the tick’. But if they come up with the same idea during your conversation and discussion, if they believe it to be THEIR idea, if they commit to it,? they will do their utmost to prove it works.

FOCUS. Everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team.

It’s obvious. You can do anything, but not everything. And sure enough, not everything at a time. Stay focused. And not only will you achieve better results, you’ll prevent exhaustion and burn-out, which is the number one reason for job leaving nowadays.

COURAGE. Scrum Team members have courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems.

By realising you are doing the right thing, you feel proud, and consequently, more motivated to invest in what you do.

To conclude, I simply want to say that motivation can also be extremely contagious. Thus make sure you are motivated yourself, and, who knows, maybe not so much will be needed to motivate your team.

Feel free to share your ideas and best practices about motivation in the comments.