Welcome to “Driving Businesses by Developing People” written by me, David Huynh. For those who do not know me, I am a people-focused business professional who builds team members to generate results. Thank you for joining me. If you are not on my email list yet and want to dive deeper into the intersection of business and people with me, you may subscribe here:
My brightest days as a manager came not after achieving strong business results, but on days when a team member would tell me, "I am thankful that you are my manager. I would not have made it to this point without you." I attribute statements of this nature towards the emphasis I place on motivating my team members.
I have seen managers try to motivate their teams with targets, timelines, and/or tantrums, which all pertain to pushing business goals. These business goals, along with promotions and financial incentives, are forms of extrinsic motivation because the individual is seeking a reward or avoiding a punishment. Intrinsic motivation comes from desire to perform the task itself. Our goal as managers is to maximize both extrinsic and intrinsic forms of motivation, which requires an alignment of both the business and the individual. Motivation is derived from finding this alignment or overlap between business goals and individual goals.
The amount of overlap within this Venn Diagram can vary from person to person. For some individuals, business and individual goals may be fully in sync. These individuals are naturally driven in their current career path. Solely pushing business goals through targets, timelines, and tantrums to generate pressure should suffice for these individuals. On the other end of the spectrum are individuals with limited overlap between business and individual goals. These individuals are primarily driven to achieve goals outside of the business and thereby not naturally driven in their current career path. Below is a visual representation, where each Venn Diagram represents two distinct individuals on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Since each team member will have a different level of natural motivation, we should should focus on motivating those that are not naturally motivated to drive the business, represented by the left Venn Diagram in the image above.
Approach
There are three steps to shift unmotivated team members to become driven and ้high performing team members. First, we need to find and understand the overlap between business goals and individual goals. Second, after we understand the overlap, we need to adjust the stimuli we are providing each respective team member in order to align with their goals. Third, we need to refocus our management style (e.g., empowering, mentoring, micromanaging) according to the needs of each specific team member in order to optimize their performance.
Understand Individual Goals
As leaders, we should already know the business goals. So, in order to find the overlap, we just need to have an open, honest, one-on-one conversation with the team member we are looking to motivate. Within this conversation, our goal is to understand their individual goals, whether these be related to the business or not. Afterwards, we can position their tasks to align with both business' and individual's goals.
If you work in an office, I would recommend having this conversation out of the office - perhaps a nearby coffee shop. A different environment will help elicit more genuine answers. If you work remotely, schedule a video call. In either case, we should frame the conversation as a casual chat to get to know one another. The conversation should be crafted such that our team members are doing the majority of the talking, allowing us to simply listen. Start by letting them know you, as their manager, are here to support their goals. Ask them what they would like to accomplish professionally or non-professionally. If they are not sure, you can supplement by asking what skills they would like to build, what they would like to get better at, or what do they enjoy doing. Once we understand their personal goals, we need to break them down into their component parts or steps. The personal goal may not fully overlap with the business goals, but by segmenting it, we are looking to find the pieces that do overlap.
To help illustrate, let's say we manage a team of financial analysts. Over the past few weeks, we notice one analyst has been producing at a lower quality and quantity of output. After sitting down over coffee, we learn that said individual enjoys solving technical problems and wants to manage a team of software engineers. Later this individual also mentions they are aiming for a promotion next cycle. The first goal is intrinsic because it stems from desires within the work. Breaking the first goal into smaller steps, the financial analyst will need to develop two primary skill sets 1) software development and 2) management. The second goal, the promotion, is extrinsic because it is outside validation for good work. As we move forward, we need to keep these goals in mind as we think about how to optimize for the overlap.
Adjust Stimuli to Highlight Overlap
Understanding our team members' individual goals will give us enough information to recognize the overlap. After we have this level of understanding, we can adjust the stimuli they are receiving in order to help them reach their personal goals while also supporting business goals. Adjusting stimuli is not giving into their intrinsic nor extrinsic goals, but rather, we are providing them the right opportunities to reach their intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Stimuli can include, but is not limited to, changes in: projects, roles, office hour, salary, feedback, and/or team members.
Managers are hired to drive the business. In order to succeed, we need to adjust stimuli for our team members in a way that produces results. So, regardless of our team member's intrinsic or extrinsic motivating factors, we need to be able to highlight the overlapping goals by re-framing their vision in terms of business projects.
In the case of the financial analyst mentioned earlier, our team member was seeking a promotion. Adjusting stimuli in this case would involve framing that success on X, Y, Z projects would point towards a promotion. The same would apply if our team member was driven by extrinsic motivating factors (e.g., a raise, higher bonus, and/or better reviews). In parallel, our financial analyst was also aspiring to be a software engineering manager, therefore, we need to find the overlap between our finance projects and software engineering / management. For example, the individual can help write scripts to automate reporting or begin to manage a more junior individual, if we deem them as capable. If we adjust stimuli correctly, the individual should come to realize that pushing business goals will also drive their own personal goals.
Refocus Management Style
After we have found the overlap between business and individual goals and provided the appropriate stimuli, our team members should have refueled their desire to continue learning and developing. We should look to continuously motivate our team members, however, motivation alone is not a management strategy. In order to drive strong business results, motivation needs to be coupled with empowering, mentoring, or micromanagement. I have previously written about each of these three management strategies and the optimal time to utilize each one, so I will not dive into too much detail here.
In broad strokes, we motivate individuals to increase their drive. Assuming our team members are now driven, we empower individuals with high ability to learn and high current capabilities to lead their own projects. We mentor individuals that have high ability to learn, but low current capabilities. Lastly, we micromanage individuals that have low ability to learn, regardless of their current capabilities. If you would like a deeper explanation into each, I have provided the links below to my past articles:
Empowering Lieutenants to Lead Initiatives
Mentoring Effectively — The Nitty Gritty
Micromanagement’s Time and Place
Closing Remarks
Motivation is psychological and involves both extrinsic and intrinsic drivers. We can motivate our teammates by helping them advance towards their goals, not by pushing our goals. After we learn their agenda, we should see how we can adjust our agenda to align with theirs. As managers, if we notice our team members are not currently motivated, we need to understand their individual goals to find the overlap with the business' goals. Afterwards, we can adjust the stimuli they experience such that the external business drivers are aligned with their internal goals.
Through all of these efforts, our team member may be doing the same work, with the same people and the same pay. The only difference? Now they know that we are support them. Now they know we are helping set them up to reach their personal goals. And this is motivating.
If you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear the feedback in the comments below or via email. If you found this piece useful, please share with individuals who might also benefit from my content.