Every leader wants employees who are naturally self-motivated. Unfortunately, most of us learn that this isn’t how people work. The nature of professional employment is to be asked to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do (hence the paycheck), and that means a lot of people doing just enough to earn that paycheck and little else. Our task as leaders is to help bridge that gap for the employees, helping them get from “I guess this is good enough” to “I really want to do a great job here” by inspiring and motivating them.
But there’s the rub. Motivating employees can be incredibly challenging! If you’re lucky, some employees will be blessedly self-motivated and eager to jump into any task with full gusto, but most will require you to do something more than telling them what to do to get the best outcome. This isn’t your employees’ fault. They’re not lazy, they’re not unmotivated, they’re just people.
Our job is to help them get motivated by making their work more meaningful to them. You, as their leader, need to change how you assign work. You need to make sure that every employee understands why the work is meaningful, feels enrolled, has flexibility, and makes a specific commitment.
Make the “why” meaningful
Your employees need a good reason to work hard. And “because I said so” isn’t a good reason. I know many managers who say that the paycheck is reason enough, but expecting an employee to go the extra mile just because they’re getting paid is naive and unrealistic. It’s natural for people to cut corners when they don’t have a good reason not to.
If you want your employees to give the discretionary effort required for motivated, consistent effort, you need to be able to explain, in a way they can understand, why the work is important and why doing a great job is important. Why is this task being done? How is it helping the organization? How is it helping customers? Is it saving time/money/efficiency?
Employees need a reason to care. They need a reason to give more than minimum effort on things you’re telling them to do. And the reason has to be meaningful to them. Do you know what your employees care about? Are they competitive? Are they compassionate? Do they like feeling accomplished? Connect the work you’re asking for to things your employees care about. How are you supposed to know what they care about? Ask them!
Show that you want their buy-in
Nobody wants to be told what to do. Everyone wants to feel like their involvement is being solicited, not mandated. Explain work to your team with patience. Repeat yourself if needed and be prepared to give good reasons why the task is being done. Ask for their questions, sincerely. Listen to their concerns and complaints. If they make good points, take time to consider them and revisit the conversation if you need to adjust the plan.
You need to show that you care about their buy-in. Sometimes, that means saying: “it’s important to me that I have your buy-in”. Other times, that means showing that it matters by not mandating their participation, but by explaining the task clearly and showing why it’s important. People are much more likely to do a task well if they volunteer for it themselves rather than if they’re forced into it. So by showing that their buy-in is important to you, you’re much more likely to get it.
Give them flexibility
Allow employees to negotiate aspects of how the job gets done. If you give them flexibility on parts of the job that might be the most challenging for them and their skillset, then they’ll be less likely to skip the task altogether. You’ll be surprised how many employees skip over work because there’s one aspect of it that they feel bad at or frustrated by. Find a way to give them flexibility on that part of the job. This helps with buy-in and encourages your employees to be problem solvers and part of the solution.
For teams with more natural autonomy, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the overall goal, you should consider giving them as much input as they would like. Tell them the parts that are non-negotiable, and then let them know that the rest is up to them. “[Step 1], [Step 2], and [Step 3], are the most important, everything else is up to you.” This method shows that you trust their skills and judgment, which both builds your relationship with them and gives them skin in the game.
Ask for an explicit commitment
What’s the one word answer most employees give when they’ve been asked to do something?
“Okay.”
This isn’t a commitment! The only thing “okay” communicates to you is that they heard what you said. You need your employees to make an explicit, verbal commitment to do the work you’ve assigned, especially if the work requires attention to detail or levels of complexity.
Ask your employee to repeat back to you what they’ve been asked to do and to reiterate the most important aspects (from their perspective). Then, ask them if they believe they can make a commitment to getting this work done. It seems simple, but getting your employees to make the commitment verbally is going to underscore the importance and make them feel like they’ve given a promise.
As a leader, you ask your employees for lots of little things, so by being more intentional with important tasks, you give the assignment more weight. And, if after all this your employees still seem reluctant, then you might have two larger problems: 1) you haven’t hired the right people for the task/responsibility or 2) you’re not being reasonable about what you’re asking the employees to do.
Is this assignment something you’d be willing to do if you were in their shoes? Are your employees overburdened and drowning in other work? Be sure you’re plugged into your team and how they feel about their workload. If 50% or more of your department can’t seem to perform the work to your satisfaction, then you probably have a larger problem.
Good luck out there.
-Patrick