135. How can I increase employee motivation?

Transcript – Episode 135: How can I increase employee motivation?

Joe: I have bad news. If you’re a leader or a business owner, you cannot motivate your team at work. So, stop trying.

Joe: Welcome to Boss Better Now, sponsored by Boss Hero School, where we teach leaders and business owners how to activate employee commitment in today’s everchanging workplace. All right, friends. How do you increase employee motivation? This is the question I have been asked more than any other in my 20 plus years teaching leaders how to be better bosses and create the conditions that work for people to thrive. Think about it. How many times have you wondered, how do I get people here to care and try and give it all they’ve got? How do I get people here to do hard things when maybe their energy isn’t up to the task or they’re feeling a little bit overwhelmed? Here’s the thing about motivation. When you do a deep dive into where motivation comes from in the workplace, into the psychology of what leads people to part with effort, what you find out very quickly is that motivation isn’t something you can do to someone. And so that’s why I open the episode today by telling you can’t. I want to encourage you to stop trying to motivate people. What we have to understand is that motivation is something that people experience when the conditions are right. If you’ve been the kind of leader who is looking around and going, “Nobody seems to care anymore. People are checked out. I’ve tried pizza parties. I’ve tried pep talks. I’ve even bought everybody gift cards or tried bonuses and nothing is working. How do I motivate these people?” That is the difference between trying to do something to move people forward and understanding that motivation is something that people experience when the conditions are right. It sounds like terrible advice, doesn’t it? coming from a guy who’s supposed to be helping you come a better boss. Stop trying to motivate people. But here’s the thing. Motivation isn’t something that you do in terms of like injecting it like medicine. You can’t manufacture it. Motivation is something that you cultivate by working on the conditions that lead to it. And this is something that we’ve been getting wrong for decades. We’ve been approaching motivation all wrong. We we’ve thought about it as pumping people up or incentivizing them or bribing them with perks, but that’s all rooted in what is called exttrinsic motivation. And research shows that that acts like a shot of caffeine. You might get an energy bump from some people some of the time, but it wears off fast and people return to baseline. The kind of motivation that truly matters, the kind that leads to sustained effort, to sustained creativity and commitment is intrinsic. It comes from within. And your job as a boss or as a business owner isn’t to create it. Your job is to create the conditions where it can flourish. So, stop thinking of yourself like a motivational speaker. Nobody likes those guys anyway. And I want you to think of yourself instead more like a gardener. Gardeners don’t make plants grow. They tend to a whole set of conditions, the right soil, the right sunlight, water, etc. And then growth happens naturally. So, what are the conditions that unlock motivation at work? When we researched employee commitment for my book, Employee, we found that people show up motivated at work when three factors align. Number one, they believe they have their ideal job. Number two, they believe they’re doing meaningful work. And number three, they believe they have a great boss. Let’s break down what each of these means for you practically. First, ideal job. This means that the job fits properly and sustainably into their life. The employee believes that they’re paid fairly. The employee believes that their workload is manageable. the employee gets some flexibility so they can influence some aspect of when, where, and how they work. Now, you might be thinking, Joe, I can’t give everyone raises or I can’t cut people’s hours. Maybe not. But here’s where most bosses miss it. Have you asked what people need for their job to fit ideally into their life? You’re probably going to get different answers from people. Maybe one person needs to leave early on Tuesdays for their kids’ soccer practice. Maybe another employee needs two hours of deep work time without interruptions. Maybe a third employee needs to know their schedule 2 weeks ahead of time in order for that job to fit. A lot of the things that we can do to create that ideal job circumstance for people aren’t always things that are going to cost you money. Sometimes they just cost you attention and flexibility. Now, let’s look at meaningful work. That second factor, people are motivated when they believe that their work matters. When they see the impact, they’re having. And here’s a mistake that a lot of leaders make. Most bosses think meaning comes from the big organizational mission statement, but that’s not true. Most people find meaning in the small, specific ways they make a difference today, right now. And so, you motivate employees or create the conditions for motivation when you point these things out. This is the difference between simply saying, “Thanks for your hard work.” and saying, “Boy, when you stayed calm with that difficult customer this morning, you probably saved their business. That really mattered. Thank you for how you showed up.” Do you hear the difference? You connected the dots between their action and an outcome. Now, that third factor is the great boss factor. And this one, well, it’s on you. People are motivated when they trust their boss, when they get coached and developed by their boss, and when they know their boss has their back. This means that you’re taking time to develop a relationship with your employee, to care about what they care about, to know what matters most to them, and to try to engineer a work experience that doesn’t negatively impact those things. This means that you’re plugged in. You’re making time. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. You just have to be present. You have to be honest. And you have to be in their corner. And so, let me give you now four tactics that we know work to engineer motivation for employees. We just talked about some of the conditions. These are a handful of things that you can deploy this week, right now, to try to move the needle on motivation for your team. Number one, tell impact stories as often as possible. I alluded to this a few minutes ago. Stop saying good job and instead be more specific. Start saying here’s the difference you made. Point to the moment. Connect the action to the outcome. When people see their impact, they’re motivated to keep creating it. Tactic number two, ask about their workload and then lighten it. Look for ways when you can engage with your people and find out what’s weighing them down. What’s keeping them busy? Where and how and when do they experience feelings of overwhelm and see what you can do about it. Ask them, hey, what’s feeling heavy right now? And then, and this is crucial, do something about it. Can you take something off their plate? Can you push back a deadline? Can you delay a new project on their behalf? Few things motivate people more than a boss who protects my capacity. Tactic number three, I want you to invite them into something new. We know that energy and motivation at work dies from boredom from time to time. So, where can you offer them new and interesting and challenging things to be a part of? Maybe you ask someone to lead a meeting. Maybe you spend some time asking them to train a new hire or be involved in mentoring a new member of the team. Maybe you invite them to partner with you on a project or initiative that they’ve never touched before. Growth is motivating. Variety is interesting. Stagnation kills our energy. Keep people fresh by keeping it fresh. And finally, tactic number four. I want you to catch people improving, not just succeeding. We’ve spent time here today talking about praising outcomes, but I want you to notice and name people’s progress, too. If you see someone handle something differently than the last time, point it out. Say, “Hey, I saw that you handled that a little bit differently than the last time. I really liked that in that interaction you were having with that person. You didn’t get defensive. You stayed curious. That’s real growth. Way to go.” When people know you see their evolution, they’re motivated to keep evolving. So, there you have it. Motivation isn’t something you do to someone. Motivation is something that people experience when you create the right conditions. And those conditions aren’t complicated. They’re about treating people well, connecting them to purpose, and showing up as a boss who is worthy of their effort. So, stop trying to be a motivating boss and start creating workplaces worth being motivated in. Thanks for being here. See you next time.

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