Motivate Collectively and Individually

What motivates your team to achieve their goals?

Is it a long list, or a short one? Does everyone on your team share the same motivations?

As centered, high performance leaders it's our job to motivate our whole team. That requires some knowledge about what each team member finds to be motivating. It will vary from team member to team member.

Some things will motivate everyone on the team (if you have the right people on the team) and some things are specific to each person. It's our job to figure that out. The best way is to ask, in one to one dialogues.

Some people find competition motivating, and others find it stifling. Some people find collaboration essential while other prefer and independent type of cooperation. Many people will say that financial incentives will motivate them, and that may be true for a while, but personal and more transformative incentives (like career development and doing the kind of work that you enjoy and working with people you find energizing) are much more powerful and persistent.

But one size does not fit all. What charges one person may choke another.

What motivates one person might poison another.

As leaders it serves us best to focus our clarity, courage, creativity and compassion around understanding the different motivators on our team and then to motivate both collectively and individually. That's a great way to build a high performance team.

What motivates your team collectively?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Are you interested in developing leadership in your organization? Contact me about bringing one or more workshops to your location.

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