Monday, July 16, 2012

Management in the truest sense of the word is the ability to get things done through the efforts of other people. Additionally, people do their best work when they are properly motivated.  The thing you have to figure out as a manager is how to motivate your team.

From my perspective, motivating people has two main components; environmental and individual. Your job as the manager is to foster both of these components.

• Environmental motivation is best defined as the mood, sense of purpose, stability and dynamics of the group. In other words, "Is it a nice place to work?"
• Individual motivation refers to the things that motivate a specific person.

Regarding environmental motivation, to the extent possible

• Keep your team engaged with meaningful work
• Communicate, people like to be in the loop
• Foster a friendly and supportive atmosphere
• Provide opportunities for professional growth
• Bring meaning and importance to your team's work
• Help facilitate friendship between staff members
• Encourage teamwork
• Show appreciation to each member of your team for their individual and group accomplishments
• Where appropriate, include your staff members in the decision making process
• Publicly recognize individual employee accomplishments

One thing about environmental motivation is that as the manager of a single department; you are by definition part of a larger organization. As a result, no matter how good a manager you are, you can't totally control your group's environment.

Things such as company mergers, the company's financial stability and unreasonable goals and deadlines imposed on you by upper management can impose incredible stress on your department.  Over time, it is inevitable that you will occasionally be placed in some of these difficult situations.  Your ability to maintain and motivate your team during these tough times could very possibly be the difference between you getting promoted and being replaced.

Regarding individual motivation, the difficulty is that people are motivated by different things.

• The chance of promotion
• Professional recognition
• Opportunity to learn new things
• Feeling part of a team, particularly a winning team
• Money
• Challenging work
• Sense of purpose in their work, such as helping others
• Or sometimes, well, nothing at all.

Your job, as the manager, is to figure out what motivates each of your team members, and within the bounds of fairness, company policy, and appropriateness, provides them with these motivations.

This blog is based on a column I wrote last year, as part of my weekly nationally syndicated column with GateHouse News Service. For my most recent columns refer to your local GateHouse News Service affiliate.

This blog is based on a column I wrote last year, as part of my weekly nationally syndicated column with GateHouse News Service. For my most recent columns refer to your local GateHouse News Service affiliate.

Until next time, manage well, manage smart, and continue to grow.