When creating teams, motivating people is important. I think Intrinsic motivation (motivation coming from the inside) is much more important then external motivation.
IT people care a lot about their work. Hell, we create a lot of Holy war’s because we care so much.
This summer my 5 year old son was learning to swim. He enjoyed the challenge. He wanted to tell people I can swim. He was proud of what he was doing.
He did not need me to motivate him (Not to say that a little encouragement did not help.)
Actually when I promised to buy him a pair of swimming glasses when he could swim he lost interest in learning to swim.
==> I killed the intrinsic motivation by offering external motivation.
Because that intrinsic motivation is so important with people, a big part of BootCamp (Now rebranded as Reboot) is focused on Personal alignment. When people know what they want and what their team mates want, creating a shared vision is easy.
And we all know that a team with a shared vision will be much more productive then a team without a vision or a team with a “management vision”.
Mike Griffith wrote about a free Mastering Personal Agility Webinar. I missed it, but I think I would have liked it.
I will definitely check out Christopher Avery’s book: “Teamwork is an Individual Skill”
So what motivates me? I enjoy creating a team, where people create great results. Seeing people go the extra mile because they want their project to succeed. That’s what I want from my work.
My personal alignment is Peace. I want to feel more peaceful. Creating such a team might give less peace (as we have to go through the Storming phase)
I don’t mind because the peace there is before such a team is not really peace for me, it feels more like cold war.
Now it’s up to you, what motivates you?
Update: if you are interested in Intrinsic motivation, you might also be interested in my 7 tips to compensate a team
I am Yves Hanoulle, your virtual Project coach and you can reach me at blog at my training company .net
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[...] Update: you might also be interested in my post about intrinsic motivation. [...]
[...] During this workshop I told the story of me killing the intrinsic motivation of my 5 year old son by offering him a reward for swimming. [...]
[...] story of Joppe losing intrest in swimming is a nice example of [...]
The key to effective intrinsic motivation is balance.
You cannot care too much, but as a manager you can over do the whole intrinsic motivational piece. What I am talking about is being seen as Mr. Nice Guy or Ms. Pushover. This is the antithesis of what the intrinsic motivator is working towards. The whole point of building intrinsic motivation is to build respect for you and your goals. If a manager does not address behavior or production deficiencies properly all the intrinsic motivation building will be for nothing. Where managers go wrong is the proper application of negative (for lack of a better word) extrinsic motivation.
When you catch someone doing something right you praise them quickly and publicly. When you catch them doing something wrong, you must reprimand them quickly and privately. This is the piece that so many managers I have trained struggle with. It is difficult to catch someone doing something right when you have your eyes focused only on the goal and you have blinders on to the little everyday things that are going on around you. On the flip side, a little pebble in the road causes you to look down for a moment, taking your eye off the goal. It is not the little pebble that has you disheveled but the fact that you momentarily lost your focus. This causes many managers to lash out at the pebble offender in front of others. This lashing, even if it is only a couple of seconds will destroy the intrinsic motivation house of cards.
So, you may ask, “How do I fix this?”
It is really quite easy.
1. Never, never, never, never, never, never, express a negative opinion about anything publicly. Not even a bad comment about the weather or a sports team should pass your lips. This does a couple of things. It gets you in the habit of talking positively. If you never make a negative comment about anything, you don’t have to worry about something coming out when it is inappropriate.
2. When someone has not been trained you cannot reprimand them, period. This person must be trained not beat-up. You should take this person aside and gently tell them what needs to be done. You express no disappointment whatsoever.
3. When someone should know better due to training and they do something wrong, you take them to your office. Close the door. Sit down. Very calmly tell them the circumstances that led to this meeting. Tell them that you are disappointed that this thing happened. Direct your feelings toward the pebble in the road not toward them personally. Tell them that this cannot happen again. Tell them that you have complete confidence in their ability based on the great work they have done in the past; stand up, shake hands, and end the meeting. This meeting should not last more than 2 minutes. Don’t let it drag on. Never mention this meeting outside of your private office.
If you have done this right, intrinsic motivation will not be damaged. At the same time, you have addressed negatives and kept an employee motivated.
Paris Street
Paris Street is a Senior Management Professional with nearly 3 decades of practical experience in a diverse range of sales and marketing management principles including Total Quality Management in selection, training, and retention of quality employees producing exemplary rated customer service teams. Skilled communicator at all levels, with a talent for coaching and developing, creating a culture of success, attaining buy-in and empowering individuals and teams to meet and exceed organizational goals.
I don’t understand. You are talking about building intrinsic motivation.
For me intrinsic motivation, means you can not build it.
eveything else you write I understand and mostly agree with.
I don’t agree with the never talk negatively point.
I don’t want to be mister perfect for a team. That will put too much presure on them. On top of that that gives the message that they could never say negative things. While in most teams bringing a negative message to a supperior is hard to do.
I do agree that saying something negative about a person should be done in private. (I see myself breaking that rule more then I wish)
Dear Paircoaching,
Intrinsic motivation is the stuffing that makes people do a job well. People do not come to you pre-stuffed. Your job as a manger is to fill them up. To be successful you must learn that building intrinsic motivation is the #1 job of any manager. Building people up, encouraging them when you find them doing something right, being sensitive to their emotions when you must point out something wrong and issue discipline, these are the areas where you build intrinsic motivation.
I am sorry that you misunderstand the distinction between negative conversation and private discipline talks. Negative conversation is poison to intrinsic motivation. Negative conversation has no place whatsoever in even the smallest degree coming from the mouth of a manager who is developing a team. I am not talking about constructive descent as negative conversation. You seem to be confusing “pointing out challenges that need to be overcome” with “negative conversation”. That is not what I am talking about. I send regular emails to my teams asking this question, “What is wrong with this idea or that program, etc,.” I have made it clear to my teams that the door is always open for respectful constructive criticism.
You are right about one thing. Being positive all the time puts pressure on the team. This is positive pressure. It builds and lifts everybody up. The focus is always on the great things of the day and what tomorrow will bring. This is not to say that you should be Pollyanna about things, just positive about the outcome.
Paris V. Street
Paris Street is a Senior Management Professional with nearly 3 decades of practical experience in a diverse range of sales and marketing management principles including Total Quality Management in selection, training, and retention of quality employees producing exemplary rated customer service teams. Skilled communicator at all levels, with a talent for coaching and developing, creating a culture of success, attaining buy-in and empowering individuals and teams to meet and exceed organizational goals.
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