Leadership & Motivation
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is assuming everyone in their team is motivated by the same thing. Some are driven by purpose, growth, a sense of belonging, and contribution. Others are driven by remuneration, status and progression.
As a leader, knowing what motivates your team is one of the most useful insights you can have when you need to unlock better performance or resolve team challenges. There are various layers to motivation theory with lots of research done on what motivates us. For simplicity, I will be referring to the two broad types of motivation:
Intrinsic motivation: this refers to an internal need that an individual has to do something because it feels rewarding, meaningful or fulfilling. For example, an individual who is new to your team will be motivated by feeling accomplished once they can start contributing meaningful ideas in meetings. As a leader, you can easily support this goal by giving them access to systems that allow them to learn what they need to contribute in meetings. This creates a self-motivated drive to continue to perform to their best ability. And it all started with a leader recognising what that team member needed.
Extrinsic motivation: this refers to external factors that drive an individual’s performance. A classic example of this is remuneration. In most organisations, performance targets are tied to a bonus, commission or pay review where the size of the reward is often linked to the level of performance. Whilst this seems very simple, leaders must be careful to ensure that they do not create a culture where employees only focus on what they can get.
While the two examples given seem quite straightforward, in my experience working with senior leadership teams, these are very real examples of things that motivate individuals.
Any leader who is eager to continue to drive team performance needs to explore and apply both types of motivation to their teams. In reality, every one of us has both motivations and depending on the situation, one may override the other. Leaning too much on one type of motivation may lead to frustration as employees’ deeper needs are overlooked. As a leader, your role is to frequently check in with and listen to your team’s feedback about which of their needs isn’t being met.
Of course, motivation alone is not enough. Teams also need clear goals, shared expectations and the capability to deliver. A leader who understands what motivates their team is in a much stronger position to create the conditions for success.
