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It’s January. Budgets are stretched, it’s still a long time until pay day and if you haven’t given up on your New Year’s resolutions soon, you know it won’t be long until you do. How do you motivate the project team to give their best through the long, gloomy winter days (at least in this hemisphere) when you don’t feel very cheerful yourself?
The main challenge (complaint?) I hear from project managers about motivating their team members is that they have no authority to give financial reward. Project managers are not line managers. They have no control over salary and they don’t have the ability to authorise overtime payments, let alone bonuses. And we all know that money is a motivating factor, isn’t it?
Well, actually it’s not that much of a motivating factor as you’d think. Tom Kendrick writes about the work of Frederick Herzberg in his new book Results without Authority. You may have heard of Herzberg before – he’s the one who came up with the six motivating factors: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth.
You may also have heard of the ‘hygiene factors’ – the things that Herzberg considers pre-requisites for happy workers. Salary falls into this bracket, along with topics like corporate policy and working conditions. “If the hygiene factors seem okay, people mostly ignore them,” writes Kendrick. “However, when workers view these aspects of their jobs as inadequate, especially when compared with other available job opportunities, they are grump and uncooperative. Sooner or later, they vote with their feet and leave.”
Hygiene factors may be largely out of your control: you can’t set company policy or spruce up the office so it’s a nicer place to work. But if those are all okay, they won’t provide a problem for your team. So forget about the hygiene factors. Think about those motivating factors instead.
Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. You can provide those for your project team, can’t you?
Achievement: create an environment where people can complete tasks. Don’t set anyone up to fail. Help team members by providing what they need to get the job done.
Recognition: another easy one! Say thank you. Put a note in your diary to thank someone weekly. Tap into corporate recognition schemes or local awards. Give credit in your status reports or presentations.
The work: make sure that the team members know why they are working on that particular project. Make the work meaningful by ensuring they understand the value of what they are doing and how it contributes to the organisation’s goals.
Responsibility: delegate. And don’t delegate everything to your right-hand man (or woman). Find a way to give responsibility for tasks to everyone in the team, so everyone feels accountable for their section of the project.
Advancement: this is a bit trickier. You may not be in a position to promote someone, but you can help them gain the skills they need to advance in their career. You could also provide direct feedback to their line manager to support their promotion or advancement. If the team member is really stuck for career prospects at your company, you can help them build their CV or resume and support them in their quest for a job outside your organisation.
Growth: everyone should get something out of the project on a personal level. Is the team learning something new? Building new skills? Trying out new technology? Find ways to highlight how the project is providing them with opportunities to improve and grow in their careers.
And the best thing about all this? It’s free! You don’t have to spend any money on motivating people if you understand how motivation works and you take the time to understand what motivates your team members.
How do you motivate your team?
Posted on: January 14, 2012 04:27 PM |
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