Engagement: Creating a Motivational Environment

When you start realizing you need a more motivational environment in your organization, you'll probably start looking for advice. You might even try to act on some of it.

You might go through a list and try different things: giving out rewards, showing appreciation, being more flexible, giving personal space, asking for feedback, having integrity as a leader, being nice, contributing to the community together, clarifying your missions. Of course, there are plenty of recommendations out there, and it's usually not clear where to start.

Apply Specific Solutions to Specific Challenges

The main challenge with motivating people is you have an infinite number of options. There's another challenge: Not all those options will work for your unique organization.

You could be as nice as humanly possible and still see minimal results. Being nice would be a poor strategy if your culture is highly competitive, focuses on individual achievement, and operates on an internal zero-sum framework, for example.

Go against the grain and, at best, you'll look like the odd one out. At worst, you'll undermine your culture and de-motivate your team.

Promoting engagement is not about doing things right according to some tried-and-true methods. It's about doing the right thing for your situation and your people. 

Define the Problem

A lack of engagement in your organization usually comes from one of three things. At the organizational, interpersonal, and individual scales, they are:

●        Vision: People don't understand what your company is doing.

●        Culture: People don't feel like they're part of any specific group.

●        Access: People aren't able to collaborate, learn and perform the way they could. 

Each one of these is a prerequisite for the one that comes next. You need a clear vision for people to feel like they're part of a cohesive culture. You need a strong culture to make people want to collaborate, develop and do the right thing. Once those two things are in place, you can provide the opportunities team members want for individual growth.

Knowing where the problem is will help you focus your efforts. This is where your soft leadership skills will be useful — gathering information and understanding how people feel about your organization.

Do the Right Thing

Once you have the information you need, it's time to act. However, action isn't always easy.

Here's one piece of advice you won't see in many "motivational environment" lists: Be prepared to help a problematic team member become “available to the industry.” It does wonders for your people to see you backing up your words with actions. Hopefully, you won't have to go that far.

You’ll also watch your team became more successful. That's just one way that doing the right thing — even if it isn't the easiest thing — can create high levels of engagement in your organization.

Keep It Up

Creating an engaging environment takes commitment and practice. You'll have to continue to assess your challenges and apply the right techniques over and over. The good news is that, with a motivated team, you'll have help when you need it.

Are you ready to dive in and discover how to motivate your organization?