Motivating people and teams is a crucial factor in leadership and people management. Understanding what motivates individuals and teams can help managers inspire better performance and engagement in the workplace.
We are also going to be exploring some of the key theories behind motivation. Additionally, we will share practical strategies that business owners and employers can use to motivate staff in the workplace.
In this leadership and people management unit, we are going to be looking at what motivation is, and why it is important when you are managing staff and teams.
In this leadership and people management unit, we are going to be looking at what motivation is, and why it is important when you are managing staff and teams. We are also going to be exploring some of the key theories behind motivation, and sharing some practical strategies that business owners and employers can use to motivate staff in the workplace.
What is motivation?
When we talk about motivation, we are essentially referring to the different factors or drivers that cause people to behave in a certain way. From a leadership and people management perspective, this means the factors or drivers that determine how your employees perform in their roles - for example, in terms of the level of commitment, pride, enthusiasm, energy, and creativity that they bring to work with them each day. These factors or drivers will also influence things like how committed to or engaged with the company they feel, how empowered they feel in their roles, and how driven they feel to achieve the goals or results your company desires.
For this to be possible, it is important that employees are motivated and are exposed to the right factors or drivers to encourage them to behave in the desired way.
They are also more satisfied within their roles, more creative and innovative in their thinking, and more likely to take on additional responsibilities.
They may also avoid tasks, be late to work, or have higher rates of absence. Essentially, they won’t put any commitment, passion, or energy into their work.
They accomplish tasks more quickly and have higher productivity levels. Moreover, motivated employees are more committed and want to do a good job rather than just “getting it done.”
Why is employee motivation important?
Most business owners or employers will share the same goal: for their employees to perform as effectively and efficiently in their roles as possible. This supports the company in achieving its goals, targets, objectives, or desired results.
Motivated employees can have several positive impacts on the productivity and output of a company. Not only are motivated employees more likely to perform better and achieve better results, but they are also more efficient.
By comparison, when employees are unmotivated, they are more likely to be unfocused and bored. They work at a slower pace and are less productive.
Fortunately, it is definitely possible to turn an unmotivated employee into a motivated one. For this reason, it is important that employers and business owners know how to motivate employees, and how to tap into different motivation strategies to drive their employees to achieve the results they desire.
Types of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic
When intrinsic motivation is present, it is likely to be long-lasting.
It is important that business owners and employers recognise that many different types and styles of motivation exist, and that what motivates employees can differ from person to person, and what motivates one employee may not necessarily be what motivates another employee. Instead, business owners and employers need to understand the different types and styles of motivation that might drive their employees, and know how to tap into these to provide their employees with the right type of motivation. This will enable them to motivate employees in ways that appeal to them, to drive them to achieve optimal performance in their roles.
Negative extrinsic motivation might include the risk of losing money or facing disciplinary action.
There are two main types of motivation that business owners or employers need to be aware of: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation occurs when employees are motivated by internal factors - for example, a personal interest, goal, or sense of achievement or gratification; personal values or beliefs; or doing something just because it makes you feel good.
Employee beliefs, values, and attitudes are perhaps some of the best examples of this type of motivation. For instance, if you have an employee who values success, and sees performance at work as something that is important to them, they are more likely to have this intrinsic motivation to perform well, achieve success, and behave at work in a way that puts your company on the right track to achieving the desired results. By comparison though, if you have an employee who is very unmotivated, doesn’t like to work hard, and sees their job as “just a job”, they are less likely to have this intrinsic motivation, and may not perform as well. They may also be less motivated to improve their performance, and less driven to achieve the goals, objectives, and results your business desires. With that said though, that’s not to say that it might not be possible to still motivate them in other ways - only that a different approach to motivation may be required (which we will get onto shortly).
Before we move onto this though, let’s look at some examples of intrinsic motivation. One example of intrinsic motivation could be if, at your accounting or bookkeeping practice, you had a new junior staff member who has just graduated from school. Initially, their role might revolve around things like reception or administration. However, after spending time working alongside the chartered accountants and bookkeepers in your team, that team member might decide that accounting or bookkeeping is something that really interests them. This personal interest is an example of intrinsic motivation. Because they have this interest, that employee may then be motivated to undertake formal study in accounting or bookkeeping, and turn this interest into a career in the field. As a result of this intrinsic motivation, that employee is then driven to expand their knowledge and skillset, and gain new skills that could benefit you and your business.
There is attitude motivation, achievement motivation, and physiological motivation among others that can influence employee behavior.
Because intrinsic motivation comes from within, it can be challenging to promote or stimulate in employees. However, providing positive feedback or praise is a great way to increase their sense of intrinsic motivation.
Because intrinsic motivation is something that comes from “inside”, it can be challenging to promote, stimulate, or foster in employees. This is true whether you are looking to inspire and tap into intrinsic motivation in an individual employee, or in an entire team. However, that’s not to say that it can’t be done. In fact, providing employees with positive feedback or praise is a great way to make them feel appreciated, and increase their sense of intrinsic motivation. When intrinsic motivation is present, it is likely to be long-lasting.
The other type of motivation is extrinsic motivation, where employees are motivated by external factors such as rewards or threats of punishment. In the workplace, positive extrinsic motivation could be wages, bonuses, or recognition.
The strategies will vary depending on the employees’ motivational styles and the type of business.
However, the drawback is that extrinsic motivation typically lasts for a shorter period of time and has less of a lasting impact.
As some examples of extrinsic motivation, at your accounting or bookkeeping practice, you might decide to motivate your team by offering everybody a bonus if they achieve a particular goal or result by the end of the month. Your employees will be driven to perform well in their roles, because they know that if they do, they will be rewarded with the bonus.
By the same token, as another example, you might have a particular team member at your accounting or bookkeeping practice who consistently underperforms, and puts little effort into their work. After providing that employee with several warnings, and providing them with numerous opportunities to improve their behaviour and performance, they might still be behaving in the same way. You might then warn them that if they continue to behave in that way, they could face disciplinary action or lose their job. When faced with the prospect of being fired, they are likely to then be driven to improve their behaviour, which is another example of an extrinsic motivator.
Whereas intrinsic motivation can be challenging to foster in employees, extrinsic motivation is often easier to foster. Because extrinsic motivation revolves around the promise of a reward or threat of a punishment, you can boost your employees’ motivation quickly (whereas intrinsic motivation can take a longer time to build). It also works well for groups, as well as for motivating individual employees. However, the drawback with this type of motivation is that whereas intrinsic motivation is long lasting, extrinsic motivation typically lasts for a shorter period of time, and has less of a hold on employees.
Other types of motivation
Other types of motivation exist under intrinsic or extrinsic categories, such as competence motivation, which is driven by a desire to expand knowledge and develop skills.
These strategies can be pivotal in ensuring a motivated workforce, which ultimately leads to better results.
For example, under the umbrella of intrinsic motivation, you have competence motivation, which is when employees are driven by the desire or willingness to expand their knowledge and develop new skills. You also have attitude motivation (which is when employees are motivated to do something because it aligns with their personal beliefs or values around what they think is good or right); achievement motivation (which is when employees are driven by the personal desire to achieve a particular goal); creative motivation (which is when employees desire the opportunity to express themselves creatively in some way); physiological motivation (which is when employees are driven by their physical and wellbeing needs); and affiliate motivation (which is when employees are driven by the prospect of being a part of a team or group, and a desire to belong).
Likewise, under the extrinsic motivation umbrella, you also have a couple of different types of motivation, such as reward-based motivation (which is when employees are promised some kind of reward in exchange for working hard or achieving a specific result); fear-based motivation (which is when employees are driven by the desire to avoid punishment or other negative feelings); and power-based motivation (which is when employees desire to lead others).
While intrinsic motivation can be challenging to foster, extrinsic motivation is often easier to promote. It revolves around the promise of reward or threat of punishment, which can quickly boost motivation.
Understanding these theories of motivation helps business owners and employers develop tailored strategies to motivate employees effectively.
Before we start exploring some practical strategies that business owners and employers can implement in the workplace to drive and motivate their employees, it is important that we understand some of the background and theory behind employee motivation. There are four key theories of motivation that we are going to be looking at, which explore the concept of staff motivation and the factors that go into this from a few different perspectives.
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: This theory suggests that there are five different needs that employees need to have met before they can be motivated: physiological needs (such as shelter, food, water, and sleep), safety needs (such as good health, secure employment, and protection from danger), social (such as a sense of belonging, feeling of being loved, and friendship with others), self-esteem (such as feeling respected and recognised), and self-actualisation (such as fulfilling a desire for learning and personal development, being challenged, reaching their potential, and realising their talents). This theory structures these five needs in a pyramid model, with the most important, basic, low-level needs at the bottom, and higher-level needs at the top - starting from physiological needs and working all the way up to self-actualisation. This theory suggests that for an employee to be motivated, all of their needs need to be met; and that for this to occur, they must fulfil each lower-level need first, before working their way up to the next higher-level need. In the workplace, this theory can be applied by business owners and employers working with their team members to ensure that their lower-level needs are being satisfied, and helping them to fulfil their higher-level needs (for example, by providing them with opportunities to take on new responsibilities, learn new skills, or grow within their role).
2. Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: This theory suggests that employees have two types of needs: hygiene factors (such as working conditions, the relationships they have with co-workers, the quality of their managers or supervisors, and the policies, rules, and expectations that their workplace has) and motivating factors (such as responsibilities, achievements, and recognition). However, employees cannot be motivated by these hygiene factors alone, and instead, both these hygiene factors and motivating factors need to be satisfied for them to be motivated in the workplace. Therefore, business owners and employers need to factor both of these in when determining the best way to motivate their employees. For example, do things like working conditions, management and leadership styles, and policies and procedures need work first, before moving onto things like helping employees to take on extra responsibility, achieve their goals, and gain a sense of recognition in the workplace?
3. Vroom’s Theory of Expectancy: This theory states that an individual employee’s motivation is influenced by the expectations they have around their future at work and as an employee. In particular, there are three factors that influence this: expectancy (the expectation or belief that an employee has that if they put in more effort or work harder, their performance will be better); instrumentality (the belief of employees that if they perform well, a positive outcome will be achieved); and valence (which refers to the amount of emphasis, importance, or value an employee attributes to a particular outcome). This last one is of particular relevance to business owners and employers who are trying to work out the best way to motivate their employees, as this once again taps into the idea that what works for one employee might not work for another. For example, if an employee is most motivated by money, then offering non-monetary perks is unlikely to be a good motivator.
4. McClelland’s Theory of Needs: This theory of motivation suggests that there are three main drivers that may motivate employees in the workplace: achievement (which refers to an employee’s desire to achieve a particular result or goal, or attain a personal sense of accomplishment); affiliation (which refers to an employee’s desire to be accepted socially); and power (which refers to an employee’s desire to have power, control, and influence over others). The theory suggests that everybody will have one driver that motivates them more than the other two, so business owners and employers need to work out the driver that motivates each employee the most when determining the best way to motivate them.
These theories of motivation can provide business owners and employers with a good theoretical knowledge and background understanding, as they move into developing tailored practical strategies to motivate their employees in the workplace. Although exactly what these strategies look like will vary, depending on your employees’ motivational style and the type of business that you run, the same theoretical principles will apply and need to be taken into account when identifying the most effective and appropriate strategies.
For practical strategies to motivate your staff, resources from the Australian Government’s Business website offer useful tips for business owners.
Practical strategies to motivate staff and teams
There are a number of different strategies that business owners and employers can implement in the workplace to motivate their staff, both individually and on a teamwide basis. These include:
- Distributing surveys to your employees to gauge how satisfied and motivated they currently feel at work (as this will enable you to identify areas for improvement, and gain insight into what they feel would be most likely to motivate them)
- Helping your employees to set goals (to help give them meaning in their work, and put them on the right track to achieving their higher-level needs, such as a desire for achievement and self-actualisation)
- Providing employees with praise and positive, meaningful feedback (so they feel recognised and appreciated for their hard work and performance)
- Celebrating employees’ achievements, no matter how big or small, along with all the smaller milestones along the way (another way to make employees feel valued, recognised, and appreciated)
- Empowering employees to explore their interests, and encouraging them to take advantages of opportunities to learn, upskill, and engage in professional development (which taps into those higher-level self-actualisation needs we talked about)
- Engaging your employees in decision-making, and following through on their ideas and suggestions (which helps them to feel “heard” and that their opinions are valued)
A lot of the time, business owners and employers find themselves experimenting with a few different types or styles of motivation before they land on the one that works best for them and their employees. With time though, it is definitely do-able to uncover the factors that motivate your employees, and which they value the most, and learn how to best leverage these to maximise the performance of your employees, as well as your business.
Again, the approach that works best will depend on the employees as individuals, and the style of motivation that appeals to them or works best for them. The overarching key is for business owners and employers to ensure employees feel heard, respected, valued, and empowered in their roles - all of which go a long way in creating a sense of motivation in employees.
For practical strategies to motivate your staff, resources from the Australian Government’s Business website offer useful tips for business owners.