Leadership Coaching: Motivation - What helps to build a motivating climate?

Motivation is a complex issue and it is useful to consider a few insights to grow understanding. This could be particularly important if you are in a leadership position with responsibility for developing and motivating teams or a coach helping others to understand effective leadership

Recent research identifies 10 important factors or principles that contribute to an environment where people are more likely to feel motivated.

These factors can help you consider aspects of  leadership style concerning giving people an opportunity to :Understand and do their job , Feel valued and respected while they do it and; Be recognised for doing it well.

1. Direction – Having a clear direction and communicating it effectively reduces unwarranted uncertainty and helps to give meaning to peoples work. Lack of direction can cause confusion, infighting and usually lets office politics run riot.
2. Job clarity – having a clear sense of what is required from a job and appropriate, achievable objectives enables people to give their best. Lack of clarity can lead to mistakes, reworks and unnecessary stress.
3. Client/Customer focus – meeting and exceeding client/customer needs gives people a sense of satisfaction and a feeling that their work is meaningful. When the importance of this connection is well understood and embedded in culture, training and development it can provide a very motivating climate. Excellent leadership would help people understand how they directly contribute to great customer/client engagement and the importance of every interaction.
4. Competence – Having the knowledge and skills to do a job naturally increases confidence – people need to feel competent and capable of delivering. Confirmation and development of competence is an important motivator , without it people and often suffer from performance anxiety and at the extreme act in a helpless way
5. Resources – providing people with the right level of resources to do the job makes them feel valued and respected. Sometimes it can be the simpler things that make a big impact such as access to a computer or workstation or more profound things like an engaging working environment
6. Empowerment – Being empowered gives people a sense of freedom to make choices and control over their work. People need to be respected, treated as adults and not micro managed. People who are not empowered can lack responsiveness to customers/clients, deliver service in a robotic way; fail to take responsibility and react poorly to change. At its worst lack of empowerment can lead to subtle acts of sabotage.
7. Involvement – Being consulted and involved enables people to give of their best and encourages ideas and new thinking. People who are consulted about job tasks and projects typically show greater commitment to achieving them. A lack of involvement compresses and wastes the creativity of people and reduces engagement.
8. Co-operation – having a relaxed, open environment helps to build social cohesion in a team/function/organisation. This sense of belonging is a very powerful motivator for a lot of people. Without it different parts of an organisation can become insular and even see other parts of the organisation as the enemy!
9. Feedback – high quality feedback delivered in an effective way helps people know how they are doing and the impact they are making. It helps to confirm and magnify their strengths, talents and gifts as well as highlighting learning and development opportunities
10. Recognition –Giving people recognition for their contribution makes them feel valued and part of something. If people do not feel appreciated their motivation can fall rapidly

In summary the factors that enable motivation are complex and people are motivated by different things, in different mixes, at different times on their journey through life based on their culture, needs, experiences, beliefs, attitudes and values.

Motivation is not something that we can DO to people but we can provide an overall approach or climate that respects and values people thus improving the possibilities of a win: win situation for both individuals and a team or organisation.

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