Of course, I am sure you lead your team with the best intent. Just remember that we all have different needs!
For some people it can seem appealing and fun to imagine climbing this huge rock (called "Dent de Jaman" with 1874m high) and for some others just scary or very annoying and tiring.
I can share that my husband wasn't really thrilled when I suggested this idea whereas I was very much looking forward to it. But he did enjoy the view once we got there and we are both proud that we dared to climb it once together :-)
When you look at the achievements and under-achievements of your employees, do you pay enough attention at their motivators and blockers?
Motivation leads to performance, and not vice versa, which is why it is to the highest interest of any organisation to take care of it.
You may be surprised to discovery that what motivates you may demotivate some of your team members and vice-versa (for example setting very ambitious goals, having lots of room for creativity or defining a very structured organization).
You know that, as a team leader, you are responsible and accountable for the positive creative energy within your team.
Now, remember that you can’t motivate people. We can’t motivate anyone else, just ourselves. Motivation is an inner feeling, which is why, as a leader, you need to create and nurture the right conditions for your employees to feel motivated.
How can you do that?
- talk regularly to your team members, ask them for feedback with open questions (how do you feel in your job? In the team? What do you need from me?) . Listen to their answers and then most importantly act on them. I once had a new manager who asked me these questions. Instead of taking my answers into account, he set up everything in the team that demotivated me (a lot of competition between team members and clear different treatment between male and female team members.)
- use metric models (such as Insights Discovery, but there are of course others like MBTI, …) within your team. They can help you better understand each other, discover motivators and demotivators and develop your team dynamics more in-depth !
You feel you need some help to optimize the right conditions to have a motivated team? Feel free to contact me.