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Leadership Lessons: Cracking the Motivation Code

motivation

motivation

Whether you are a leader managing a team, or a team player, you will have set KPIs with your Manager. The key to hitting these KPIs is maintaining motivation. Without the right motivation driving you to achieve your goals, your next performance review will be no fun at all. 

At a leadership level, you have the added layer of being expected to boost the performance of your team by providing and maintaining that motivation. Everyone wants their team to be happy and productive at work, but it helps to know that people are motivated by different things. To simplify motivation, it can be divided into two distinct categories.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation comes from within – a passion for the work, a sense of accomplishment, aligning with company values and impact, for example. This type of motivation is hard to manufacture, but companies that are clear about their values, work hard on their culture and shout out everyone’s wins will have a good chance of building a team’s intrinsic motivation. It is also important to look for what triggers an individual’s intrinsic motivation when hiring, so as to ensure alignment with the company’s vision, mission and culture.

Extrinsic Motivation

This is the opposite of intrinsic motivation. Employees are motivated by external factors such as money, status, company shares, awards etc. This rewards-based motivation requires leaders to set very clear, achievable goals. The best way to set these goals is to follow the SMART guidelines and ensure they are:

Specific: Well defined, clear, and unambiguous
Measurable: With specific criteria that measure your progress towards the accomplishment of the goal
Achievable: Attainable and not impossible to achieve
Relevant: It aligns with the company’s mission
Timely: With a clearly defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date

Be very clear about expectations and what the reward will be once the goal is achieved and team’s will remain engaged and high-performing.

Best of Both Worlds

Great leaders are able to keep their teams achieving by using a combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, by rewarding both the output as well as the input of their employees and valuing effort and passion as much as the outcomes.

And, of course, a little mentoring goes a long way towards boosting motivation. The Rare Birds mentoring program for female founders and emerging leaders matches you with an experienced entrepreneur or business leader who has been where you are before and will know how to help you get to where you want to be. Start 2021 with a turbo boost and sign up today.