Business Manager: The Motivational Agent:- Karine AUBRY, specialized in executive and manager coaching, gives us here her vision of things about the motivation of employees. We thank him warmly and let him speak. Seminars, team building, slogans, meetings, messages, challenges, incentives ….. Below this post is all about the importance of business manager as motivational agent.
Business Manager: The Motivational Agent
As soon as we talk about team motivation, the solutions often consist of acting to motivate. This approach poses, to my eyes, two questions that come together:
- Do these solutions respond well to the problem? Is this well laid?
- Can we really motivate a team? Is motivating a transitive verb?
On this last question, the definition brings an interesting light. Motivating, if it is transitive, is more about an object than a person: we are motivated by something and not by someone (except in case of a crush of course, in which case the person becomes the object of our desire and not his agent, CQFD.)
In other words, it is not the manager who motivates his team from outside, but he can act on this or these things that motivate the team internally: for example, recognition, meaning, pride, belonging, learning, construction, progression, pleasure, etc.
Well, that Sounds like Needs and Values
The bad thing is that we are complex and all different beings, each driven by their own needs and values. To motivate a team, it would then be necessary to know the individual motivations, and to develop the collective motivation: a whole program (translation: I do not have that to do, I am manager AND operational). Luckily a number of these engines are shared – like pleasure and meaning – that’s how we come to create companies to work together. On the other hand, it requires attention to the other, to others (if you say to yourself, manager: “the social very little for me”, go directly three paragraphs further.)
The good news is that these motivators are inexpensive because they reside in small daily actions, the result of which is measurable throughout the year as changes are made: I give more recognition to my team in monthly meetings, I observe the result; I am careful to link the actions of the team to the collective project of the company by sharing with them information about the strategy, I note what it changes.
In concrete terms, this involves listening and seeking feedback , frequent adjustments, a desire to understand what mobilizes people, a tolerance for certain declines (human!), An awareness of the need for novelty and pleasure, alertness to signs of frustration: the end of listening and a sense of observation, to do little but right.
Motivating your teams in this way is like creating the conditions for emergence and persistence of motivation. A sports seminar or an occasional team-building workshop is part of a larger program, whose effects they reinforce.
Another possible line of work – almost an essential minimum – is to ensure that the manager does not alter the motivation already existing in his team. Employees are motivated every day by a lot of things and on this beautiful natural fire; the team leader can unintentionally throw cold water. The signs? A bitter, disillusioned, or disgusted team: it had the best will in the world; it was worn or slowed in its tracks.
For example, an independent, mature sales team is being put under the responsibility of a new highly directive leader. Or, a very committed team who gave everything for a year is barely thanked and set goals 30% higher (what’s the point?).
- So before Acting to Motivate, How can we Stop Demotivation?
- How, instead, promote and redirect existing motivation?
Finally, the manager can act in three ways to motivate: p reserve the natural motivation of his team by avoiding anything that alters it; to promote it, to help it develop; and finally, to orient it towards a common goal. The work of the motivating manager would be that of a caring gardener and admirer of nature, who would encourage spontaneous growth rather than shoot or push nature and a motivational farmer in short.
Hello everyone! This is Richard Daniels, a full-time passionate researcher & blogger. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics. He loves to write about economics, e-commerce, and business-related topics for students to assist them in their studies. That's the sole purpose of Business Study Notes.
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