Everyone knows that great leaders motivate with a powerful vision, unwavering commitment, and compelling logic. With the proper incentives, your team will eagerly move in the right direction.
It’s an ideal image, but such a strategy works only with a small fraction of teams. Why?
For one thing, external incentives, like motivational talks, cash incentives or the threat of unpleasant consequences have limited impact. So how do you best motivate your team?
As my clients discover, the better question to ask is: how are my team members best motivated?
It boils down to a person’s natural wiring. Wiring is neurological and is part of a person’s nature while their behaviors are part of their nurturing environment. We know that behaviors change over time, but your wiring remains with you your entire life time.
Let’s look at someone who is naturally hardwired with High Autonomy. They want the freedom to be able to pursue their own ideas with limited oversight. When they become an owner of their work, it motivates them to work harder and invest more energy in their projects.
In many business settings, however, only management-level employees are given autonomy. This may leave your non-management employees who are wired to need that autonomy feeling de-energized.
To increase that employee’s engagement and interest, you must give them more discretion over their work environment. Consider giving those non-management employees wired with High Autonomy:
1. The option of aspects of the work they will be involved in; or
2. A choice about the direction of a particular project
If you have sales or customer service team members who are naturally wired with High Autonomy, you might offer them options as to which industries or which clients they will pursue. The more choices and options you can offer a person wired with High Autonomy, the more you will improve their level of engagement because they can then put their own mark on it.
There are many options that you can provide to someone so that they can make their work environment their own, such as training, work spaces, or selecting co-workers on teams, etc. These team members who innately need that autonomy will be free to offer more innovative solutions that can make your company more productive.
Remember, aligning the work environment for employees who innately need their autonomy has positive benefits in employee engagement. Your profitability is in your productivity.
To discover how to align your team, and consciously create a profitable business that makes a positive contribution in the world, join us for these highly effective and transformative workshops:
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