Click here for the YouTube video that brings this to life! I started a 4 hour class on motivation and influence with the words; ‘If you came here to learn how to motivate your team, I’m sorry to say, you won’t. You can’t motivate people.’ After the awkward chuckles and sideways glances, that class learned what you can do instead. Because the truth is, you can’t motivate your team, but you can encourage them to motivate themselves. In an earlier blog, You Can’t Motivate People, you learned how to encourage that motivation with 3 C’s. You learned to get Clear, Curious, and Communicating. This is our final week in the series, and it’s a good one. Today we’re talking about inspiring motivation in your team with communication. If you are newly joining us here you will get so much more out of the logistics we’re applying today when you’ve fully understood how to motivate your team with clarity and curiosity.
How do we hit that big goal of 2025?
Your team can hit just about any goal you set for them, when their motivation is on point. In case you need the reminder, let’s take one more look at what that actually means. Motivation is the reason, or reasons, someone has for acting or behaving in a particular way. Sometimes what needs to be done (the particular way we want the team to behave in) seems obvious to us. Other times we know our team well enough to know we’ll need to spend extra time here. Either way, we need to be abundantly clear on exactly what that is and why it is needed. Then we can focus on the reasons one (each individual person) has for wanting to accomplish that thing. Because it is so very personal, we need to get curious about each employee and what drives them. All of that clarity and curiosity hinges on one action, communication. In working with one client, he started off very skeptical that he had any time to add communication that would help him get clear and curious with his team.
Can communicating motivation actually move big goals in less time?
One of the most common goals every year is to do more with less. In 2025, that is no different. This year though the goal uses AI and digital transformations to do it. Goals that focus on innovation to make better use of AI and digital tools are important to company advancement into an ever changing and unknown frontier. That can be both exciting and terrifying to your employees. That is precisely why communicating to motivate your team is so critical to your success. Imagine you got a goal like this. How would you share this goal with the team?
Implement RPA to streamline workflows, reduce manual errors, and free up employee time for higher-value activities.
Many managers would go to the team meeting and regurgitate what their boss put in the email to them. Then they’ll email the top performer and ‘volun-tell’ them to search out vendors that promise this capability. After all, it would be good for their career. In the end, they’d pat themselves on the back for involving the team and delegating this important opportunity. In a month they’d go back to that volunteer and ask why the project wasn’t done yet requiring a ton of details on tracking that they never accounted for in the first place causing a frustrated volunteer to start the project over again.
As a leader with exceptional communication, you motivate your team, rather than frustrate them.
First, they do a quick review of what other banks are seeing lift in with RPA (also known as bots). In the next team huddle they let the team know the research their doing themselves. They’d share that work on this project will likely open doors to more fast-paced technology focused solutions and ask team members to reach out if they have interest. Then, they respond to the Sr Leader with a reasonable amount of lift and timeline based on their early research. They get agreement on the new details for the goal from their leadership. Then, they’d share back to the team members who showed interest in this work and further similar but bigger projects and share the new goal.
Decrease operational costs by 20% within 24 months by automating repetitive tasks like loan processing & account reconciliation using bots.
Those interested team members get to work on creating a plan. The leader starts sharing goal and why it’s so important to the whole team. They field any and every question along the way. By the time that first month comes to an end, and the manager was anxiously sending our frustrated volunteer back to the drawing board, the leader is providing organized, positive status updates. They motivated work quickly and created full confidence for the team and the leadership group.
Motivation, delegation, and confidence? How do I make that happen?
As with almost everything in leadership, it comes down to communication. You can motivate your team and delegate the work appropriately to instill confidence with communication. Let’s dig into the two primary steps (clear goals and curiosity on motivators) and how communication makes them more efficient and more effective.
Motivate your team by communicating with clarity
It is easy for busy managers to just reiterate exactly what was told to them. You think you’re saving time and being transparent by just reading the email you received. By sharing exactly what you’re told you’re wasting time and eroding trust. The fact is, people want to work for a manager that is on their side. You get to be that manager they want by making sure they are set up for success in what you’re delegating to them. You and your team can be fully aligned and confident in finding the best solution. They just need to know you’re invested enough to push back and get clarity for them.
It’s the timing of the communication that makes the biggest difference here.
As a middle manager I frequently got vague goals. I knew there would be an expectation to ‘do more with the less’ like in this example, but needed more information. Be transparent by sharing the intent of the goal and letting your team know you’re working on it. That builds the trust with them. Then, share specifics and questions with your leader showing that you’re taking it seriously and taking a proactive approach to be successful. That builds trust with your boss and other Sr Leaders.
No one could feel supported working on that first goal, it’s only directional. With such little information on what is needed and why, there is only room for missed deadlines and limited expectations. I mean, does everyone in that version even know what RPA are? By saving time being a pass through for vague information you show your team you don’t care. You show your boss that you don’t provide value in that exchange.
Use communication to get curious to motivate your team
It’s the curiosity piece that managers truly see as a ‘nice to have’, that they don’t have time for. The thing is, it takes seconds, can be worked into any communication you’re already doing, so it doesn’t take time just awareness. Did you notice that I included it in the leader with exceptional communication? As part of a normal huddle with the team, that leader shares, work on this project will likely open doors to more fast-paced technology focused solutions, and then they let people opt in if that motivates them. It was one sentence said during a meeting, so you can skip the email. It takes less time than ‘volun-telling’ your top performer that this is their project and why they should want to do it.
Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com
The best results come from a consistent conversation
In this example I used a very simple version of focusing on curiosity to motivate people. Having people self-select into the projects and rewards they are motivated by is certainly far better than making one of the 3 motivation mistakes we covered in How to Motivate Your Team with Curiosity on YouTube. Simply avoiding mistakes though is thinking too small. What would it mean for you if you could actually get more done, with less people on the team, and they were happy to do it? Well, you can get there when you have consistent communication.
Great opportunities to get curious and what to ask include:
- During on-boarding ask the new employee (or members of the team if you’re the new boss); What are you looking for out of this position and your career in general?
- In huddle with the whole team ask; If we accomplished something great, what would be the best way to celebrate as a team?
- In one-on-one’s with each individual say; I heard you wanted to get (_whatever they’ve told you in the past_) out of this position and I think we’re getting there by doing (_opportunities, rewards, etc_). Then ask, How do you feel about this and how else can we get there?
- When a new project comes up ask; This is going to take (_time, effort, prioritization, etc_) what would make this worth it for you?
Tell me if this sounds familiar…
I’d like to finish that story about the client who was just so skeptical of motivation through communication. You see this client was a founder in the business and he had a senior leader working for him who was essentially acting as the pass through we said above was so common in management. My client spent a week between sessions frustrated because of the manager’s lack of initiative. During our call he said, ‘he (the manager) just won’t step up. He only wants to work from home and do nothing.‘ Knowing what the manager wants, to work remotely, without the negative assumption, that he wants to do nothing, was such a gift.
He turned it around and you can too
In coaching we practiced how this conversation with the manager could go instead. The very next time the client delegated an assignment to the manager, it went completely differently. The client framed what needed to be done through the lens of why the manager would want to do it. Show me you can handle this work without coming back later to ask all the questions and it shows me you can handle it outside the office. I’m all for you skipping the commute to spend more time with your daughter if you can show me the work can get done without my oversight. The speed of that turn around for that manager would give you whiplash. No more weeks stewing in frustration for my client because the manager ‘didn’t want to work’. No more circling back wasting both of their time, to answer questions the manager could have nipped in the bud. Just personalized motivation, based on clear expectations, and exceptional delivery. If that is what you want on your team, we should talk. I opened my calendar specifically for you, to find out what clear communication would do for you as you motivate your team.