Many ready-made recipes are published about how to keep people motivated at work. However, few of them are based on scientific knowledge of Psychology to be, in fact, efficient.
In general, leaders are taught to offer external incentives, such as benefits, raises, improvements to the physical environment, etc. There is nothing wrong with that, especially since their presence does not produce motivation, but the absence of improvements in these aspects certainly implies a lack of it.
How motivation happens
But motivation doesn't just depend on stimulus! Motivation requires a combination of stimulus and enrichment of work, since motivation is an internal and personal energy. Stimuli, when applied alone, have an expiration date, because they are external. They need to be constant, so that the battery remains charged, since they don't reach deep into people's values, priorities and stories.
What the research says
It must be considered that, sometimes, even the person jamaica email list themselves are unaware of the reason that drives them to act.
Thus, since the 1960s, research has highlighted the importance of providing employees with and valuing the following aspects:
∙ Autonomy;
∙ Responsibility;
∙ Growth;
∙ Learning;
∙ Recognition, which generates fulfillment and enriches work.
A case to inspire
Imagine an executive secretary whose job is to mediate communication between different hierarchical levels of the company and manage the director's schedule. The standard procedure is for secretaries to write communications, which must be reviewed and signed by their leaders.
This process takes away the meaning of much of the secretary's work, since she has no autonomy and is not responsible for what she produces. Therefore, after only six months in the company, she already feels unmotivated. Her leader, noticing her assistant's discouragement, has invested in behavioral training in an attempt to motivate her.
However, this is not enough, it is necessary to give her the opportunity to learn actively, to develop and to apply all of this in what she does.
(Re)Thinking the practice
The most common thing in this case is that the leader thinks that something needs to be changed in the training offered.
But imagine if, instead, he talked to her, aiming to understand what she values and what could add value and meaning to her role. And then, from there, he enriched the secretary's work, appointing her as an internal communications consultant, so that colleagues from all areas of the company could consult her to ask questions and learn from her.
She would probably seek to learn more and develop new skills to meet the demands of her peers, take on more responsibility, gain internal recognition, opportunities for growth and contribution, with a little autonomy.
Her boss would have a broader view of her capabilities. And as she progressed, he could make gradual changes. For example, he could let the secretary sign off on the reports and be responsible for them, so that she would have to find ways to write better and better reports.
The essentials
These changes in the process, when aligned with training and other actions that promote people's active and autonomous learning, enable individual potential to be developed and optimized, representing a significant difference for the expansion of each individual and the company as a whole.
Creating space for a culture of learning and development to strengthen and establish itself is key to ensuring that each person seeks what makes sense for them and, therefore, keeps their team's motivation alive.