I often hear managers saying that someone on their team is not motivated, or even demotivated, which I assume is even worse!

They then set out on the path to try and motivate their team member, little realising that the way they have phrased the problem means that it is unlikely they will find a useful answer.

The problem would be better phrased more specifically as “how can I motivate this person to do what I, as their manager, want them to do?”

You see, people are always motivated. They always want to do something, even if it is just sitting there daydreaming, or spending time on Facebook rather than doing the filing.

People are a mass of competing motivations, and at any time, one of those competing motivations will win, and this will direct behaviour. The problem arises for the manager when the motivation winning within their team member is not aligned with what the manager wants, and the behaviour is something the manager doesn’t want.

It’s not lack of motivation… it is motivation leading to behaviours that head in the wrong direction.

To solve this, you need to link the work task to their existing motivation patterns. Consider how the work task fulfils in some way what is important to them, so they derive meaning from the task and engage with it. To do this, you will likely need to ‘reframe’ the work task itself so it has greater importance and meaning for them. What does motivate them? Now how can the task be connected to that motivation?

This is easier said than done, but will get you thinking along lines that will get better results than working from the premise that there is no motivation at all.

Notice that this is about them, not you. They will have different motivation patterns than yours, and indeed, that must be so, or this wouldn’t be an issue.

My best wishes, Paul
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