I grew up playing team sports. I was fortunate to be born to a mother and father that enjoyed sports. My dad enjoyed playing sports. My mom loved watching sports. The Sunday afternoon Green Bay Packer games were a regular part of our fall experience. And usually during every halftime my dad, brother and I would go out to the yard to throw the football around.
When you’re involved in team sports one of the aspects that emerges is leadership. From coaches. But also amongst teammates. And it’s not always a seniority thing. And it’s often not from the same person all the time.
When you’re a kid you start to learn how this dynamic works. You learn how to play with others. It’s part of growing into a human. The better you’re able to play with others the better you’ll be able to work and interact with others as an adult.
That comes into play so often in a work setting. An office or whatever. We are almost always interacting with others. And often those others are coworkers.
A key aspect of successful teams is getting people motivated.
Here are some thoughts on how to motivate coworkers or those that are part of a team.
1. Encourage High Performance
When I was in like sixth grade I played on a little league team that won the city championship for our age bracket. Now, it was a small city, but at the time it felt like a really big achievement. Back in those days just about every kid it seemed like was in little league during the summer.
Part of the success for our little team that year was that the coach gave us a lot of confidence. He watched us practice initially. And slowly as we got into the season he started telling us that we could win the championship. He was really good at setting high goals for each player.
And a really cool thing was that us kids picked up on it and we started encouraging high performance from each other. Not in demanding ways, but subtle ways. We’d say, you can do that.
2. Build Achievement Levels To Build Confidence
But you have to be careful with high goals. If a goal seems too high then most humans will see it as unrealistic. They’ll conserve their energy and keep the status quo. Our coach on that little team was good with this. In sixth grade, kids come in all different sizes. It wouldn’t make sense to tell the small kid that they could hit home runs.
Instead, the big goal might be to get a triple. One, because the player could learn to hit the ball often. And two, because they might be really fast and good at running the bases. But even then you don’t want to expect that result too often. So the coach might set the first step as getting 3 hits in a game. Then getting a double. Then working on the triple.
3. Communicate The Value Of Achievement
Big goals are great, but there has to be value to each person involved. Most of the kids in our city little league organization were into sports. We wanted to win for the sake of winning. But it was also bragging rights. It was also getting a trophy that we could put on our shelves at home. It was making our parents proud. It was all kinds of things.
And it was probably different for each player. So the coach needed to figure out the value of the big achievement for each player and communicate that. It’s not an easy thing. It can be a subtle thing. It’s something that you see often in successful offices and other work settings.
4. Balance The Cost
Give them a high goal. Give them a reason to aim for that goal. But make the cost too high? You might lose them. I was in a work setting like this. Successful company. But very family focused. Meaning, most people wanted to work nine to five. They wanted to put in their work and head out the door.
When it came to extra projects and possibly working late or on weekends, you ran into trouble. And it was totally understandable. This was a high cost for most of the folks there. They were raising kids. They had lots of obligations. It’s a big reason why they worked there. Change that situation and cost and you change the entire dynamic.
5. Watch Team Dynamics
This all sounds great, but the team can sour on things pretty easily. One person might not find the motivation and they may try to throw a pity part. They may try to recruit others to their side of things. One person may do the same if they don’t believe in the way the plan is being executed.
It’s up to leaders throughout the team to watch for these things. To figure out why there might be hard feelings. And to try and figure out a resolution that is good for the team and its goals.
Conclusion
Teams are tricky. It can be frustrating to work with a team. Especially if you’re really motivated and others seemingly aren’t. It can be a lot of work to get things moving in a direction you feel passionately about. But it can be done. It won’t always work, but each time you try you learn a little more. Hopefully these thoughts can help a little if you’re in a situation like this now.