I was reading a blog post on Harvard Business Review the other day by Vineet Nayar. He is an entrepreneur and author. He was touching on the three ingredients of successful teams - which I translate to having a motivated workforce.
- A challenge – As Nayar points out, “The fun is in the chase.” Your team needs to have a rallying cry. Now that doesn’t mean it has to be solving world peace, but it has to be meaningful to them.
- Passionate about performing – Your team needs to be so committed to finding solutions to the issues you face, that it becomes their sole focus. They get absorbed in overcoming the challenges.
- Wide open spaces – It’s important to provide an environment where collaboration and innovation can take place. They have to know that they have the freedom to experiment.
With great pride, I bet a lot of us can point to certain teams and units in our organizations where we see these three things occurring in concert. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to see them throughout your entire group. If so, it’s likely you’re just as motivated as your workforce!
Along those lines, let’s turn the tables. Think about your role as a leader in your organization. Are you motivated? Take a minute to jot down a response to these:
- Do you personally have a challenge? What is it? Why do you do it and who benefits from what you do?
- Are you passionate about how you perform? Do you have the fierce resolve described in “Level 5 Leadership” to drive success for your organization?
- Have you granted yourself the permission to experiment a little? Have you set the tone in your organization that it’s okay to try (and fail) at new things?
So how does your list look?
If you really spent some time candidly answering #1 and #2 above, I bet it was a more difficult exercise than you thought it would be. That tells me as leaders we need to help our people with this exercise too. You need to provide them with a compelling narrative of your organization’s long-term vision and how each of them plays a role in it. Then, what they really need is your personal passion, commitment, and trust to play their role. In other words they need a motivated leader.
What’s The Risk?
The risk I see is leaders who expect this of their people, yet, if they’re being honest, don’t demonstrate all of these characteristics themselves. You need to know your rallying cry, be passionate about your performance, and have the freedom to take a risk. Provide this for your people and you’ll likely have the makings for a very successful team. Just don’t forget how important it is for your team to see their leader as motivated as they are.
The upside of motivated employees is, of course, a highly engaged workforce. It’s the kind of team dynamic that can climb any mountain and meet any challenge. As an organization, it has the power to unleash the focused passion that can accomplish your long-term vision.
