Sustaining Motivated Teams in Times of Change

There is no doubt that it is tough just now for everyone and this makes the job of a manager even harder. Our managers need to understand their own emotions and manage their responses to these emotions, as well as understand what is going on for each of their team members.

We are asking them to do the best job that they can in a period of exceptional change and uncertainty. It is important that we do what we can to support each supervisor and manager through this period, while recognising that for most of us budgets are tight and time is of the essence, so we need to provide cost effective, targeted solutions.

What Can We Do to Help Our Managers?

Firstly: Different People, Different Motivations

We are all motivated by different things and this affects how we view the world, how we live our lives and how we approach our work. It also affects what motivates us in our work and it is also what can make life difficult for us, causing us conflict, in and out of work.

Importantly, what motivates me, will be different to what motivates you and this makes life as a manager tricky.

However, recognising these differences in people, is an important first step and it is something that every manager can embrace and work with.

Secondly: Know Ourselves, Our Motivations and Our Emotions

Self-awareness is a critical next step. Understanding our motivations makes us much more aware of who we are as people, what drives us and what might be driving our behaviours.

If we have a good understanding of what motivates us and what makes us perform well, we are in a good position to know how to get the best from ourselves. We are also in a good position to understand what puts us in conflict, what demotivates us or what makes it harder for us to do our job well.

Equally, being aware of our emotions and the impact that our emotions have on us, and being able to manage our emotions, enables us to have much more understanding about what is driving our thoughts, attitudes and behaviour.

With this information, we can manage ourselves much better, putting us in the best position to lead our team, whatever the situation that we are facing.

Thirdly: Know Your Team – Motivations and Conflict

Ideally, each manager has a good understanding of what motivates each team member and what each team member finds difficult or causes him or her conflict.

If you do have this information for yourself and your team, make sure the information is not stuck in a draw but that it is referred to often and ideally that you are looking at it as a team.

If you do not have this knowledge, try to recognise that yourself and your team members have different motivations, different things will cause conflict, and making assumptions about each other can cause problems.

Everyone is more likely to be motivated, and you are less likely to face conflict as a team, if you work to each person’s motivations and acknowledge what will cause conflict.

Fourth: Know How to Prevent and Deal with Conflict

Preventing Conflict

Being overworked and poor working relationships are the most common triggers of stress and conflict, and relationships can become strained when we try to do too much. While workloads can be a very difficult issue to resolve just now, developing and maintaining better relationships is one area that can be addressed successfully to help prevent conflict.

By understanding our own and other people’s trigger points, we can better understand the behaviours and the trigger points that cause conflict. Therefore, spending some time helping your managers to understand their own and their team members’ trigger points is invaluable.

Dealing with Conflict

People respond differently to conflict. Some deal with conflict by thinking and accommodating others or the situation, while others assert themselves from the onset. These strategies vary from person to person, but people will ultimately fight for what is important to them.

Understanding these complex processes, including our own and others’ responses can help us to make sense of conflict, and help us manage this with different people.

Fifth: Be Careful About Perceptions

We generally know what our motivations are or what our intentions are, and why we are behaving in a particular way. However, we do not usually have all this information about other people’s behaviour. We have to make assumptions and sometimes we can get these assumptions wrong, especially if we assume that each person has the same motivations as us.

For this reason, we must be careful about how we perceive a situation and the assumptions that we make. To get the best out of our people, it is important to not make assumptions but instead have a conversation in order to understand what is motivating their behaviour.

Sixth: Adapt and Change to the Situation and Individuals

By understanding what motivates our team members, we can adapt our approach as leaders to help each person achieve the best that they can.

This can mean that we:

Communicate in a way that is relevant to each individual
Allocate tasks that will motivate them or play to their strengths
Avoid putting them into positions that we know will put them into conflict because it cuts across their motivations.

This approach enables each person to be as effective as possible, helping to keep them motivated and energised in their roles.

Please Get in Touch

We have two virtual programmes which explore the themes touched on here and other related themes. One, is an Introduction to Emotional Intelligence and the second, a more extensive programme – Self-awareness and Team Relationships for Team Success.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more.

GET IN TOUCH:

Call us on +44(0) 1651 873398

EMAIL US HERE