How to Motivate your Team

If you are looking to understand how to motivate your staff, motivational theory can be a great tool to do so. In this blog we are looking at two established theories and how to incorporate these into the workplace to give insight and help motivate your employees and develop your motivation strategy.

Hierarchy of Needs 

The Hierarchy of Needs is a motivation theory by psychologist Maslow which was written in 1943 and famously depicted hierarchical levels within a pyramid. This theory is commonly used to understand the key elements needed to motivate people and it is applied to the workplace. The needs outlined are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation. The basis of the theory is that the needs which are lower in the pyramid need to be satisfied before needs can be attended to higher up.

Physiological Needs

These are basic requirements that a person needs to feel motivated at work. Air, food, water, shelter and warmth. Other needs become secondary if these needs are not met. In the workplace this translates into acceptable pay and working conditions. For example, if the office is extremely hot or cold your employees could suffer and therefore be unmotivated due to this. An uncomfortable working environment could also be due to the quality of office furniture, insufficient breaks or lack of access to facilities. It is your responsibility as an employer to make sure these basic needs are met in order to form the basis of a motivational culture.  

Safety

This is the step up on the pyramid, so once employee feels like all their physiological needs are met, they will then need to feel safe. Security and stability are important to this stage in the pyramid and at work this translates to job security, a clear job role and description and health and safety. This also extends to their family, their property and resources as these will all be affected if anything were to happen to their job. If an employee is under the impression that their job is at stake they may become unmotivated due to this and begin to look elsewhere. As an employer you should have a platform to express any of these concerns and provide a safe and secure work environment. All employees should be clear about their job role and exactly what is expected of them to succeed.

Love and Belonging

After both physiological and safety needs are met you can then work on employees’ sense of belonging. This refers to interpersonal relationships. At work, this may mean working in teams or using social facilities such as team outings or events but also mentoring and coaching. This can usually be worked on within the general culture of the workplace and the support you provide to each employee. 

Esteem

Esteem tends to refer to status at work, things like job title, authority and trust. It is the belief that they are doing a good job and that their contributions are recognised. Employees want to feel as if they are achieving and that their contributions matter and are recognised. If employees believe in themselves and trust that other people believe in them (through recognition), they’ll be more engaged and productive.

Self-actualisation

Unlike the other four needs this is based not from lack of things, but desire to grow as a person. At work this will include promotional opportunities, challenging work and job enrichment. This relates to maximising full potential, feeling trusted, empowered and in control of their job and future. A big part of this is ensuring employees are only put in roles which they are capable of. It’s good for them to feel challenged but you don’t want them to feel like they are in over their heads.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivation is when an individual is motivated to perform a behaviour or complete a task to earn a reward or avoid punishment. An individual would here engage in a behaviour not because they enjoy it or find it satisfying, but to get something in return or avoid consequences of not doing that task. 

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation involves doing a task or activity because it is personally rewarding. Someone who is intrinsically motivated will complete a task because they see it as valuable to them rather there being an external reward. Here the task itself is its own reward.

The difference between the types of motivation is that extrinsic motivation is rewarded physically, and intrinsic motivation is rewarded within the person. This can be linked to how motivated people are at work and how different people are motivated all together. At work, someone who is intrinsically motivated will generally feel more satisfied and feel a sense of achievement. They will also have positive attitudes surrounding their self-esteem and their capabilities to do their role. A person who is more extrinsically motivated on the other hand, will rely on rewards to do their tasks, for example if an employee is motivated by their bonus. It would however be difficult to motivate a person on this alone without any intrinsic motivation. 

When looking to improve motivation, the intrinsic motivators are the things that must be focused on, due to the response to extrinsic rewards on an individual who is not intrinsically motivated. Someone who is not intrinsically motivated may not stay motivated for long when given financial rewards and benefits. Therefore, when looking at overall motivation it is important to focus on things like; autonomy, understanding and purpose to discover if an employee is intrinsically motivated as this can have an impact on overall motivation. As these three things are essential for your employee to have the right attitude to work.