In today’s competitive market, in a vast competition, it’s easy to get demotivated in every step. By understanding people’s motivation, we can help him/her to get motivated and deal with a situation. People work incorporates and many other places as well.
People work hard, try to do their best, but in certain situations, they feel demotivated, they feel like it’s over, and I can’t do it anymore. At this time, a leader and colleagues need to understand the person’s motivation for helping them.
Let’s learn in detail about understanding people’s motivation.
WHAT’S IN IT
Introduction
In this busy world, we all feel demotivated at a particular stage of time. We don’t feel any worth doing our work. At this stage, all we need is motivation, which drives us to achieve our goal.
So, the first thing that comes is what is motivation? What does motivation mean?
Motivation is a desire, need or process that stimulates people to do something to achieve a goal or objective. We can also say it as an internal process.
E.g., I want to become a Human Resource Manager in my life. Then what I’ll do to achieve it? Yes, I’ll work hard, and I’ll gain all the necessary skills to become an HR manager.
But, during this procedure, a moment will come when I’ll feel demotivated. I’ll think about quitting. At this time, the thing that will stimulate me and drive me to achieve my decided goal will be my motivation.
Hence, anything that stimulates us to achieve our desired goal can be called motivation.
The need for understanding people’s motivation
As we know about motivation again, a question arises: Why do we need to understand people’s motivation? Just think of it.
For understanding a need for motivation, let’s take an example:
A leader leading a team notices that some of his team members are not working correctly. He tries to determine the reason behind this, but he didn’t find any appropriate reason for it. Then, he tried to motivate them by giving them some incentives, but no improvement happened in their work.
After many struggles, he found out that incentives were not the real requirement of the team members; their actual need was appreciation and praise.
So, now I think you got the reason for the need to understand people’s motivation.
Not everyone has the same requirement. Needs and requirements vary from person to person. Some people get motivated with money, incentives and some with praise. There are different requirements for different people.
Hence, the leader needs to understand people’s motivation. To not waste his time and give the right motivation to the right people.
How to understand people’s motivation
It’s a fundamental question: How to understand people’s motivation?
We know that someone needs motivation. But how will we help them when we don’t know what motivation he/she’s lacking. So, before motivating a person, we need to understand their real motivation. We need to understand what motivation is being required by them.
Various ways through which we can understand people’s motivation are:
- Give them priorities
- Check yourself
- Listen to them
- Have a complete look
- Look for something you have common
- Follow the win-win approach
Give them priorities
Most frequently, our primary focus is on ourselves, whether it’s a group discussion or a normal conversation with anyone. We give priority to ourselves.
To understand the team motivations, we need to give them priorities. We have to focus on their points also. By understanding their point, it will be easy for us to understand and find their real motivations.
Check yourself
Before understanding other people, we need to understand and check yourself. Sometimes, the main issue lies within us only. It is noticed that mostly our perceptions are impacted by our bias only.
Therefore, first, we are required to relieve the impact of our own bias. When we alleviate our bias impact, then automatically, our perception of seeing others will change. We will understand others better than before, and this will also help us understand their motivations.
Listen to them
To understand people’s motivation, we need to listen to them. Yes, listening is hard, but for understanding others, we have to look to theirs’ agenda as well. When we listen, we get to know more about them, and we will get some idea of their perception as well.
After listening, we’ll go back to all the conversations that happened and analyze it. Then, we’ll get the real conclusion of the discussion. And we’ll know more about other people’s perceptions too.
Have a complete look
To have a comprehensive understanding of what motivates a person needs, we have to have an in-depth examination of that person. We have to find out what all things he/she is purposely, not sharing, and what all things are influencing them.
People should ask them some questions through which we can get an idea of the motivation they need. We have to observe and listen to them carefully so that we can build a trustful and meaningful relationship.
Look for something you have common
The best way to establish a good connection is to find some common ground. This will help us to know a person well; he/she will share something more about themselves. And we’ll get to know more about them as well of the things that motivates them the most.
Hence, if you want to know about others, then look for something familiar in both of you.
How to motivate people
Motivating people is not as difficult as it seems. If we are having a good connection with the person, then this task becomes more comfortable. Your motivation will not only stimulate a person to do better but also it will make them feel good at work. Therefore, correctly motivating a person is very important.
There are several ways through which we can motivate a person:
- Have one-on-one-conversations
- Praise, appreciate and compliment them
- Help for developing new skills
- Trust them
- Provide them with all the resources they need
- Co-operate them in their work
- Involve them actively
- Encourage them
- Ask them how you can help them
Have one-on-one-conversations
It is one of the most effective techniques for motivating people. Leaders need to do one-to-one-conversation with the person. This will strengthen the relationship with people by spending more time hearing ideas, issues, suggestions and problems as well as performance issues and work.
Praise, appreciate and compliment them
Nothing can motivate people more than praising, appreciating and giving complimenting them. Leaders, as well as managers, must have a habit of praising, appreciating and complementing their workers.
This technique stimulates people to do their work with more commitment. This not only increases productivity, loyalty and satisfaction, but employees also stay with the organization.
Help for developing new skills
Leaders should help its members to develop new skills related to their future goals and targets. This will motivate team members to work with full productivity. They will also come to know about leaders’ concerns towards them. People will feel that their leaders are increasing their strength for future goals/roles.
Trust them
Leaders must believe and trust their employees. They have to give them challenging roles and responsibilities and must trust them. It is imperative to trust and believe in the knowledge and skills of the employees.
Leaders’ trust will act as a motivation for their employees. Therefore, leaders must trust the ability, skills, and must support their employees.
Provide them with all the resources they need
How an employee will work without resources? Every manager and leader must know that their employees can’t work efficiently without having relevant resources. They will feel demotivated if you are assigning them work but not giving them proper resources.
Therefore, employees must be given the power to access the relevant data, proper equipment, and make some decisions.
Co-operate them in their work
People want motivation while working, and no one can motivate them more than their team leader. Leaders must motivate their employees and co-worker by co-operating in their work. People will feel motivated as their leader is helping them in their work, which will also increase productivity.
Involve them actively
No leader can travel one way; he/she must be multi-directional. He must not do all the work independently; instead, he/she must actively involve their employees and team members in it.
Whatever be the work or issue, all the members must be actively involved in it. It must be discussed with all the members; then, only conclusions should be drawn. This will motivate people as they will feel their worth in the organization and team.
Encourage them
Encouraging is one of the essential steps for motivating people. People are scared to fail; at this time, some encouragement stimulates them to work with efficiency. Some encouraging phrases by leaders act as the biggest motivation for the employees.
Ask them how you can help them
A leader must ask his employees and colleagues if they need any help. Mostly, people don’t need any help but asking them this will give them a good feeling, and they will get motivated towards their work.
Importance of motivation in one’s life
Motivation is significant in every person’s life. It develops a pleasant working environment for the employees to work. Motivation not only stimulates and satisfies them, but there are several more benefits to it.
Some of them are given below:
- Motivation increases the productivity of employees.
- Establishes a better relationship between leaders and employees.
- Maintains the stability of the workforce.
- Gives a job as well as personal satisfaction.
- Increases team empowerment.
- It helps to achieve goals more efficiently.
- Increases efficiency level of the employees.
- Fewer chances of failures.
- Increases creativity and innovations.
Conclusion
On the whole, motivation not only stimulates people to work but also creates a happy and pleasant working environment. For motivating a person, it is very important to understand them and also to find what all kinds of motivation will stimulate them to work.
Leaders must motivate their team and also help them so that they can work well with team spirit. Motivation is essential not only for employees but also for every person for being successful in their lives.
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