25 Sure-fire Ways To Motivate Your Team Members

May 12, 2008

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Of all the resources utilized during a project, the team working on the project is the most
complex to manage. When motivated, your project team can take up Herculean tasks and not
break a sweat but when things go wrong there is little saving the ship unless you find a way
to change course in time. Motivation is a complex art, while the rule of the thumb is
appreciation and reward, the same incentives do not work on all individuals.

Photography by I'm a monster.

1. Always start with yourself; to motivate others you have to be motivated yourself and
should look for positives in all situations. As a role model, if you are energetic and inviting
your team will have confidence in you and will follow willingly.
2. Share the information you have about the project and give them a sense of ownership. It
is their project; they should know the circumstances and limitations surrounding the project.
This can lead to team members coming up with good suggestions as well.

3. When you face a work related problem your team is your best resource, and one that can
rise to the occasion if you manage to motivate them. Take your problems to them; discuss
and look for ideas and ways out of trouble. Once they feel you are a part of the team it is
easier to rev them up good.
4. While discipline is important, strive to keep your work environment as informal as
possible. People usually work better without the boss breathing down their neck so push for
deadlines but in a manner that makes it a team goal they can take pride in achieving instead
of an order that precedes insults on failure.
5. Projects are divided into phases; a good PM motivates his team by pointing out the
milestones within the project. Usually you can arrange for special celebrations upon reaching
the milestones on time. Plan your work parties ahead of time, or plan them during work hours
so the team can all gather around and enjoy instead of worrying about other commitments.
6. Always appreciate your team members, even the small tasks that result in the leader
saying thank you can make people strive harder for appreciation. While communicating,
choose your words wisely; be humble, use words like we instead of I.
7. During evaluation do not try to pin the blame on anyone as it creates an environment of
distrust. For a good team environment you have to make them believe it is a team
accomplishment or team failure.
8. Provide feedback in a positive manner; give them what was done right, mention the
shortcomings and how the team can do better. Be a part of the team when there is blame to
take but end your feedback on a positive note.
9. Everyone eats, take individual team members out to lunch, discuss trivial things as well
as work related matters and just let them enjoy the time. Its free lunch to them and your time
is well spent because at the end of it you have established a relationship from which you get
fresh ideas and a willing worker who knows he is valued.
10. Listen to your team members talk; give them your ear from time to time and really
listen. This should be a ritual every few days to get their perspectives. You can get new ideas
and things they say can help you improve your policies and even benefit your business.
11. When a team member comes to you with a problem be positive in your analysis, try to
find a definite solution and back him to work it out, even if you have to roll up your sleeves
and help. Earning respect with deeds goes further than words.
12. Always support your team, give them confidence and give them opportunities to fulfill
your confidence. It is imperative that you tell them you are there to support them in case they
are stuck.
13. Not everyone can handle every job. As a leader it is up to you to pick the right person
for the right job because while an under confident member can gain loads from successfully
achieving his goal, failure has a huge negative impact on morale.
14. Eating together can be a relationship builder, have team lunches where someone gives a
work related presentation. You basically end up killing two birds with a single stone.

15. Let your team be creative. Your teams productivity is likely to go up if you give them a
day where they can try out their ideas, as long as it has something to do with the project at
hand, let them enjoy themselves.
16. What do people work best for? Something they have stakes in, those can be monetary
stakes and they can be emotional or personal attachments. If you instill a sense of ownership
in the team they will take the team goals as their personal goals, you need not worry about
the end product after that; it is going to be their best effort.
17. Give them something fun to look forward to. That can be some time off at a board game
or you can have a bake off or something similar. It is good to pit the junior members against
the seniors and let them enjoy the competition. Or you can have work parties, give people
responsibility to arrange them and bring people out of their shells so they take up
responsibilities as well. The whole program helps lighten the mood and you share something
good to eat too.
18. Encouragement goes a long way within a team and individually. When someone does
well, be generous in your praise. An email to recognize a good idea, a pat on the back for a
quick delivery or praise in front of the team or senior management is an excellent way to tell
them they are appreciated.
19. When you ask for ideas and input it is usually the shy team members that lag behind.
Give them time as well as the opportunity to come forward and speak. Listen carefully and
evaluate ideas on merit, make sure not to discourage anyone though; telling them off for a
bad idea means they probably will not speak again.
20. During a discussion, if there is a point that needs clearing up find the time to clarify or
ask for a clarification. Misunderstandings can lead to huge blunders and these can be
detrimental to how you feel about your team members. Avoid conflict and resolve situations
before they can damage the team morale, or that of individuals.
21. Spot the motivators within your team; there are individuals that put a spark in the
atmosphere, they are active and they compel others to show the same energy without ever
saying it. If you have a good motivator prioritize his career development plans so even if
there is no room for vertical growth, he gets satisfaction from horizontal growth within the
organization.
22. Brainstorming sessions produce some great ideas and when they are one on one they
show your team members they are considered important. Along with importance should come
responsibility so give them roles they can fulfill according to their capabilities and interests.
23. Divide the project into parts where you can give individuals smaller achievable goals.
This gives them the freedom to do things their way while letting them gain in confidence as
well as motivation to do the best they can.
24. Achievement of organizational goals should lead to benefits. These can be monetary
benefits as well as packages that provide the team members, e.g. medical cover or something
similarly advantageous.

25. Last but not the least, keep Maslow's Hierarchy of

needs in mind; not every individual has the same
motivational needs and while a certain incentive would
work for one team member it would not motivate the
other and can even backfire. For instance, if a member
is financially insecure he will value a raise more than
anything else, but the same raise will not work on a
financially secure member, he can be concentrating on
job security or his own safety, therefore it is of utmost
importance to get to know your team. Once you have
worked out where they stand on the hierarchy of needs,
you can work out the best motivational incentive for
them. Macro-management does not pay the dividends.
"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without
going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things
you can't see from the center." -Kurt Vonnegut
Projects are about humans. I know; it says so on my
blog. Projects are people working together.
Problems in projects are people problems. I know;
research says so. And my blog.
Currently projects operate in complex, mobile, global,
on-demand, around the clock, instant and diverse
environment. I know you know.

THE question is how we can mold Project Managers in

such a way that they can operate within this context? It
sounds to me that we should focus on people, people
working together, complexity and globalization. And of
course another zillion aspects.
We should be getting PMs using all three parts of their
brain (left, right and heart). That might not be the "pure"
Project Management discipline curriculum. Who cares.
If it is what we need, you can call it whatever you want,
as long as you educate yourself along those lines.

We need to educate ourselves as Project Managers. But

not in new checklists or new procedures. We need to
learn the fundamentals, the "why's". It will last longer.
"Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man
to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime" - Lao Tzu
This year, I learned that you cannot jump from the
PMBoK directly to topics like "mental flexibility" and
"emotional intelligence". I am sorry to tell you, but
most people cannot make that jump that fast. A path to
"project enlightenment" has to be defined.
Conveniently, I think I have one.
In Buddhism teachings are presented in Turnings of The
Wheel Of Dharma. Each turn builds upon the previous
one and brings the student to a higher level of
consciousness. I love this as a metaphor. It provides a
great analogy for my path to "project enlightenment"
The Four Dharmas Of Project Management

I assume that you already have basic knowledge of

Project Management (again, there is nothing wrong with
that, it is just that you need more). The four steps you
take from there are:
First Turn: Flow Of Stakes
Second Turn: Structure For Resilience
Third Turn: Global Pool
Fourth Turn: Mental Flexibility
In this post I will provide a short introduction to every
turn. In the next months I will give this wheel a good
yank and let it spin: explanations will take place, but
also heavy interaction with you and all other readers.
This an ambitious undertaking, and as with all other
projects, I cannot do this on my own.

First Turn: Flow Of Stakes

What I really want to tell people immediately after they

finish their PM course, formed the basics for my book
"Surprise! Now You're A Software Project Manager".
That of course, would be the first turn of the PM wheel.
The two major concepts addressed in the book are:

The Flow Of Stakes

Project Potion

The Flow Of Stakes

The most important aspect is the mindset of the project
manager. He should focus on one simple mental image
of the jobs he has to perform instead of trying to cram
500 pages of charting and calculating into his head. He
should know the flow of stakes:

Stakeholders have stakes

Stakeholders communicate their stakes by expressing their expectations,
and these are more formally defined by means of requirements to the
process or product
Project management should make every stakeholder a winner by
accepting and creating requirements that continually satisfy the stakes of
individual stakeholders and do not conflict with the general process or the
product
Project management should give continuous feedback to the stakeholders
on the state of the stakes
Based upon this feedback, the expectations and requirements might
change, and in this way a new cycle begins.

For a lot of people involved in projects, one inescapable

conclusion still comes as a big surprise: project
management is a people business. Its all about keeping
everyone associated with the project happy by
supporting his or her stakes. The trouble with stakes is
that no one tells you what they are. You have to guess,
negotiate, anticipate, and manipulate to get past the
requirements and directly through to the fears and
wishes of people. Software project management is more
about psychology than technology.
Project Potion
Different project circumstances require different
approaches to ensure optimum effectiveness. As
mentioned above, it is the people who largely determine
these circumstances, and you have to tailor your
software approach to the particular situation. For this
you can make use of techniques and tools from different
existing methods by simply mixing and matching

everything together in such a way that you brew the

right Project Potion for the occasion.
Concocting a Project Potion consists of the following
steps:

You analyze the stakeholders and their interests and expectations

(Stakeholder Analysis).
You analyze the products (technical stuff) you have to create.
You determine the potential risks that might exist (Risk Management).
You create a project approach that reduces those risks, and for this you
have three main tools:
o Strategy: What are the steps taken in the project, and what are the
sequence and time frame?
o Organization: How is your project organization constructed?
o Feedback: How is the feedback to the stakeholders on the status
and content of products and processes organized?

Second Turn: Structure For Resilience

The first turn addressed the link between individual

stakeholders and the effect of these stakeholders on
running the project. In the second turn you will focus
more on the interaction of people.
Whatever your take is on projects, at the end of the day
it is just a bunch of people working together to achieve
a certain goal. During this endeavor they laugh, cry, pull
pranks, play dirty tricks and have all other kind of
behavior towards each other. If you are lucky they even
work to reach the final goal. If you take everything
away, and put people in the center of what a "project" is,
you will see a group of stakeholders interacting with
each other, just like any other group of people would
do.
Just to make things easier on our lives, we call the result
of all this behavior the project. In this sense it is
nothing more than an abstraction. If we say "the project
is late", this doesnt mean that some creature or entity

from outer space showed up later than expected; it is the

result of the project people working together that wasnt
finished on the time we predicted.
Social Interactions
If we look at the interactions between the stakeholders,
some categories may come in handy to divide up the
beast we are trying to concur; it is always easier to cut a
complex issue into smaller parts when trying to make
some sense of it. For this purpose I will use three
dimensions for interactions in teams: the power
structure, the task structure and the information
structure.
The power structure can best be viewed as the hierarchy
that exists, it is, if you want, a vertical dimension. The
task structure is the structure that consists to perform
the actual work; these are interactions that are needed to
finish or start a certain task. If the previous dimension is
vertical, you can think of this one as horizontal. And the
last structure concerning information, are the
interactions based upon the exchange of information.
This dimension goes from left to right, from top to
bottom, so in fact, going all over the place.
The power structure will contain subjects like
hierarchical control and planning, the way people are
instructed and how the boss is treated back. Concepts
like authorization and responsibilities are handled
within this dimension. The task structure can be viewed
as the actual production chain, it contains all needed
interaction to perform task and to create the products.
And finally the information structure, subject within this
dimension is how, what and when information is
provided when the project people are communicating.
Resilience To Cope With Change
In this view a project is a human system working
towards a desired goal. However, the project is running
within an environment that is changing continuously.
The project needs ways to deal with these changes and
still keep performing its function, that is, reaching the
desired goal. The project needs "resilience".
"Resilience is the ability to absorb disturbances, to be
changed and then to re-organize and still have the same
identity (retain the same basic structure and ways of
functioning). It includes the ability to learn from the

disturbance. A resilient system is forgiving of external

shocks. As resilience declines the magnitude of a shock
from which it cannot recover gets smaller and smaller.
Resilience shifts attention from purely growth and
efficiency to needed recovery and flexibility." (source)
Resilience can be found in the individual members of
the group, and within the interactions between the
members. For the individual person adaption is created
by having an open and flexible mind, and having the
proper social network.

Third Turn: Global Pool

Interactions between people don't "just happen". We

live in a big world and you and I don't know everybody
else. But somehow, for some reason groups of people
emerge, interactions are created. In the third turn called
"Global Pool" we address why people are getting
together and how and why certain interactions emerge.
Economic Clustering
Like the oceans are all connected to each other and
provide us with currents, so are the economic forces in
constant flux and alternating over the globe. Work
moves around. If it can be produced cheaper, more
efficiently or better, it gets relocated. Talent moves
around. If one area on the globe is more exciting and
thrilling than another, people relocate. Work moves
around and people that perform the work move around.
Not necessarily dependent of each other.
Regional population changes rapidly. Asia gets a
booming population growth. First world nations have a
enormous amount of seniors coming towards them as
the baby boomers are getting old. With regional changes
in the populations, the demand for work shifts.

But one remarkable aspect is that work seems to be

located around certain topological centers like a harbor,
a place rich of natural resources or just cities. Work is
not spread out evenly over the planet. There are
concentrations of it. The same goes for the other
current, that of talent moving around. The most
incredible, creative talent is looking for great places to
live. Places where tolerant stimulating locations provide
company of like minded people. Both currents have as a
net effect that people are clustering, one gets clusters
because people have the need to satisfy their economic
needs.
Social Clustering
Suppose the map of the earth doesn't reflect countries,
but they represent ideas. Or they would represent
religions, world views, life styles and other concepts.
Imagine a spatial representation of concepts. People will
not be spread out evenly. What you will see is that
people are cuddling up next to each other. As their
social needs by definition can only be fulfilled in
relationship to other people, the association needed with
groups ensures the clustering will be a fact when using a
conceptual map.
The removal of trade and other barriers, the ever
increasing availability of cheap communication are
what puts the village into Global Village. The impact is
not only economic. Globalization also has its effects on
social needs:
By the end of the twentieth century, if not before,
globalization had turned world order into a problem.
Everyone must now reflexively respond to the common
predicament of living in one world. This provokes the
formulation of contending world views. For example,
some portray the world as an assembly of distinct
communities, highlighting the virtues of particularism,
while others view it as developing toward a single
overarching organization, representing the presumed
interests of humanity as a whole. (source)
How Projects Emerge
For a project to form we cannot simply wait for people
to float by. You have to enforce the clustering. Software
projects are ideal conditions for using labor from all
parts of the world and using technology to let people
work together. Even the main output of the endeavor

(software) is digital! If you are trying to get on board a

fabulous project team, you are competing with the rest
of the world. Why should the project manager pick you?
Why should the organization pick you as a PM? Why
should they have even heard of you? "Self promotion,
Baby!" What makes you "you"? Why are you more
suited for the job then the rest of the crowd?
And reverse: why should people want to work on your
project? Because you have a project that is life
changing, that is worth their effort. Because you provide
an awesome creative and inspiring environment. You
provide leadership that inspires people to rise to the
occasion, to become larger than themselves. You give
trust, and you can be trusted.

Fourth Turn: Flexible Mind

Change is the norm. Change is happening fast. The

projects you are managing are not your daddy's projects.
To be able to handle the ever morphing environment,
you need to become agile, flexible as you have never
been before. To cope with the environment you need a
brain that can use many mental models to look at
reality. You need to be able to throw away your preprogrammed belief and adopt a different mindset in the
blink of an eye. The essential part of becoming a
flexible Project Manager therefor starts within the
comfort of your own head. In this final turn I will
outline the three steps that should guide your journey:
Self-Aware
The first step is to become aware of why you do what
you do. Do you perform tasks because you are expected
to do so, or do they really solve a problem or mitigate a
risk? Are you aware of why you have organized the
project in a certain way? Do you know the benefits and

drawbacks of every procedure you installed in your

team?
Emphatic
After becoming self-aware you can start guessing why
others are doing what they are doing. First you guess,
later you ask. This is the same process to become selfaware, only this time you adopt different assumptions,
take on a believe system that is not your own. If you are
used to run a country and you have a communist
background, you probably are trying to regulate,
centralize and formalize as much as possible. You want
to control every individual behavior in order to control
the whole system. When you are raised with a more
laissez-faire world view, you can adopt a reign that is
totally governed by the free market. Nothing is centrally
controlled, everything will take care of itself. If you run
one country, to become more emphatic, you will use the
other mindset for a while.
Holistic
Free at last. Free at last.
In this final stage you are able to use all kind of mental
models. You are aware of what triggers what. You can
mix and match from different world views. You use an
Agile planing within a Prince 2 organization. And you
know why you use it! You get to know how to look at
dynamic-complexity without getting into a spasm. You
come up with all new kind of weird mental models.