Telling People To Do More Does Not Motivate
Ever heard this one?
“We just need everyone to do more with less”.
Um, ok.
What the h3ll does that mean for your team, your company, your hustle?
If we could do ‘more’ why weren’t we already and how on earth are we going to do more now with less than before???
Budget cuts, revenue decline and bottom-line squeezing economics often mean leaders asking the team to simply do more. The problem? More does not motivate.
Want to get more out of your company? Here are some quickfire questions to get your team motivated:
How much is ‘more’? Is more a revenue figure, profit amount, number of clients, number of trees planted or competitors conquered? Seriously, what the h3ll is ‘the’ more and how ‘much’ more do we actually need? If you want your team to start to buy into it, you need to be specific and give them a path to more.
Why do we need more? It’s fine and dandy to ask Sally for more but why should Sally care about more? Do we need more to unlock better job security, better daily tasks, that new stand-up desk, etc? Also, is it just about the money or is it about impact, work type, etc? If you don’t have a rock-solid reason why then people aren’t going to get on board for when things are difficult and they will leave or simply underperform.
What is my vision for more? What is the promised land? Does more mean that we solve the world’s problem of X or that we reduce impact on the planet by our industry? Whatever your vision for more is, it needs to be something we can visualise and talk about frequently.
What will more mean for the team as individuals? The most common ‘doing more with less’ crap I hear is (insert CEO of XYZ sector) “Look if we can just get the team doing more with less on the whole then we will be solid”. WTF? If you need me to do more with less than explain what is the ‘more’ (widgets, paperwork, clients served), what is the ‘less’ (time, money, supplies) and what’s ‘in it for me’ (why should I care, what will I benefit, etc). Get those right and it’ll make a world of difference.
Still, stuck after those questions? Email us and we can dig in and smash through it.
– Travis
