Recently I came across some studies on the topic of how employees’ motivation at work is continuing to decrease. Organizations respond by flooding money into inspiring employees with the hope of flipping unmotivated employees magically into motivated employees. But what if this idea of solving for lack of motivation is not the actual problem we need to be solving for? What if our time, energy, and money need to be allocated in a much different manner?
I’m one for leveraging motivation in a variety of ways – carrying out my health and wellness goals, ramping up my team for success, or coaching youth sports. Motivation certainly has a role in our growth journeys. But motivation is simply a quick jolt forward and has limited impact on what we really need – sustainable movement forward.
As a leader (think of leader in a variety of ways from formal leadership to you leading your own growth journey), think about what you’re trying to solve for. Do I need a short-term boost? If so, motivation tactics may be a great course of action. There are times that call for a short-term boost. But in most situations, we’re searching for answers well beyond a short-term boost and our needs align more with finding sustainable movement forward.
Instead of following the buzzword of motivation and bouncing from one motivation tactic to the next, shift time and energy to how sustainable movement is created. Focus on coaching great habits. Habits are the regular tendencies and behaviors that show up regardless of circumstances. Motivation will come and go. Habits are what show up day in and day out ready to take on all the variety of challenges we face to help drive us forward.
Think about deliberate and focused time helping ourselves and employees build great habits that are transferrable in all areas of life – clear and concise communication, curiosity engaging in discussion, active listening, and organization to name a few. What if we bypass this tendency to prop up some motivation idea and instead invest in the long term by building these key habits our organization needs and each employee can feel fulfilled growing in.
Horace Mann looked at the concept of a habit in the following way, “Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it”. Every aspect of our world is changing at incredible pace and how we consistently show up matters. When we talk about what we want from our teams in the workplace, do we really care about how motivated they are? Or should we be investing our time in finding solutions centered around how we help our employees work each day to weave this thread to create a strong cable in the form of a habit? Don’t we owe it to ourselves and our teams to get the biggest return on our efforts and focus on the habits we can help elevate to generate sustainable movement forward?
Our teams want progress. They want movement forward. Investing time coaching great habits does this. When it comes to where we invest time in ourselves and our teams, make difficult decisions to bypass the buzzword and quick fix motivational tactics. Invest time and energy in arming ourselves and the team with ways to weave the thread each day to build a strong cable of habits that generate long-term success, regardless of what’s thrown at them. Bypass the temptation for short-term motivation and keep the focus centered around how investing in building great habits leads to sustainable success.
Take your step: what’s something you tend to wait until you’re motivated to do? Is it working out, reading, networking, volunteering, or something else? If it’s something you care about growing in, identify one habit that would help shift your approach from occasionally to consistent. For the next week, start weaving that cable and each day carry out this one habit to see the momentum you can start building.