Motivating Teams to Win

Motivating Teams to Win

People learn to know each other as they progress through the team-building exercises. When both personal and organisational goals are accomplished, they learn to respect individual diversity, value team contributions, and take pleasure in the fulfilment that comes from working together as a team.

Motivation is the final component that is necessary. When discussing individual and team motivation, two key notions should be taken into account.

Maslow's Theory of Motivation

A H Maslow's writings serve as a helpful starting point for figuring out what makes people tick. He argued that in order to establish a solid foundation upon which motivation may be constructed, individual demands should be placed with the strongest at the bottom.

The five factors he explored were as follows:

• Physiological: Physical needs for food, shelter, warmth, sexual fulfilment, and other biological processes are referred to as physiological needs.

• Safety: This comprises the need for physical, mental, and emotional security as well as the need to feel free from bodily harm.

• Social: Social needs include a want for acceptance and love, a desire to be a part of a group or organisation, and a desire to be with or belong to others. It carries with it an underlying urge to love and be loved, to share, and to belong to a family.

• Esteem: Self-esteem and the esteem of others are two categories that are closely tied to this requirement. The first is our need for self-respect, self-worth, sufficiency, and competence. The second combines our desire for approval, adoration, status, and respect from others.

• Self-Actualization: the desire to maximise one's potential or to fully express one's abilities.

Maslow brings out two noteworthy things in relation to these demands. First, when one of our most important needs is in danger, we act quickly to protect it. For instance, if you are famished, you don't bother about your social standing. As a result, as a leader, you should prepare for a vehemently defended response if your suggested changes seem to endanger people's security.

Second, a met need no longer serves as a motivator. When one need is satisfied, the person in question is more conscious of their own wants in other areas. These in turn start to inspire them today.

Herzberg’s Hygiene and Motivator Factors

Frederick Herzberg's idea, first put forward in the mid-1950s, is the second significant theory in relation to motivation. He and his colleagues spoke with 203 engineers and accountants to learn why some aspects of their professional lives left them feeling highly satisfied while others left them feeling highly unsatisfied.

Motivators and hygiene factors were the two categories Herzberg used to categorise the contributing elements. Individuals experience lingering, lasting satisfaction from the motivators, but, if the hygiene aspects are incorrect, we experience discontent.

Hygiene Factors	Definition/Example
Company Policy and Administration	Availability of clearly defined policies: degree of red tape, adequacy of communication; efficiency of organisation
Supervisor	Accessibility, competence and personality of the boss
Interpersonal Relations	The relations with supervisors, team members and colleagues; the quality of the social life at work
Salary	The total rewards package, such as salary, pension, company car, and other perks,
Status	The person’s position or rank in relation to others is symbolised by their title, parking space, or car size of office.
Job Security	Freedom from insecurity such as loss of position or loss of employment altogether
Personal Life	The effect of a person’s work on family life (i.e: stress, unsociable hours, or moving house)
Working Conditions	The physical environment in which work is done; the degree of discomfort it causes

 

Motivators	Definition
Achievement	sense of bringing something to a successful conclusion, completing a job, solving a problem, making a successful sale. The sense of achievement is in proportion to the size of the challenge.
Recognition	Acknowledgement of a person's contribution; appreciation of work by company or colleagues; rewards for merit
Job interest	Appeal of the job; variety rather that repetition; holds interest and is not boring
Responsibility	Being allowed to use discretion at work, shown trust by company, having authority to make decisions; accountable for the work of others
Advancement	promotion in status or job or the prospect of it

Herzberg's two-factor theory has generated a lot of contentious discussion, but it has nonetheless had a significant impact on the effort to boost job happiness across industry.