Day 4: To build a great team, do not motivate

#CorporateSurvivalTips

Ravindra Elicherla
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

(this is dedicated to managers)

Every living creature is living because there is an inherent motivation already built-in. The hope to live, the purpose to make a difference, some energy to contribute to the world. It could be small or big but there is a hope, purpose and energy. However hard you try, you can only inspire people, but you can’t motivate. Every human is already motivated with their values and purpose. You may argue that most of the people do not know their purpose of living. It could be because, just that purpose is not inline to what you think should be the purpose. Your purpose may be different from their purpose.

1. Instead of motivating an employee, please ask what is motivating them already? What gives a kick to them to wake up on a Monday morning and look forward to come to office. If you get an answer, that is in your control, enhance it. When I was managing Software Engineers directly, I used to tell them, “If you wake up and not feeling like to coming to office. That is the day you should definitely meet me”

2. Every person is different: Spend time to understand each team member. Understand what they like, what they do not like, what motivates them. If someone likes to interact with stakeholders more than coding, give more work related to stakeholder management. I had a developer who was fresher that time did this very well in her first month in career itself. Her strength is interacting with people and get the things done. And she did a fantastic job.

3. Take tough calls: What if you do not have a job or you exhausted with the opportunities that a person do very well in your team. Give them time to enhance the skills or build interest. If they can’t, let them find opportunities where they can succeed. Of course, you will never force Sachin Tendulkar to play badminton or Neymar to play Cricket.

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