Debunking Employee Motivation
The not so little secret is..
I’ve just started writing again, some of the next pieces that I will be penning down involve my experience as a consultant and the things I’ve seen, heard and learnt from.
Let’s talk about “Employee Motivation”.
By far, one of the oddest theories I’ve seen founders believe in, is that their employees understand and believe in their vision by default.
Founders believe that teams inherently understand what they’re trying to build.
And the second they start believing this, they throw logic out of the window. By which I mean that they stop putting in the effort to constantly get the message across.
- “My employees aren’t staying back or putting in the effort” — I’m sorry have you given them a reason to? Why should they stay back?
Let’s not get into unhealthy schedules, we’ll start with the basics.
Before you read the title below and exit the page thinking “I already know this”, ask yourself if you have a problem with team motivation, if you do, read this piece till the end. It will save you time, effort, money and steer you towards the next step.
Do you have a vision:
- “Yes, written down somewhere” — please share it with your team
- “Yes, in my head” — pen it the freak down please and follow Step 1.
- “No” - you shouldn’t be starting up yet. What is your team working on?
Do your employees understand or know about your vision
- “Yes”
- “No” — Fix this (write an internal email)
- “Maybe” — Fix this (write an internal email)
- “I keep changing the vision” — get a hold of yourself
Does your vision align with your employees vision, mission, goals?
When you’re running a startup with an employee base of 2–20 you should know what every individual wants, if you don’t, that’s a problem. If you have a bigger team, this pool should ideally involve your core team.
Don’t hide behind “there’s tons of work, it really isn’t that important”. Or “I basically know what they wanted 3 years ago- should be the same”.
If you want your star employees to not jump ship, learn about them from them.
If you’ve been in this business for a while, I don’t need to tell you how difficult hiring is. You can’t afford to let good people go.
If there is only one useful thing you do this Sunday, let it be spending time crafting an internal email talking about what you’re building and why you’re building it, why you need them, thanking them and scheduling time to spend with them next week.
This Sunday, talk to your team about the real reason why you started up.
Also let’s build a list of practices that are successful, for everyone to follow. What would help would be if you shared your favourite practice in the comments below. Or tagged me on Twitter (@aashnakaur). Let’s start a conversation. I’d love to know what else works, or doesn’t work.
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