Is your team motivated

As a manager, understanding what makes your team happy at work is fundamental. When you take the time to get to know what drives and satisfies your team members, you’re not just managing them; you’re fostering their growth and development.

It is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a fundamental aspect of being a successful manager. It leads to higher productivity, better retention, improved collaboration, and a healthier work environment. By prioritising your team’s happiness, you’re setting the stage for long-term success and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive.

Here are two motivational assessments which relate to different aspects of the work you do.

Personal Job Satisfaction Factors: These are individual-centred, focusing on what makes an employee feel satisfied, valued, and motivated at work. They address personal needs, professional development, relationships, and emotional well-being.

Organisational Effectiveness Factors: These are organisation-centred, focusing on how the organisation functions, its strategic direction, leadership, and the overall work environment. They address how well the organisation is managed, its culture, and its operational effectiveness.

Understanding and addressing both sets of factors are crucial for creating a work environment that is both personally fulfilling for employees and operationally effective for the organisation.

Below is a description of the and how to fill in the document.

If you would like an electronic version to use with your team – for less than the price of a coffee – just follow the link

The first concentrates on

Step 1: Rank these 13 statements in order of importance to you [My ranking]

e.g. if you think “Relationship with supervisor/boss” is the most important to you in a job then you rank it number 1 and having “Status/title” is the least important to you – rank it at thirteen [least important]

Step 2 ‘To Me’ column: captures how important each element is to you – This is what you want to get from your manager for the job to be perfect – Assign a value between 1 and 5 to each element [1 = Low : 5 = Perfect]

Step 3:I feel I get currently’ – Assign a value between 1 and 5 to each element [1 = Low : 5 = Perfect] – Example: You may feel you need 5 for “Relationship with supervisor/boss” but only currently get a 2 out of 5 😊

This will give you several bits of data which will be useful in leading and motivating your team.

What is most important to the team member, what the team member would like to get vs what they feel they get currently – now you can make plans to address or be aware of these needs in future.

Step 1: Rank these 9 statements in order of importance to you [My ranking] e.g. if you think “Fun” is the most important to you in a job then you rank it number 1 and having “Structure” is the least important to you –rank it as 9

Step 2 – The ‘To Me’ column captures what you want to get out of each element of the job for it to be perfect.

Step 3 – I feel I get currently  captures what you feel you currently get.

Example: You may feel you need 5 for “Fun” but only currently get a 2 out of 5

Again, this will give you several bits of data which will be useful in leading and motivating your team.

What is most important to the team member, what the team member would like to get vs what they feel they get currently – now you can make plans to address or be aware of these needs in future.

If you chose to just use these sheets – Link to free PDF

You need to analyse how your individuals rank the Personal Job Satisfaction Motivational Factors: what is important to individuals and what is the average for the whole team [all done for you in the Interactive excel – for less than the price of a Big Mac]

Now analyse the difference between the ‘What I Want’ and ‘What I Get’ scores – look for big positives [they are getting more than they need and big negatives – they feel they need more – this drives your actions – Now look at the average for the team [Remember this is all done for you in the Interactive excel – for less than the price of a Lunch deal at M&S or Pret]

If you would like an electronic version to use with your team – for less than the price of a coffee – just follow the link to get BOTH interactive Excel spreadsheets

  • Along with the Excel sheet you get
  • Input guidance
  • Printable output
  • Guidance on interpreting the output from your team.

Individual Personal sheets

In this example – Jane Doe can record when this assessment was completed. jane has ranked the Personal Job Satisfaction Factors: which gives you a chance to talk about these issues and understand a little more about Jane’s motivations.

Jane has also given a value to each item of what she requires from the job and what she feels she currently gets from her manager. You can see quite vividly that 3 items are getting less than Jane requires – One of them falls into the Red Zone in the RAG [Red Amber, Green]

Next Actions :

  • How will you improve how Jane feels about the relationship with you as her boss?
  • Is it this perceived lack of relationship which is driving the Amber score in ‘Job security’ or is that driven by the Amber in ‘Personal Life’
  • Now you can plan the discussions you need to have.
  • You could do the same exercise in 6 months to monitor progress and see if anything has changed.

In this team overview – there are 4 team members who have ranked the Personal Job Satisfaction Factors

On the Left is the Rounded rank assigned by the team [there is also an average rank for you too]

The top 3 Average rank are highlighted in green – 4th and 5th are in amber.

As with the individual sheet – this summary gives you an indication of areas you need to work on now.

The three biggest deficits between what your team want and what they feel they get are highlighted – so in this example it is

Relationship with supervisor/ boss; Job security and Status/Title [the final 1 here has less of a difference in terms of what your team want and what they perceive they are getting ]

Next Actions:

  • Review what each individual has filled in and plan appropriate questions and future actions.
  • Be aware of how your team are motivated and if necessary, change behaviour to keep them on task and in flow.

As a manager, understanding what makes your team happy at work is fundamental. By getting to know what drives and satisfies your team members, you’re fostering their growth and development. This is essential for higher productivity, better retention, improved collaboration, and a healthier work environment. In essence, focusing on what drives your team leads to long-term success and a thriving workplace.

Remember, there is always…

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