{"id":7308,"date":"2021-10-07T09:29:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T16:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knowyourteam.com\/blog\/?p=7308"},"modified":"2024-10-11T13:15:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T20:15:24","slug":"motivating-employees-to-go-above-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2021\/10\/07\/motivating-employees-to-go-above-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Motivating employees to go above and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here are 7 practices focused on creating the right environment for motivating employees to go above and beyond.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"motivating<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Imagine the best team you’ve ever been a part of: One where a leader is motivating employees to go above and beyond to achieve a shared purpose. Everyone is contributing their best work and elevates the outcome to be far greater than what was even originally envisioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it sound like wishful thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don’t blame your skepticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to figure out how to motivate our team to go above and beyond may feel like a naive quest for an illusionary Holy Grail \u2013 especially when maintaining a baseline of motivation can feel like a struggle with our own teams. After all, according to Gallup<\/a>, only 2 in 10 employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work, in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motivating employees to go above and beyond must require secret alchemy of high salaries plus unthinkably posh perks plus some trendy goals framework attached to it… Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrong. Motivating employees to go above and beyond is not an elusive myth, beholden to only the teams that get lucky or can afford to buy their team’s motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, motivating a team to go above and beyond requires a rigorous reexamination of what truly motivates a team, and how to connect that motivation to the greater vision of what you’re pursuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to unlearn, and then re-learn? Let’s jump in…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demystifying employee motivation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In order to motivate employees to go above and beyond, we must first start with the question: What is motivation, to begin with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simplest definition can be reduced to “motivation is wanting,” as defined by Roy Baumeister in 2016<\/a>. The wanting to achieve great work, the wanting to go above and beyond, the wanting to produce a high-quality outcome… These are “wantings” that we aspire our team to intrinsically have. And in the context of the team these wantings \u2013 motivation \u2013 are immensely powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To increase and direct our team’s wantings, as leaders, we create and leverage what tools and systems we have: Goals and monetary incentives, most commonly. Perhaps it’s using the OKRs goals framework, or awarding bonuses when certain milestones are hit, or giving generous healthcare benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these goals and incentives are helpful, they also overly employ extrinsic motivation. That is, they rely on an external factor to conjure a compelled sense that someone should do something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extrinsic motivation can absolutely work for motivating employees to go above and beyond, especially in the short term. However, studies have shown that if you want results to truly be long-lasting, for employees to be motivated to go above and beyond, we must tap into intrinsic motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2011 study<\/a>, in particular, revealed how employees who are intrinsically motivated are three times more engaged than employees who are extrinsically motivated. COVID-19 further exposed this reality for many of us: With the ability for people to work remotely, people’s desire for roles more aligned with what they personally want for themselves and their lifestyle \u2013 intrinsic motivation, in short \u2013 has resulted in the “Great Resignation<\/a>.” Extrinsic motivation is not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsic motivation is what we as leaders are truly looking to tap into if we want our employees to go above and beyond. The kind of motivation that is self-generated, from the employee themselves, around what they want for themselves that contributes to what the team is trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This requires a reframing of employee motivation for us as leaders, as a whole. <\/strong>We cannot merely ask: “How do I motivate my team?” because doing implies that motivation is a thing we give to our team. But in fact, our team is already<\/em> motivated intrinsically \u2013 they already have beliefs, willingness, ideas, talents, and gifts inside them. Rather, if we want to increase intrinsic motivation in our team, we must ask: “How do I create an environment that enables my team to motivate themselves?”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\""How<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\""How<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

An environment<\/a><\/em> is what we influence as leaders \u2013 not people, themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This difference is beyond semantic. When we focus on influencing the environment versus influencing people, we unlock the real secret to enabling motivation: That motivation is not a dial you can crank up nor a series of checkboxes you tick. It is a true commitment to first understanding what motivates your team – and then connecting what motivates them to what you’d like the team to accomplish. Only in this reframing are you able to be motivating employees to go above and beyond.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how do we do it? How do we create an environment for our team to tap into their own sense of intrinsic motivation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s dive into the 7 practices for motivating employees to go above and beyond…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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7 practices for creating an environment for your team to motivate themselves<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

# 1: Define the observable behavior.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What do we want, as leaders? Yes, we want to be motivating our team to go above and beyond… but above and beyond what? What does “higher motivation” exactly mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oftentimes, when we say “I need to motivate more our team,” we’re wildly imprecise in identifying the real output of strong motivation. Does it mean your team is moving faster? Does it mean a higher quality of work? There’s a large gap between what I call the “desired descriptor” and the “observable behavior.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A desired descriptor is a vague generalization. An observable behavior is a specific, tangible action or event that we could point to, so we can anchor future action around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, you might say, “I want more engagement<\/em>,” but what you really mean is, “I want more participation in the learning opportunities we give our staff.<\/em>” The former is the desired descriptor \u2013 a fuzzy notion of an idea. The latter is an observable behavior \u2013 a firm, noticeable event we’d like to see happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s another example: You might say, “I want better performance<\/em>,” but what you really mean is “I want our team to have a higher bar for the quality of work<\/em>.” The former, as a desired descriptor, doesn’t give you much basis for action. The latter precisely identifies an observable behavior you’d like to pursue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Desired<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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See the difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This distinction between the desired descriptor and observable behavior is critical because if we’re unable to zero in on exactly what we want to change, then we have no hope of changing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2: Play detective.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

You know what you want… But what does your team<\/em> want?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, you’ve identified the observable behavior you’d like to see being exhibited by your team. But how does your team<\/em> feel about it? What is your team<\/em> motivated by?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To uncover what your team<\/em> exactly wants, here are some questions you can ask your team members during a 1:1 meeting<\/a> around motivation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n