From Disengaged to Delighted: The Secret to a Motivated Team
Feeling stuck motivating your team? Focus on what truly matters: meeting their basic needs. Discover the science-backed approach to creating a highly engaged team.
You’re a new manager figuring out how to motivate your team members. One way is through their views of work, but what if you can’t figure them out? Another is through the mastery-autonomy-purpose triad, but what if that doesn’t apply to them? Another is through the six work values, but what if their needs aren’t being met?
Let’s say you value beauty in life. You look for beauty, are moved by beauty, and create beauty. Being surrounded by beautiful things is important to you, and you make particular sacrifices for the sake of beauty. You set up a home, then take your beauty brush to it because it’s not home unless it’s beautiful.
But if you don’t have shelter in the first place—if there’s no roof over your head and you don’t know where you’ll sleep that night—you won’t care about beauty as much as you care about shelter.
Your priority will not be beautifying your environment but finding shelter from the harsh elements. Once you have a shelter, you can focus on beauty.
In life, needs trump values. The same is true about work.
The Gallup Organization has tracked workplace needs for decades to create highly motivated workplaces. Understanding employee needs is critical to achieving this. Gallup has discovered that you cannot create motivated workplaces if employees have unmet needs. This is the science of employee engagement.
Employee Engagement Defined
Employee engagement is being committed, dedicated, and emotionally connected to your work and workplace, so you’re willing to give your best discretionary effort.
Notice a few components of engagement:
An Ability: Employee engagement is a business skill like project management, effective communication, and conflict resolution, which can be measured, discussed, and improved.
Committed and Connected: When you’re engaged, you’re psychologically connected to your work and are committed to being there. You feel personally responsible for the outcomes.
Willing to Exert Yourself: Engaged workers choose to give their best efforts. Instead of holding back care and excellence, they willingly exert themselves to achieve excellent outcomes.
Three Types of Employees
In their research, Gallup has found three types of employees are:
Engaged
Description: committed and connected to their work to give their best efforts
Sounds like: “I really enjoy what I do and with whom I work. Sometimes, the days fly by, and suddenly, it’s time to leave for the day. There’s a sense that we’re all in this together.”
Disengaged
Description: physically present and able to do their work, but consistently not doing their best work
Sounds like: “The work is okay, but I show up because I need a paycheck, but I keep my resume updated because I’m always looking for something better.”
Actively Disengaged
Description: unhappy and actively resist the workplace
Sounds like: “I'm so frustrated that I'm going to find ways to resist this place. I may be vocal or quietly defiant, but this place is going down.”
The Critical Difference
What is the critical difference between the three types of employees? It’s the degree to which they have unmet needs. Remember, values don’t matter much if needs aren’t being met. Gallup’s work focuses on understanding the needs of employees and suggesting ways to meet them. The result is an engaged and motivated workforce.
According to Gallup’s Employee Engagement Model, the four types of employee needs are:
Basic Needs: “What Do I Get?”
This includes employees having clear expectations, performance metrics, and defined priorities. They also need the right materials, information, and resources to do their work. When they don’t know what’s important and aren’t equipped, they feel unfocused and unprepared to do what you ask.
Individual Contribution Needs: “What Do I Give?”
This includes the employees’ needs to grow and develop, contribute to the organization, and be recognized for their impact. They must also be known and understood, cared for, and valued on the team. They feel unseen and neglected when they don’t have access to growth or aren’t recognized.
Teamwork Needs: “Do I Belong?”
This includes employees trusting their teammates, feeling part of the team, doing quality work together, and seeing that their opinions matter. They need their work to be important and valued by those it serves and to be proud of their accomplishments. They don’t feel heard or valued when these needs are unmet.
Growth Needs: “How Do I Grow?”
Finally, employees must be reminded of their progress and growth and shown how far they’ve come. It’s easy to forget one’s own development when in the throes of current work. They also need to be challenged and stretched. When these needs aren’t met, they feel stagnant and stuck and may look for growth elsewhere.
A Motivated Team
If you want a motivated team, focus on their needs, not just their values. Gallup's model is a great tool for this. By understanding their basic needs, desire to contribute, need for belonging, and hunger for growth, you can create a team where everyone feels valued and inspired. And let's be honest, who wouldn't want a team like that? You can motivate your team members by focusing on their workplace needs.