The 3 parts of motivation – Part 1: Autonomy

If you have started working with a new team or feeling that it’s time to have a reset to re-energise your team, here are three core components that underpin motivation within teams, and importantly support an employee to enjoy their work. After all, they are people too and most people from the Receptionist to the CEO enjoy their work more with Autonomy (Part 1), Mastery (Past 2), and Purpose (Part 3).

Autonomy

Defined as independence in one's thoughts or actions.

Image: Pinterest

I am yet to meet someone whom enjoys micro management, it is taxing for the manager having to plan, document, and monitor. Equally taxing for employee whom will likely feel anxious, frustrated and angry towards the increased level of supervision. This is usually underpinned by a fear of loss, be it the job, task, or status. Don’t get me wrong, micro management does have a place when on boarding a new employee, who has to perform tasks in a specific way. But unless you are a brain surgeon, most people will generally experience micro management when work performance issues arise.

I am first to admit I am enthusiastically optimistic, and I believe that everyone wants to do their job, to the best of their ability and enjoy their work. By flexing the autonomy muscle, employees tend to feel empowered to make decisions, have confidence in their work, and feel trusted by management. To understand the level of autonomy within an individual or team, as a manager you need to have an appreciative enquiry with your team.

Three leading questions:

1. Do you feel you have clear objectives and know what you need to do for your role? – This question has a risk of being a simple “yes” for fear of sounding like they don’t know what they are doing. So my suggestion is to frame the conversation about why you are asking and then seek to probe a little deeper if you get the brush off.

2. Where are the bottlenecks in completing the objectives of your role? – Depending on how question 1 went, this is great question to understand where there might be a process issue or another blocker for them that slows things down.

3. How often do you need to escalate issues and what are they for? – Some organisations may have detailed processes or delegations about who can make decisions and when. In my experience delegations often are tightened when something goes wrong and relax when things are running smoothly. Or it could be the complete opposite and the team are unsure of when to escalate so they escalate everything! Then it’s time for the leadership to set out the sandpit so everyone understands where they can play and with what toys.

As a manager of a team you may find yourself wondering why you keep getting asked the same thing or being asked to step in over the same activity. Take some time to make a note of when this happens and how frequently, if there is a consistent pattern, you just may be blocking autonomy! Common themes I find relate to financial or customer decisions, or an employee being uncertain about setting precedents. These are generally “little D” decisions, such as giving the customer a discount.

If this is the case it could be time to review your delegations and approval framework or create one! This is best done with your team to understand the pinch points. I need to put my governance hat on here to say this is super important. All businesses should document and communicate their frameworks to ensure you have controls in place for what you need them for (like spending lots of money) and enable a level of autonomy for those lower risk decisions that free up any bottlenecks (like giving refunds).

This blog post was inspired by Daniel Pink’s book Drive. Which has way more scientific evidence to support these core principles. This post is my take on each component. Stay tuned for Part 2, Mastery.

Thanks for reading, if you are interested in more ways to Think Ascend, please subscribe to my mailing list. No spam, just content for motivation to be your best self.