Struggling to Keep Your Team Motivated During Change? You’re Not Alone.
In high-pressure environments, motivating employees to embrace change is a critical challenge for HR experts, strategy consultants, and C-suite leaders. We know that change is necessary, but how often do our well-intentioned strategies backfire, leading to disengagement rather than enthusiasm? Understanding how to motivate yourself and others in the workplace is more complex than we think.
I’ve seen it firsthand. In one project with a fast-growing financial services provider, despite motivational speeches and incentives, employee engagement plummeted. The CEO and CHRO were puzzled. We discovered the real issue: their approach to motivation was completely off the mark. What they thought would inspire employees actually had the opposite effect. The solution? A creative, evidence-based approach to motivation that transformed resistance into engagement.
In this article I delve into the science of motivation and how leveraging your own style can enhance both personal drive and team productivity, particularly during tough times. By understanding and applying these insights, you can ensure your change management models not only succeed but on the other side you find a more resilient and engaged workforce.
The Problem: Why You Stay Stuck
Many traditional motivation strategies fail because they overlook individual differences. Popular approaches, like the carrot and stick method, don’t account for the unique motivational drivers that influence how we approach goals and handle challenges. This often results in disengagement and frustration.
The Solution: Use Your Own Motivation Style
Research by Columbia University professor Tory Higgins and Heidi Grant shows that people have distinct motivation styles that are hardwired from childhood. Recognizing and leveraging these styles can be key to maintaining motivation during tough times.
This knowledge is not just crucial for personal development but also for leaders and managers who aim to keep their teams motivated. Understanding how to motivate others in the workplace is essential for effective leadership.
Here’s Higgins’ Harvard Business Review Article on motivating people.
A Mini Test to Find Your Motivation Style
When you think about finishing an important goal, how do you feel? What are the three words that come to mind?
Play to Win: Excited, upbeat, on top of the world. You thrive on taking risks and thinking creatively.
Play Not to Lose: Calm, relieved, just happy to relax. You prefer avoiding unnecessary risks and working methodically.
Balancer: A mix of the above feelings, enjoying both creativity and precision.
Motivation Styles Explained
Understanding your motivation styles and that of your team can be a catalyst for transformation. This table helps you identify the strengths and risks of each style, paving the way for a more engaged and productive workforce.
Play to Win
- Strengths: Thrives on opportunity, innovation, and creative thinking
- Risks: May take unnecessary risks or overlook important details
- How to Motivate: Emphasize growth opportunities, creative freedom, and potential rewards
- Change Message: “This change will help us lead the market and create exciting new opportunities”
Play Not to Lose
- Strengths: Detail-oriented, methodical, and focused on preventing problems
- Risks: May be overly cautious or resistant to necessary changes
- How to Motivate: Emphasize security, clear processes, and risk mitigation
- Change Message: “This change will help us maintain our position and prevent potential problems”
Balancer
- Strengths: Adaptable, sees both opportunities and risks
- Risks: May struggle with decisive action in extreme situations
- How to Motivate: Provide balanced information about both opportunities and security aspects
- Change Message: “This change offers new possibilities while strengthening our foundation”
Example Case Study: Why the Change Motivation Did Not Work
I was working with a fast-growing financial services provider and was asked to help the CEO as a Strategic Human Capital Advisor. Despite motivational speeches and incentives, many employees remained disengaged, stressed, and a substantial portion left. The CEO and CHRO were puzzled.
In all my projects, I start with a thorough analysis to let hard data speak. Here, we conducted a quick pulse survey to gather initial insights. The survey revealed that while the C-suite was primarily ‘Play to Win,’ many managers and professionals were ‘Play Not to Lose.’ This mismatch caused disengagement, as many saw the additional goals as burdensome rather than motivating.
Initially, the company’s approach to motivate employees with messages like: “If we expand to Asia, our market will grow, and we can become the leader” resonated with the ‘Play to Win’ mindset but failed to engage many employees and even increased stress levels.
We refocused ongoing change projects, limiting them to a few per team. The message changed to resonate with ‘Play Not to Lose’ individuals: “Expanding in Asia will help us remain competitive, allowing you to fulfill your duties diligently.”
Additionally, the hard truth was conveyed: “Failing to come along may risk your bonus and career.” Employees were now clear on their focus, and the message aligned with their motivation style.
To address the high stress levels, we used a predictive model to identify the most impactful interventions. This model pinpointed resilience training as critical. By engaging employees in an evidence-based workshop on personal resilience, we predicted and observed a significant decrease in stress levels. This data-driven strategy provided measurable outcomes, ensuring effective intervention.
The results were substantial. Aligning the message with employees’ motivation styles increased engagement, decreased resistance to change, and led to successful assignments in expanding the Asian market. Additionally, the resilience training significantly lowered stress levels and reduced turnover.
Conclusion: Use Your Motivation Style to Achieve Your Career Goals
Motivation is essential for achieving professional goals but also challenging to master. Understanding your motivation style can help you stay on track and perform at your best. By recognizing your style, you can tailor your approach to both self-motivation and leading others. Leveraging effective change management models is crucial in this process.
Key Takeaways for HR Leaders and Executives:
- Recognize Diversity in Motivation: Understand that your team members are motivated differently than you might be
- Tailor Your Communication: Adapt your change messaging to resonate with different motivation styles
- Limit Change Initiatives: Focus on fewer, more strategic changes to prevent overwhelm
- Invest in Resilience: Build team capacity to handle change through targeted training
- Measure Impact: Use data to track engagement and adjust your approach accordingly
By applying these strategic HR insights, you can transform how your organization approaches change, creating more resilient teams and achieving better outcomes with less resistance.
Want to discuss how to apply these motivation principles to your specific organizational challenges? Contact me for a strategic consultation.
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