Can Conversations Motivate People?
Many business owners often observe that their employees are not striving toward doing their jobs better: that their team is not motivated. Having an unmotivated team is a major road block to growth. So, how do you address and rectify this?
Firstly, what is motivation?
Motivation is the desire in a person to perform an action. Fundamentally, it is driven by different centers in the brain related to “rewards” and “decisions”.
Imagine I give you a tool that enables you to activate these centers in a person. Won’t it be great to have a highly motivated team?
I am sure it would be. That is why most of the discussion in this article is from the perspective of activating brain regions of motivation. Without delving deep into the science, I will tell you how this tool can harness the power of these brain centers and thoughts.
What is this tool?
Many people mistake this tool to be training. While training can educate people and give them new perspectives, it does not ensure that employees actually act on the new knowledge.
The tool I am talking of is very simple and easiest to access: Conversations!
Conversations can trigger emotions, confidence and a desire to execute. It can reassure a person that they are capable of acting towards the goal. Regular conversations result in activation of neural centers that translate to further action.
What kind of conversations?
Conversations that show Affection
These are informal conversations about a person’s life. Making general enquiries about their health, family and/or hobbies and interests. This seemingly “small talk” has a big impact! It makes people feel you genuinely care and ignites affection in them. I cannot stress enough on this: a bond of affection between a team member and the boss (or for that matter any 2 people) creates a positive environment to work together. This is the first step towards a person unravelling their brilliance. People aspire to do more when they are in a safe environment.
Conversations that Convey Appreciation
Humans are innately insecure and harbor many fears such as that of failure, termination, humiliation, rejection and either being labelled as “too much” or “not enough”. These fears limit the mind and hinder people from reaching their full potential, in a subconscious attempt to protect their self-esteem and honor. This then becomes a cycle: the lesser you do, the lower is the confidence or desire to go beyond.
The key to breaking this cycle is appreciation.
Appreciation deeply conveys you trust a person and boosts their self-confidence. Almost, involuntarily, an employee will start taking better decisions, experimenting, and expressing their views. This eventually culminates into an upward surge in efficiency.
This confidence is also a great base for healthy exchange of disagreements and feedback.
One critical factor here is to keep conversations that appreciate focused on the mental and emotional abilities of a person like their clarity of thinking, focus, creativity, resilience, discipline, dedication, and overall character traits. Once the person feels “good enough” – “not too much or not too less” for a role – they will excel at it.
Conversations that Result in Alignment
The base created by affection and appreciation, primes a person for deeper conversations. At the work place, such deeper conversations should result in the last factor affecting motivation: alignment.
Every individual has an innate desire to grow in life: this may or may not be in line with their caliber and or actions. How can conversations bridge the gap?
Start with a non-presumptuous conversation about what a person would like to achieve. Assess this in light of the company’s goals and figure out common areas. Then, guide them to achieve the same. Also, make them aware of the alignment. This alignment of a person’s actions and their goals is pivotal for a surge in the wisdom and maturity a person applies to take appropriate decisions.
Often times people don’t have a plan of self-growth. If you subtly point them towards the next step, they will be excited to do more and likely to stay on course.
Have these conversations with your team members and see the impact on their motivation and agility. Some conversations can be short while some will have to be longer. But, their impact will leave you pleasantly surprised.
If you haven’t “talked much,” we suggest you have these conversations over a sustained period of 6-8 weeks. Leave comments telling us about the difference you see!
