3 Simple Strategies to Motivate Your Team & Enhance Performance

We all know that workplace performance is impacted by employee motivation. When motivation is lacking, performance can suffer, and when motivation is high, performance is enhanced. So, the solution to improving performance is to increase motivation, right?

Yes and no.

It depends on the type of motivation and the type of work being performed.

Motivation: There’s extrinsic motivation, which is experienced when an individual engages in an activity because of external factors, such as monetary incentives. Then, there’s intrinsic motivation, which happens when an individual participates in an activity for its sake, finding it inherently interesting.

Type of Work: If employees do work that is systematic or repetitive, extrinsic motivation can positively impact performance. However, when the work involves creative, problem-solving skills, extrinsic motivation can actually diminish performance! Instead, in this case, intrinsic motivation is the key to augmenting performance.

Chances are, most of the work your team does is in the creative, problem-solving category. So, let’s talk about three simple ways you can increase intrinsic motivation, per self-determination theory.

Essentially, self-determination theory states that employees have three basic psychological needs that must be satisfied to increase intrinsic motivation:

1. Autonomy: employees have choice and control over their actions. Translated to the workplace, this means providing employees with more control over their job tasks and including them in decision-making. A specific strategy that can be used to increase job autonomy is the ROWE method (Results Only Work Environment). It allows employees to choose where and when they work, so long as their work is accomplished well and on time. Some companies have found that the ROWE method has created a more positive work environment where employees are more committed to the organization. If ROWE isn’t the perfect fit for your organization, think of other ways to create more job autonomy because the research shows that it’s associated with better mental and physical health, and of course, intrinsic motivation.