How to Motivate Employees: Beyond Motivation-The Real Secret to Inspiring Your Team
Did you know that "how to motivate employees" is consistently the top searched phrase from leaders? It begs the question: why are so many leaders struggling to energize their teams?
At Braver Leaders, we believe this isn't actually a motivation problem—it's a people problem. For far too long, leadership development has focused on completing tasks and getting teams to hit targets, completely overlooking the human component. This approach has left many employees feeling more like robots than humans... and it shows. The result? Demotivated teams and demoralized people, with burnout rates climbing year after year.
The Essential Shift: From Task Completers to People Developers
We need to transform our thinking in the leadership industry from task completion to people development. As Theodore Roosevelt wisely noted:
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
True leaders inspire their teams by keeping some simple but powerful promises. They cannot effectively lead or generate team cohesion without these four key practices.
The Four Leadership Promises That Actually Motivate
1. Providing Necessary Resources
One of the quickest ways to demoralize your team is by demanding more than any human can reasonably accomplish with the available time and resources. When you set people up to fail, they develop resentment toward both you and their work. Have honest conversations with team members about what resources they're lacking. Then, either help them acquire those resources or adjust expectations accordingly!
2. Maintaining Clarity on THE Priority
Nobody wants to be confused about WHAT they're doing and WHERE they're going. This is why we begin all coaching relationships by clarifying the Vision, Mission, and Values of Leaders and their Teams. You simply cannot function effectively without knowing the priority and destination. Great leaders eliminate confusion and lack of clarity. Research shows that 22% of workplace conflicts stem from unclear job roles, leading to confusion about responsibilities and accountability. Clear priorities eliminate this confusion!
3. Establishing Effective, Repeatable Processes
Stop trying to reinvent the wheel or interfere with what already works well. Support clarity in the work, attainability in goals, and manageability in processes. The leader who continually meddles in what they don't understand has become a trope for good reason. Many employees simply want the respect of autonomy to complete their work effectively!
4. Prioritizing Execution and Deliverables
Losing sight of the forest for the trees is a pitfall many leaders experience. Be deliverables-driven and stay out of the weeds! If team members need your detailed input, make time for that—but only after the deliverable is complete. Setting the expectation that work completion comes first helps teams prioritize effectively and creates space for innovation when there isn't a deadline breathing down your neck. Quality work rarely happens when fast is the primary goal.
Transform Your Leadership Approach
Are your attempts to motivate your team falling flat? Is your organization struggling with high turnover, low engagement, or declining productivity? It's time for a fundamentally different approach to leadership.
Braver Leaders Coaching: Developing People, Not Just Performance
At Braver Leaders Coaching, we've helped executives and managers transform their leadership approach from task-focused to people-centered, with remarkable results
Our proprietary leadership framework doesn't just teach you how to temporarily motivate your team—it helps you become the kind of leader people naturally want to follow.
Ready to Lead Differently?
Stop searching for quick motivation tricks and start building a leadership foundation that creates naturally engaged teams. Our personalized coaching programs address your specific leadership challenges and organizational context.
Contact Braver Leaders today to schedule your complimentary leadership consultation.
Contact us to discover how our approach can transform not just how you lead, but how your team responds.
Your team deserves more than motivation—they deserve a leader who truly sees them as people first.
(I was very inspired by Mastering Leadership by Bob Anderson and Bill Adams on this topic. Their ‘Chapter on The Promise of Leadership: Meeting the High Bar of Expectations’ inspired this reverse engineering coaching approach to inspiring teams. Check out their book for even more great leadership content.)
