In getting the job done, effective delegation is a critical skill and will help motivate the team or individual. But it also applies in reverse – if your team is motivated, delegating is easier. Motivation is a critical component in assessing which delegation style to use. As a general rule, the more incentive there is to work, the less time you have to spend keeping an eye on the team to make sure the job is being done.
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There are some simple principles of motivation that you may find help you in your work with others. Abraham Maslow, one of the leading experts on the subject, said that we all do things for a reason. This reason can be ascribed to each of us wanting to have or achieve certain things. We will work to be able to satisfy our needs. This was put forward in his “Hierarchy of Needs,” below.
- Self-growth
- Public Esteem – Achievement
- Social – Love and Contact
- Security – Safety and Shelter
- Physical – Food and Water
The model explained
Each of us, Maslow said, will work to answer our needs for food and water, safety and security, love and social contact, public achievement, and self-growth. Generally, once we have satisfied the lower needs, we move up the pyramid to the higher ones. Assuming that most of your team has the lower needs satisfied – food and water, safety and shelter, love and social contact – then it is the two highest needs that they will want to satisfy: public achievement and self-growth. This is how you can motivate them – by using their desire to gain approval from yourself and their peers, and to grow as a person by developing their skills, experience, and self-respect.
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By giving individuals opportunities to achieve recognition and develop via the jobs you delegate to them, you will be able to motivate them.
Here is a checklist of practical steps you can take to create and sustain an environment that will motivate your team. Some of these relate to delegation and some to other skills. If you can provide all of these, you will make sure your team is fully motivated.
- Set challenging targets, but make sure they are realistic and achievable. Try to involve people in determining their own objectives. People need to feel in control.
- Make sure your team is fully informed about decisions that will affect them and anything relevant that is going on in the company.
- Involve more people in planning work and/ or innovating.
- Increase individuals’ responsibility by delegating more. Allocate work in such a way that everyone has a chance to take on more responsibility and gain more expertise.
- Allow people maximum scope to vary the methods, sequence, and pace of their work. Remove as many controls as possible while making sure that everyone knows who is responsible for achieving defined targets or meeting standards.
- Make it clear that what people achieve or fail to achieve is up to them.
- Make sure that the relationship between effort and reward is clearly defined.
- Recognize achievements, but do not cheapen praise by dispensing it too freely.
All of these steps link back to the principles Abraham Maslow put forward; by using them, you will motivate your team, develop their skills, be a more effective leader, and create a positive team culture. Know more about delegation and motivation only at the University Canada West, one of the best universities in Canada.
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