• Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks

  Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. “I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,” is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors.

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