Workplaces thrive when teams collaborate to accomplish shared goals. One of the main challenges for teams is they’re made up of unique individuals with their own style of working. Furthermore, remote work poses additional challenges to traditional employee motivation techniques. Methods that managers relied on for employee engagement may not work as well in a remote work environment. To prevent this, managers must understand which employee motivation techniques are applicable to each team member.
We’re exploring 4 different professional personalities and the motivation techniques applied for each one. Bonus: we're tackling how to adapt towards these, remotely.
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Employee motivation strategies for different personality types
1. Creatives
Creatives are known for drumming up plans and ideas. They're the first to throw out suggestions in meetings. Creatives are typically perfectionists, reworking the fine details of a plan. They can't help it; their brains are hardwired for brainstorming out-of-the-box solutions.
Creatives become engaged employees in a flexible work environment. Rather than stick to a routine; they're inspired by change and growth. To increase job satisfaction with Creatives, managers must find ways to harness their solution-oriented mindset.
Motivation techniques for Creatives:
- Put creatives on projects that highlight their strengths.
- Assign creatives detail-oriented work and projects that are stimulating.
- Encourage Creatives to lead out-of-the-box brainstorm meetings on the team.
- Remote work tip: Keep Creatives in the Flow state, and allow flexible scheduling
2. Rising Stars
Rising Stars love what they do, their main motivation is to get better at it! They thrive on productivity. Rising Stars win fast, and often. Whether that means landing a new client, staying late to finalize a critical deal, or wowing the crowd in a presentation.
They take their careers seriously and invest in professional development or networking opportunities. Rising Stars are hard workers who shine brightest when they reap the reward for a job well done.
Motivation techniques for Rising Stars:
- Praise Rising Stars both publicly and privately during 1-on-1 meetings.
- Create "stretch goals" that challenge them beyond their daily mandates.
- Listen actively in 1-on-1s to really understand their development goals
- Remote work tip: Provide ad-hoc outlets where Rising Stars can engage with colleagues. Group chats work perfectly for hard workers to integrate downtime in between tasks!
3. Difference Makers
Difference Makers have a higher calling. They are often drawn to non-profit work, being of service, and purpose driven roles. These employees want to make a difference in the world and bring about positivity.
Motivate a Difference Maker by getting to know them. Learn their values, and the causes they care about. Knowing this information incentivizes their work. Find ways to direct their strengths toward organizational goals that dovetail with their values. Purpose led Difference Makers who contribute towards an organizational goal, are known for their high morale!
Motivation techniques for Difference Makers:
- Tap into Difference Makers for long-term plans and visionary thinking.
- Offer constructive feedback to help them improve, so they feel more impact.
- Connect their work to the larger purpose of the team and organization.
- Remote work tip: Host meaningful informal gatherings, like a Zoom happy hour.
4. Directors
Directors are known for mentoring their peers. They gravitate naturally toward leadership or project management roles. Directors are typically charismatic, visionary thinkers as well as detail-oriented, logical types.
Without leadership opportunities, Directors get restless. The best way to keep them focused and increase their job satisfaction is to give them responsibility. They shine best while leading a project, team, or chairing a committee.
Motivation techniques for Directors:
- Assign Directors leadership roles and responsibilities.
- Give them tools to stay connected to the team, like collaborative software tools.
- Use 1-on-1 meetings as mentorship opportunities to help them develop as leaders.
- Remote work tip: Tag Directors to host Zoom meetings or guide retrospectives.
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How to use Officevibe to motivate teams
Officevibe's employee engagement solution helps managers cut through the noise. Our tools enable employees to express how they feel. By taking pulse surveys and applying honest feedback, we allow managers to pinpoint team motivational strategies that are applicable for high-level engagement.
6 questions for managers to grasp their employees’ motivation:
- Do you enjoy the work that you do? This key data point enables managers to engage with employees who aren't feeling fulfilled by their duties.
- Do you feel you have enough freedom to decide how you do your work? Generally, when employees feel micromanaged, they quickly become demotivated.
- Are your responsibilities clear? Without clarity, employees will not feel empowered to perform tasks. Evaluate where gaps in communication may exist, then clear up confusion individually or with the team.
- Are you satisfied with the frequency and specificity of feedback coming from your direct manager? Incentive, reward, and recognition are part of a motivation technique. Get a pulse on employees' needs by asking them this question.
- I feel my work serves a purpose. This sliding scale question gauges motivation levels. When employees feel a sense of purpose they feel fulfilled. Without purpose, motivation will be low.
- How well does the organization use your strengths? This allows managers to know if employees feel they're working up to their strengths.
You can ask these same questions to your team! Officevibe's employee engagement solution generates real-time engagement data at a glance allowing managers to quickly take action, discuss results as a team, and nurture alignment and connectivity. Imagine having a weekly, high-level view of what's going well on your team and where people are struggling? This is every manager's ticket to success.
Here's an example of a simple report that shows the fluctuation in metrics on your team 👇
How TOAST Studio managers used Officevibe to increase motivation
Alexandre Gravel, Co-president of Montreal-based content agency Toast Studio, manages a team of 35 employees. According to him, Officevibe has been a difference-maker when it comes to understanding his growing team.
"It helps me get important information directly from my team members which allows for a deeper understanding of their different personalities and other dynamics at play. With this knowledge I can better offer support to my employees, who can choose to remain anonymous or not, and build much better team cohesion."
Tailoring employee motivation techniques to individual personalities, ensures that managers encourage employees to feel seen and heard.
“We’re finding that individually, this empowers each team member to do their best work. Collectively, the benefits of this management style are exponential: the workplace is much more productive, with greater harmony, trust and collegiality among our employees.”
Alexandre Gravel, Co-president of Toast Studio
Empower your team while cultivating trust and strengthening collaboration. Try Officevibe, to boost employee engagement, teamwork, and empathetic leadership.
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