Do you believe that everyone is motivated? You may have come across someone lately who isn’t. You may even work with someone who seems like they are never motivated. 

They may not be motivated today but they didn’t start out that way. Everyone starts out motivated… and then the world gets ahold of them. They start a new job and then they meet the boss, who it turns out is a champion at demotivating the team. Maybe they had a bit of bad luck and decided that life was against them. 

Then they meet you and you assumed that because they aren’t motivated today they never were. That’s yet another reason it’s never good to assume.

If you’re a leader then one of your main responsibilities is to find ways to motivate your people. It’s easier to keep someone motivated than it is to drag them from the unmotivated depths. That’s why you should make motivating every member of your team a priority everyday.

That starts with providing them an environment where they feel valued. An environment where they can see how they fit in and how they make a difference. Never let your people wonder if they are valued because feeling as if they are not is one of the fastest ways to destroy their motivation. 

Motivating your people is not something you do when you find the time. You must be very intentional and plan time into each day to ensure that you’re keeping your people engaged. If you feel as if you don’t know what motivates your people then here is the best suggestion I can give you: ask them!

Yes, have that conversation with each of your people from time to time. Simply ask them what motivates them and how you can best help them stay motivated. I am frequently asked by people in leadership positions how to best keep their people motivated. I usually give them a generic kind of answer and then admit I have no idea. 

I have no idea because every human being is unique and the only way to know how to motivate someone is to ask them. Ask them and then give them a day or two. They will likely need that time to come up with a meaningful answer because most people don’t sit around thinking about what motivates them. Give them that time to provide you with a thoughtful answer. 

You’ve never met a person who started out as an unmotivated individual. Something or more likely someone demotivated them along the way. A key responsibility of a leader is to lead that person back to a fully motivated life. Once an Authentic Leader gets them there they invest time in that person to keep them there. 

If you don’t have the time to motivate your people then you don’t have time to lead.