{"id":81137,"date":"2022-10-07T12:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=81137"},"modified":"2022-10-20T11:10:34","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:10:34","slug":"how-to-motivate-team-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Motivate Team Members: Focus on Their Strengths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is your team suffering from a motivation slump? What can you, as a leader, do to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/simon-sinek-motivation\/\">motivate your team<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s no better way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/motivate-employees-as-a-manager\/\">motivate employees<\/a> than to assign them motivating tasks. When people perform tasks that fit their inclinations and skill level, they&#8217;re naturally driven to perform their best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to motivate team members by assigning them good-fit tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-match-your-team-to-tasks-that-motivate-them\"><strong>Match Your Team to Tasks That Motivate Them<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-your-team\/\">how to motivate your team<\/a> members, Michalowicz argues that you should assign your teammates tasks that motivate them. Motivating tasks are ones that closely align with a person\u2019s strengths. He claims people work efficiently, effectively, and independently when their job tasks align with their strengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How to Identify Your Employees\u2019 Top Strengths<\/strong><br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules\"><em>First, Break All the Rules<\/em><\/a> by Gallup Press presents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules#types-of-talents\">three categories of strengths<\/a> to help you generate a list of your employees\u2019 strong suits:<br><br><strong>Your employees\u2019 motivations. <\/strong>For example, someone who\u2019s <em>generous <\/em>is well-suited for an opportunity to share their expertise with others, such as mentoring new hires.&nbsp;<br><br><strong>Your employees\u2019 reasoning skills. <\/strong>For example, someone who\u2019s <em>methodical<\/em> in their reasoning is well-suited for tasks that involve thoroughly processing information, such as transcribing interviews.<br><br><strong>Your employees\u2019 interpersonal skills. <\/strong>For example, someone who\u2019s <em>enthusiastic <\/em>will do well in a role that involves greeting new clients.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hire-people-for-the-remaining-tasks\"><strong>Hire People for the Remaining Tasks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Michalowicz, if there are any tasks you struggle to match to current employees, hire new people in a part-time or full-time capacity to complete those tasks.<strong> <\/strong>Specifically, <strong>hire people based on their strengths instead of their experience<\/strong>. It\u2019s hard to teach people new <em>strengths<\/em>, but it\u2019s possible to teach them <em>skills<\/em> that build their experience. When interviewing potential hires, avoid asking candidates to describe their past job experience (such as \u201creceptionist\u201d). Instead, ask them to share their work-related strengths (such as \u201cdealing with frustrated customers\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Hiring someone for their strengths is arguably more risky than hiring someone for their experience, as the employee lacks an objective track record that proves their capabilities. To mitigate this risk, consider giving each new hire a trial period. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules\"><em>First, Break All the Rules<\/em><\/a>, Gallup Press recommends that after you match an employee to a new role, you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/first-break-all-the-rules\/chapter-6#the-managers-role\">give them a set period of time to undergo training and try their new role.<\/a> This trial period will allow you to see how quickly and effectively they\u2019re able to acquire new, task-specific skills. If they or you determine their role is a poor fit for their strengths or they\u2019re having trouble efficiently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-learn-new-skills\/\">learning new skills<\/a>, part ways or consider assigning them other tasks.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your team suffering from a motivation slump? What can you, as a leader, do to motivate your team? There&#8217;s no better way to motivate employees than to assign them motivating tasks. When people perform tasks that fit their inclinations and skill level, they&#8217;re naturally driven to perform their best. Here&#8217;s how to motivate team members by assigning them good-fit tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":78951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,14,42],"tags":[768],"class_list":["post-81137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-management","category-motivation","tag-clockwork","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Motivate Team Members: Focus on Their Strengths - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is your team suffering from a motivation slump? Here&#039;s how to motivate your team members by assigning them good-fit tasks.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Motivate Team Members: Focus on Their Strengths\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is your team suffering from a motivation slump? Here&#039;s how to motivate your team members by assigning them good-fit tasks.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-07T16:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-20T15:10:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/office-team-work.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"How to Motivate Team Members: Focus on Their Strengths\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-07T16:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-20T15:10:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\"},\"wordCount\":458,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/office-team-work.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clockwork\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Management\",\"Motivation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/\",\"name\":\"How to Motivate Team Members: Focus on Their Strengths - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-motivate-team-members\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/office-team-work.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-07T16:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-20T15:10:34+00:00\",\"description\":\"Is your team suffering from a motivation slump? 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