Leadership Essentials

⏱ 7 min read

In a rush? Here is the quick overview.

The issue

• Leaders often try to motivate a disengaged team before checking whether basic workplace needs are being met.
• If key satisfiers are missing, motivators like recognition, contests, or growth opportunities will not have the same impact.

Best practices for you as the leader

• Identify any deal breakers that are creating dissatisfaction before layering on motivational tactics.
• Look honestly at leadership, policies, working conditions, pay, relationships, status, and job security.
• Once satisfiers are stable, focus on motivators like achievement, recognition, meaningful work, advancement, and growth.

Key takeaway

You cannot motivate people past unresolved dissatisfaction, so check the satisfiers first.

The Problem at Hand

Your team is NOT motivated.

You see lackluster effort, team members calling out for this or that, and overall poor teamwork.

Oh boy.

Money is being left on the table all over the place.

Like any good leader, you've been focused on getting your team to function as a well-oiled machine for some time now.

• You’ve brought in free lunches and coffee carts.
• You've tried contests, spiffs and spot bonuses.
• You’ve worked on your 1-on-1 relationships and planned team-building events.

But you are not moving the needle.

What now?

Before we dive in, let’s recognize that employee motivation is complex and personal.

The tips in this article will help, especially if you are dealing with an entire team that seems disengaged.

But at an individual level, you still need to actively listen and learn from each team member if you want to understand what will truly motivate them.

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But first, a little story.

I once dated a guy that I will forever call "the nicest guy on the planet."

Seriously, this guy.

He was so kind and attentive, I almost felt guilty dating him. He brought flowers, sent lovely affirmation notes, and always made me feel appreciated.

The problem was, the relationship had some pretty serious deal breakers.

For one, he lived in Europe and I lived in the US. Seeing each other in person was rare, and even phone calls were tricky, so much of our communication happened through text and email. Also, because our cultures were different, our dating rules were not quite aligned, which made some interactions awkward.

Buy me a drink and I can share details.

I tried to hang in there because he was SO DANG NICE, but eventually I had to end it.

The deal breakers got us.

Later, I dated a guy who checked all the boxes in the "no deal breaker" column.

Gotcha—I actually married this one.

This was going to be great. I was happy, for a while.

The thing is, he was kind but not particularly attentive. No flowers. No notes. Not much beyond being friendly and decent.

Over time, although the relationship was amicable enough, there wasn’t that feeling of true appreciation. It became kind of “meh.”

Long story short, I eventually switched out to my current husband.

He checks ALL the “no deal breaker” boxes AND is amazingly caring, attentive, and appreciative.

From day one, our future visions were aligned. I felt confident that what I wanted out of life would be supported by him.

And I was right.

We’ve now been together over 25 years, and we are still happy as clams. (Truth be told, I am not really sure that clams are happy, but you get the idea.)

My point is this - there's a difference between:

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Deal Breakers and Relationship Enhancers

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If the deal breakers are present, the relationship will struggle no matter how nice the extras are.

And if the relationship enhancers are missing, the relationship may function, but it probably will not thrive.

The same is true at work.

When you are struggling to get your team motivated, start by looking at both sides:

• The deal breakers: What is creating dissatisfaction?
• The relationship enhancers: What is creating real motivation?
• Which baseline issue needs to be addressed before motivation can take hold?
• And are you truly focused on the things that will make your team want to engage?

Let's Dig In.

The LeDev Advice

Midway through my leadership career, I learned about Herzberg’s Two-Factor Motivation Theory, and it was a real "aha moment" for me.

I realized I had been spending time, energy, and budget trying to motivate my team when I should have been working to satisfy them first.

I also realized I was confusing the two.

I thought that if I threw more money, perks, contests, or incentives at the problem, people would automatically become more motivated.

Turns out, not so much.

Once I started applying these principles, my confidence as a leader grew because I was able to make a greater impact on team engagement, motivation, and ultimately productivity.

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Herzberg's Theory

During the 1950s and 1960s, clinical psychologist Frederick Herzberg researched the factors behind employee satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

He found that there were two different groups of workplace factors.

The first group is often called hygiene factors. I like to think of them as satisfiers. These are the baseline conditions that help prevent dissatisfaction.

The second group is motivators. These are the factors that create stronger engagement, growth, and motivation.

Here is the important distinction:

• Satisfiers do not necessarily motivate people. But when they are missing or broken, people become dissatisfied.
• Motivators are the things that help people feel challenged, valued, stretched, and proud of their work.

In other words:

• Satisfiers help remove the deal breakers.
• Motivators help strengthen the relationship.

What really motivates employees is having motivators. According to Herzberg, motivating factors like those listed below fill our need for growth and achievement.

What Are Satisfiers?

As you can see from the chart above, the satisfiers are the baseline needs of any employee.

If these are mostly in good shape, you may have a team that is not unhappy. That is a good start.

But that does not mean they are motivated.

If you have gaps in these areas, you will likely have dissatisfied employees. And a dissatisfied employee is hard to motivate because, well, they are too busy being dissatisfied.

Here are the common satisfiers to assess:

• Company Policies and Administration: Fair and clear policies and a solid way to manage them
• Leadership: Competent and fair leadership
• Working Conditions: Safe, comfortable, and adequate work environment
• Salary: Adequate and competitive pay
• Interpersonal Relations: Positive relationships with colleagues and leaders
• Status: Recognition and respect within the organization
• Job Security: Feeling secure in your job and career

Here is the key:

You cannot skip past the satisfiers and focus only on motivators.

If your team is dissatisfied, that dissatisfaction will overpower even your best attempts to motivate them.

What are Motivators?

Once the satisfiers are reasonably healthy, then you can lean into the motivators.

Herzberg said it well:

"Even if managed brilliantly, satisfiers don’t motivate anybody to work much harder or smarter. People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increased responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement."

Motivators are what help people feel truly satisfied in their work and ready to give more of themselves.

You will notice that motivators are usually connected to the work itself, personal growth, achievement, and meaning.

• Achievement: Feeling a sense of accomplishment from challenging work
• Recognition: Being recognized and appreciated for your contributions
• The Work Itself: Finding meaning in the work because it's interesting and purposeful
• Advancement: Seeing opportunities for promotion and career growth
• Personal Growth: Seeing opportunities for learning and growing within the role

How to Strengthen Motivators

Once the baseline satisfiers are healthy enough, here are practical ways to build stronger motivation:

• Give consistent, direct, and timely performance feedback.
• Increase ownership and accountability.
• Give your team appropriate input over their schedule or workflow.
• Provide learning opportunities that build new skills, knowledge, and expertise.
• Invite team members into decision-making when possible.
• Remove barriers that make communication and collaboration harder.
• Create visible opportunities for advancement and growth.
• Recognize meaningful effort and achievement in specific ways.
• Connect individual work to the bigger purpose of the team or organization.

As this sales veteran can attest, these things work.

But they work best when the satisfiers are not broken.

Wrapping it Up

Does this feel like a lot?

Probably.

Because it is.

Especially if you are a leader with limited control over some of the satisfiers.

You might be thinking:

"That's all great but I don't control what my reps earn."

To which I would say:

"You are a leader for a reason. If you can't decide, you can still influence"

You may not be able to change the compensation plan on your own. You may not be able to rewrite company policies or fix every working condition. But you can listen carefully, gather patterns, identify what is getting in the way, and make responsible recommendations to senior leaders.

In the meantime, every leader can do two things:

• First, study the satisfiers. Look honestly at where dissatisfaction may be coming from and do what you can to address it.
• Second, strengthen the motivators. Make sure your team has meaningful work, useful feedback, growth opportunities, recognition, and a clear sense of ownership.

It will take time.

But if you are proactive and consistent, your team will see what you are doing.

And over time, you are likely to see more trust, stronger loyalty, lower turnover, and higher motivation.

¹https://hbr.org/2003/01/one-more-time-how-do-you-motivate-employees

Summary