The GROW Model

Coaching Others to Improve Performance

Support your team members as they develop.

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One key role of any leader is to coach team members to achieve their best. As a "coach" or
mentor, you will typically help your team members to solve problems, make better decisions,
learn new skills or otherwise progress in their role or career.

Whilst some leaders are fortunate enough to get formal training in coaching skills, many are not.
They have to develop these for themselves.

Now this may sound daunting. But if you arm yourself with some proven techniques, find
opportunities to practice and learn to trust your instincts, you can become a better coach, and so
enhance your team's performance.

One proven approach that helps with this it the GROW model. GROW is an acronym standing
for Goal – Current Reality – Options – Will. The model is a simple yet powerful framework for
structuring a coaching or mentoring session.

A useful metaphor for the GROW model is the plan you might make for an important journey.
First, you start with a map: With this, you help your team member decide where they are going
(their Goal) and establish where they currently are (their Current Reality). Then you explore
various ways (the Options) of making the journey. In the final step, establishing the Will, you
ensure your team member is committed to making the journey and is prepared for the conditions
and obstacles they may meet on their way.

Tip: Know Your Own Role

In its traditional application, the GROW model assumes that the coach is not an expert in the
"client's" situation, and therefore must act as an objective facilitator, helping the client select the
best options and not offering advice or direction.
However, when a leader coaches his or her team members, or acts as a mentor to them, other
dynamics are in play: As a leader you will usually have some expert knowledge to offer (see our
article on expert power.) Also, it's your job to guide the selection of options which are best for
your organization, and veto options that are harmful.

How to Use the Tool:

Use the following steps to structure a coaching session:

1. Establish the Goal:

First, with your team member, you must define and agree the goal or outcome to be
achieved. You should help your team member define a goal that is specific, measurable
and realistic.
2. In doing this, it is useful to ask questions like:
o "How will you know that you have achieved that goal?"

o "How will you know the problem is solved?"

2. Examine Current Reality:

Next, ask your team member to describe their Current Reality. This is a very important
step: Too often, people try to solve a problem without fully considering their starting
point, and often they are missing some of the information they need to solve the problem
effectively.
3. As the team member tells you about his or her Current Reality, the solution may start to
emerge.
4. Useful coaching questions include:
o "What is happening now?"

o "What, who, when, how often"

o "What is the effect or result of that?"

3. Explore the Options:

Once you and your team member have explored the Current Reality, it's time to explore
what is possible – meaning, all the many possible options you have for solving the
problem. Help your team member generate as many good options as possible, and discuss
these.
4. By all means, offer your own suggestions. But let your team member offer his or hers
first, and let him or her do most of the talking.
5. Typical questions used to establish the options are:
o "What else could you do?"

o "What if this or that constraint were removed?

o "What are the benefits and downsides of each option?"

 o What factors will you use to weigh up the options?

4. Establish the Will:

By examining Current Reality and exploring the Options, your team member will now
have a good idea of how he or she can achieve their Goal. That's great – but in itself, this
may not be enough! So your final step as coach is to get you team member to commit to
specific action. In so doing, you will help the team member establish his or her will and
motivation.
5. Useful questions:
o "So what will you do now, and when?

o "What could stop you moving forward?"

o "And how will you overcome it?"

o "Will this address your goal?"

o "How likely is this option to succeed?"

o "What else will you do?"

Tip 2: Practice by Coaching Yourself

A great way to practice using the model is to address your own challenges and issues. When you
are 'stuck' with something, you can use the technique to coach yourself. By practicing on your
own challenges and issues, you will learn how to ask the most helpful questions. Write down
some stock questions as prompts for future coaching sessions.

Tip 3: Ask Great Questions and Listen Well

The two most important skills for a coach are the ability to ask good questions, and effective
listening.

Don't ask closed questions: "Did that cause a problem?" Do ask open ones: "What affect did that
have?" Be prepared with a list of questions to for each stage of the G-R-O-W process.

Listen well and let your "client" do most of the talking. Remember that silence is valuable
thinking time: You don't always have to fill silence with the next question.

You can learn 600 similar skills elsewhere on this site. Click here to see our full toolkit. If you
like our approach, you can subscribe to our free newsletter, or become a member for just US$1.

What Is Coaching?
Understanding What Coaching Is
Coaching is great for developing people's skills and abilities.

© iStockphoto/peepo

You've probably heard people talking about coaching in the workplace. You might have even
received some coaching in the past, or you might have used coaching to improve a person's
performance, even if you didn't actually describe it as "coaching" at the time.

But what actually is coaching, and how do you use it? And what skills do you need to be an
effective coach?

In this article, we'll look at the basics of coaching in the workplace. We'll clarify what it involves,
and review the key approaches that you can use to be a successful coach. We'll also review some
situations where coaching can be useful, and look at some examples of coaching questions.

About Coaching
Coaching is a useful way of developing people's skills and abilities, and of boosting
performance. It can also help deal with issues and challenges before they become major
problems.

A coaching session will typically take place as a conversation between the coach and the coachee
(person being coached), and it focuses on helping the coachee discover answers for themselves.
After all, people are much more likely to engage with solutions that they have come up with
themselves, rather than those that are forced upon them!

In some organizations, coaching is still seen as a corrective tool, used only when things have
gone wrong. But in many companies, coaching is considered to be a positive and proven
approach for helping others explore their goals and ambitions, and then achieve them.

Coaching for Team Performance

Improving Productivity by Improving Relationships
Building great teamwork.

© iStockphoto

Teams are the force that drives most organizations. Whether it's a functional team, a team of
managers, or a project team, people get most done when they work together effectively.

So when members of a team don't work well together, performance and productivity can suffer.
That's not good for anyone.

Have you seen hostility, conflicting goals, and unclear expectations within your teams? These are
symptoms of an unhealthy team. To avoid these harmful effects, you need be proactive about
improving team performance. And even when a team is meeting its objectives, there's often room
for improvement.

So how can you help your team improve? With good team coaching (as distinct from individual
coaching) you can take your team to the next level. It's a valuable activity, and it's an essential
management and leadership tool.

Team Coaching
Team coaching helps people understand how to work better with others. It's an effective method
for showing teams how to reduce conflict and improve their working relationships. The team can
then focus on its real work, and achieve its objectives.

To coach your team, focus on interpersonal skills and interactions instead of on individual
development (as you tend to do with individually-focused coaching). The way people act with
their teammates, and the way they communicate with one another – these are important drivers
of effective team performance. After all, you can put a lot of high-performing individuals on a
team and still have performance problems.

People must learn to work together and understand how to relate to one another – otherwise the
team's output will be less than it could be.

Note: We're assuming here that your team has a well-defined direction as well as the resources
and support needed to achieve its goals. If these needs are not met, then you should build a solid
team foundation before you start coaching for improved performance.

Understand Team Dynamics

A great place to start team coaching is by understanding the dynamics of the team. This is the
process of figuring out how team members relate to one another. We all have different styles of
working and communicating, and when we encounter a person with a style that's different from
our own, we can often get frustrated with that person, and fail to recognize his or her unique
strengths.

Some people can be "pushier" than others. A pushy person may think everything is going great –
however, her teammates might have a different perspective. If one person walks away from
conflict, and another speaks his mind and doesn't back down from an argument, this can lead to
poor decision-making and unproductive work.

Personality and behavior assessments are great tools for improving a team's understanding of its
own dynamics, and they give team members a better understanding of why they react to their
colleagues in certain ways. This new understanding helps them think about how they can relate
to one another more effectively, at the same time that it breeds tolerance by helping people
understand that different approaches may be valid in different situations.

Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and FIRO-B are all excellent tools for uncovering individual patterns in
things like communication and conflict resolution. You can also use 360-degree feedback to help
people better understand themselves.

As a coach, your role is to bring team members together to discuss their individual profiles and
help them find ways to work together. For example, if Sally knows that George is shy, she'll have
a better appreciation for why he prefers to do tasks independently. Rather than assume he's just
not interested in working with her, Sally can focus instead on finding ways to relate to George on
his terms. Likewise, when George realizes that social acceptance is important to Sally, he can
make an effort to be more friendly and interested in what she's doing.

With a greater level of understanding, team members begin to see one another differently. This
allows them to adjust their own behavior for better results, and they're able to interpret others'
behavior with more insight and empathy.

Establish Behavior Expectations

Understanding other people's perspectives is a great way to improve relationships with them.
However, teams still need to follow ground rules so they can accomplish their goals. For
example, you may know that Harold prefers to avoid conflict, however, you can't really accept
that from him if you also expect him to provide expert opinions that may not match the general
consensus.

This is why developing a clear set of behavior and communication expectations is an important
aspect of team coaching. The expectations help to build empathy and understanding, and ensure
that individual preferences aren't given more importance than team objectives.

A great way to formalize these expectations is with a team charter. In a charter or "contract," you
outline a set of behavior rules that everyone is expected to follow and support. Treating everyone
with respect, offering opinions when needed, and talking directly to a person when you feel
wronged – these are all examples of ground rules that a team can use.
Taking this one step further, you can also define processes for team members to follow to meet
the expectations. For example, a conflict resolution process would define the steps to take when
one team member feels offended by another. Typically, the process would state that the offended
person first speaks with the offender before going to a supervisor.

Likewise, if expressing opinions is an issue, then you might use the Stepladder Technique to
encourage individual participation. These types of rules and processes help build trust among
colleagues and create a more unified team.

Evaluate Reward and Recognition Systems

Quite often, people have competing values, and these create a major obstacle to team unity and
effectiveness. For example, it's not uncommon for an organization to promote teamwork, but still
reward individual behavior. When this happens, you can naturally expect problems with team
members who give personal reward a higher priority than team performance.

With cross-functional teams, departmental or business unit loyalties often get in the way of
effective teamwork. When team members have personal goals that don't match team goals, this
can lead to "secret," hidden behavior. As a team leader and coach, your role is to identify the
sources of competing values – and find ways to fix them.

For details on structuring reward systems that align individual performance with strategic
objectives, see Performance Management and KPIs and Management by Objectives.

Support Individual Development

Finally, be supportive of individual development. Team members may need help to learn new
skills, so that they can meet team expectations and follow supporting processes. Each person has
a different level of readiness to take the steps necessary to change. As a team coach, be sensitive
to those differences, and find resources to support each person's development goals.

In addition to arranging individual coaching where possible, find ways in everyday work
situations to coach people. Give feedback regularly, help set individual performance goals,
follow up with training opportunities, and model great team behaviors yourself.

Key Points
Coaching to improve team performance can need different approaches for different teams and
different people. What works for one team may not necessarily work for another.

Effective working relationships are built by understanding team members' needs, preferences,
and styles of work. By helping people understand their own styles and appreciate the different
styles of others, you can work with them to change their behaviors and use everyone's strengths.

The process of improving team performance takes time, and it may involve looking deeper than
team processes. Organizational systems – like reward and recognition, performance
management, and training – may need to be addressed as well.
However, the end result of this work is usually well worth it; improved collaboration and
communication will benefit the organization as whole.

High-Performance Coaching
Achieving Full Potential

Helping people to reach their full potential.

© iStockphoto/Coaching_asiseeit

You may think that "high-performance coaching" means coaching for high performers – in other
words, people who, for whatever reason, have been identified as "star talent."

Actually, high-performance coaching is about helping all people reach their full potential, in any
area of their lives. For the manager as coach, this means working with people to improve their
performance at work.

High-performance coaching may also involve working with other people within your
organization – collaborating with other managers and leaders to make the workplace a high-
performance organization, one that helps everybody to perform at their best.

The approaches and techniques used in high-performance coaching borrow heavily from the
worlds of sport and the military – areas where optimal performance is key. High-performance
coaching conversations usually start with finding out people's "starting points" – their visions or
life ambitions. Then, it moves on to explore the directions in which people need to move to
achieve those visions, and the steps they need to take now to do so.

When to Use High-Performance Coaching

How often do we think we know what we want to achieve, only to discover that gaps in
willpower and self-discipline hold us back?

High-performance coaching helps people explore their motivation, and overcome the blockers
that hold them back. It's about both support and challenge. It's particularly useful for the
following:
  Long-range career or life planning – While some people may prefer not to have a "life
plan," there's robust evidence that shows that people who have clear plans and goals are
more likely to be successful in the long term.
 Navigating career change points – An example of a career change point could be the
transition from being primarily seen as a manager to being seen as a leader – someone
who offers clear guidance and genuine inspiration. Coaching can help people navigate
these change points more successfully.
 Making fundamental changes to performance or behavior – This involves the
equivalent of athletes breaking bad habits in their game, and relearning basic skills the
right way.
 Handling major life setbacks – High-performance coaching can help people recover
from major business or personal setbacks. In particular, it can help people address work-
life imbalances, or deal with major episodes of stress or burnout.

Note:
As our article What Is Coaching? highlights, coaching typically works best when the coachee
(person being coached) sets the agenda, and is prompted by the coach to develop their own
solutions. However, you may find that you need to take a more direct approach with high-
performance coaching.

High-Performance Coaching Skills and Tools

Here is a useful checklist of things that you should do when helping others to be their best:

 Be respectful of the coachee as an individual.

 Be respectful of the coachee's skills and goals in life.
 Be honest in providing constructive and challenging feedback, and set high goals that the
coachee is likely to achieve.
 Be aware of your own ego and agenda, so that these don't get in the coachee's way.
 Be comfortable with a variety of tools that help you explore the coachee's perspective.
Examples include the GROW Model, the Flow Model, and a simple formula drawn from
one of the most valuable books in coaching, "The Inner Game of Tennis" by W. Timothy
Gallwey. The formula is:
o Performance = Potential - Interference

 We'll look at this formula, and the Flow Model, in more detail below.

The Flow Model

The Flow Model was introduced by positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his 1990
book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience."

This model shows the emotional state that we're likely to experience when trying to complete a
task, depending on the perceived difficulty of the challenge, and our perceptions of our skill
levels.
Part of the job of the high-performance coach is to help coachees acquire and be confident with
the skills they need to achieve their goals. The coach then helps the coachee match these skills to
the task at hand, setting "stretch goals" – goals that are challenging, but which are possible to
achieve.

Emotional Interference
Remember Gallwey's simple formula:

Performance = Potential - Interference

Here, "interference" generally means emotional interference. We may understand our true
potential, but our performance suffers because our emotions get in the way. Some of the
interfering emotions are fear, guilt, and worry.

Let's look at these more closely:

 Fear – The most obvious and most inhibiting emotion is fear. While some fear has a basis
in reality, many of our fears are unfounded. Our minds play negative tricks on us to keep
us safe, but also keep us unchallenged and, probably, unfulfilled.
 It may take time to deal with a coachee's fear of a situation, event, or action, but it's
hugely beneficial to do so. Once you identify and discuss people's fears, you weaken the
power of those fears to hold back future activity and performance.
 Likewise, it can be useful to anticipate some worst-case scenarios – such as losing an
important sales contract or even losing your job – because it lets you see what other
options are available. Perhaps the sales contract wasn't as profitable as other contracts
you could pursue if you had time to spend with new customers. Perhaps losing a job is
the first step toward a new career, even within your current organization. Dealing with
self-doubt and fear of failure is one of the most valuable areas to explore with a coachee.
 Guilt – This is one of the key emotions driving inappropriate work-life balance. If
someone routinely works later than other people, it's often evidence of not being able to
say no – which, in turn, is typically based on some form of guilt for not having
accomplished what was asked for.
 Worry – This is another key emotion that gets in the way of good performance. Some
people seem to worry about everything, including the fact that they're worrying! Worry
can lead to physical problems such as poor sleep, bad eating habits, and ultimately,
exhaustion. We can't be effective for very long if we have these problems.

Coaches can help coachees see their true potential and eliminate the effect of interfering
emotions. Talking about emotions during coaching will help. Also, try these tips:

 Think of coachees as athletes who want to move to the next level in their game. Half of
the coaching job is listening and understanding what drives people, and appreciating what
emotions they're feeling. The other half of the job is working with coachees to stretch
their performance and explore the skills they need to be their very best.
 Remember that high-performance coaching can and should be fun. So look for issues,
and help people imagine what could be possible, as part of the process.
Key Points
High-performance coaching is about helping people to achieve their very best. It's particularly
useful for long-range career or life planning, for dealing with career change points, for making
changes to performance or behavior, and for dealing with major life setbacks.

High-performance coaching conversations usually start with finding out people's "starting
points" - their visions or life ambitions. You can then look at helping the coachee obtain a
balanced set of skills, while looking at emotional interferences such as their worries and fears.

Overall, high-performance coaching involves challenging coachees as well as supporting them,

so that they can build their skills and improve their performance in a balanced way.

Flow Model
Balancing Challenge and Skills

Flow is when tasks seem effortless, challenging, and rewarding - all at the same time.

© iStockphoto/sandsun

Have you ever been so involved in doing something that you lost track of time?

Everything around you – from the ringing of phones to the people passing in the hallways –
seemed to fade away. Your attention was focused entirely on what you were doing, and you were
so engaged that you might even have missed lunch. You felt energized, even joyful, about what
you were doing.

Most of us have had this experience at one time or another. Psychologists call this "flow." When
it happens, we lose our sense of self, and move forward on instinct, completely devoted to the
task before us.

In this article, we'll examine flow in detail by looking into the Flow Model. We'll review how the
model can help us understand why we find some tasks much easier than others. We'll also look at
how you can use the ideas behind the Flow Model to experience flow more often, so that you can
be more productive.
The Flow Model
The Flow Model (see Figure 1) was first introduced by positive psychologist Mihaly
Csíkszentmihályi. He wrote about the process of flow in his book "Flow: The Psychology of
Optimal Experience."

Note:
Csíkszentmihályi published his book in 1990, but didn't publish this version of the model until
1997.

The model shows the emotional states that we're likely to experience when trying to complete a
task, depending on the perceived difficulty of the challenge, and our perceptions of our skill
levels.

For example, if the task isn't challenging and doesn't require a lot of skill, we're likely to feel
apathy towards it. But facing a challenging task without the required skills could easily result in
worry and anxiety.

To find a balance, and to perform at our best, we need a challenge that is significant and
interesting, and we need well-developed skills, so that we're confident that we can meet the
challenge. This moves us to a position where we can experience "flow" (being totally involved
and engaged in the activity).

This state of flow is often observed in people who have mastered their business, art, sport, or
hobby. They make whatever they're doing look easy, and they're totally engaged with it.

10 Components of Flow
How do you know when you're experiencing flow? Csíkszentmihályi identified 10 experiences
that go with the state of being in flow:

1. Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve.

2. Being able to concentrate for a sustained period of time.
3. Losing the feeling of consciousness of one's self.
4. Finding that time passes quickly.
5. Getting direct and immediate feedback.
6. Experiencing a balance between your ability levels, and the challenge.
7. Having a sense of personal control over the situation.
8. Feeling that the activity is intrinsically rewarding.
9. Lacking awareness of bodily needs.
10. Being completely absorbed in the activity itself.

Remember that all of these factors and experiences don't necessarily have to be in place for flow
to happen. But you're likely to experience many of them when flow occurs.

Three Conditions
Csíkszentmihályi also identified three things that must be present if you want to enter a state of
flow:

1. Goals – Goals add motivation and structure to what you're doing. Whether you're
learning a new piece of music or creating a presentation, you must be working towards a
goal to experience flow.
2. Balance – There must be a good balance between your perceived skill and the perceived
challenge of the task. If one of these weighs more heavily than the other, flow probably
won't occur.
3. Feedback – You must have clear, immediate feedback, so that you can make changes and
improve your performance. This can be feedback from other people, or the awareness that
you're making progress with the task.

Using the Flow Model

To improve your chances of experiencing flow, try the following:

 Set goals – Goal setting is important in experiencing flow. Learning to set effective goals
can help you achieve the focus you need.
 Improve your concentration – Many things may distract you from your work, and
achieving flow is more difficult when your focus is interrupted. Use strategies to improve
your concentration so that you're more productive and focused during the day.
  Build self-confidence – If you don't have confidence in your skills, tasks may seem
much harder than they actually are. Our article Building Self-Confidence will show you
how to develop yourself for success.
 Get feedback – Remember, feedback is an important requirement for flow. Make sure
that appropriate technical feedback systems are in place, and learn how to give and
receive feedback so that you can help yourself – and others – to improve.
 Make your work more challenging – Consider strategies such as job crafting, and
explore ways of creating more job satisfaction.

Tip:
Remember that simply increasing the amount of challenge doesn't guarantee flow.
Csíkszentmihályi stressed that you experience flow only when you perceive the right
opportunities. It happens because you're in the right mindset, not because you have "perfect
conditions."

 Improve Your Skills – Doing a personal SWOT Analysis, can help you identify the skills
that you need to work on to be successful. You can then develop a plan for improving
your skills to help you complete more challenging tasks. Our Personal Development Plan
Workbook guides you through this process in more detail.
 Coach yourself – If you don't have a mentor or coach to help you through challenging
tasks, learn how to coach yourself.

Note:
No matter how much you love your job, it's almost impossible to experience flow in every task
that you do! Our articles Overcoming Procrastination, Motivating Yourself, and Is This a
"Morning Task"? explore strategies to help you complete less desirable, yet essential, tasks.

The Inverted-U Model

There's a potential conflict of ideas between the Flow Model and the Inverted-U Model – a
popular and widely respected model that helps explain the relationship between performance and
pressure.

In the inverted-U graph, the vertical axis represents someone's level of performance, while the
horizontal axis represents the pressure that he or she is under. According to the model, there's a
"perfect medium" of pressure where people perform at their best.

The Flow Model doesn't explain the loss of performance that occurs when pressure is too high –
for example, when we're scared, or when we're overwhelmed by work. At these times, your
productivity can drop and negative emotions like anxiety will increase dramatically.

By using both of these models together, you're most likely to be able to enter and enjoy the state
of flow.

Key Points
Flow is a state we reach when our perceived skills match the perceived challenge of the task that
we're doing. When we're in a state of flow, we seem to forget time. The work we do may fill us
with joy, and we lose our sense of self as we concentrate fully on the task. This is the state that
we're in when we're doing our best work, and when we're at our most productive.

The Flow Model shows the relationship between task complexity and your perceived skill level.
You can use the model to discover why you're not achieving flow. It can also help you discover
whether you need to improve your skills, or increase the challenge or certain tasks, to help
achieve flow.

Coaching to Develop Self-Awareness

Helping People Get to Know Themselves

Coaching is a great way to help people become more self aware.

© iStockphoto/francisblack

Developing self-awareness is important for better relationships and for a more fulfilling life, both
in the workplace and at home.

With a good understanding of how we relate to others, we can adjust our behavior so that we deal
with them positively. By understanding what upsets us, we can improve our self-control. And by
understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage them, and reach our goals despite
them.

However, it's difficult to be objective when we think about ourselves, and how others actually
see us can be quite different from what we think they see.

There are ways in which people can develop self-awareness on their own. However, coaching
can be a better way of helping people view their own actions and reactions objectively, so it's
useful for helping people to build self-awareness.

In this article we'll look at six approaches that you can use to help others build this self-
awareness.

Tip 1:
Some of the approaches we describe are useful generally within the workplace, while others are
only really appropriate in situations where the person you're coaching has a very close and
trusting relationship with you. Choose the approach that suits the situation.

Tip 2:
As with all types of coaching, feedback is important. But feedback - even very accurate feedback
- can be nothing more than interesting information, unless it causes the person being coached to
change his or her perspective in quite a fundamental way. Do what you can to support these
changes in perspective.

Approach 1: Using Psychometric Tests

Psychometric tests are useful for giving people an objective view of how they behave, and how
they compare in outlook with others. The answers they give categorize them by the personality
traits or preferences they show, and then provide some commentary on these.

Of course, none of these tools captures the richness and uniqueness of an individual person. But
they can point out the similarities and differences between people.

One useful personality model, the Big Five or OCEAN model, looks at five main features of
human personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and
Neuroticism. This tool can help people understand more about themselves and others. Tests like
this one can give people a great insight into their behavior and performance in the workplace.

Another popular test, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) is useful for understanding our
preferences for interacting with others, how we like to receive information, and how we make
decisions.

Other psychometric tests can be used for other purposes, and it's worth exploring the full range
of these to understand what you can do with them.

Once the people you're coaching have taken these tests, you can explore what the test results
mean, and help them think about what have learned about themselves, and the way they interact
with other people.

Note:
It's important that you, as the coach, are familiar with these tools before you use them with
people in your team.

Approach 2: Sampling New Experiences

We often discover new things about ourselves when we're in unusual situations, or facing new
challenges. Our reactions or responses to new environments, new people, or new demands can
help us understand how we deal with some of the more familiar aspects of our lives. However,
rather than waiting for new experiences to arrive, it can be really valuable to look for them
proactively.

We can do this for ourselves by taking different types of vacations, or experimenting with new
hobbies, for example. We may find hidden talents, or things about ourselves that we didn't know
about - particularly when the new activities are stimulating and energizing.
One way of doing this in the workplace is to encourage people to explore unfamiliar roles or
situations. The advantage of using coaching in these situations is that you can help the person
you're coaching explore which new roles to try, and you can then help them analyze the
experience afterward.

As a coach, the key is to help interpret the experience, and ensure that any learning from it passes
back into the coachee's day-to-day life.

Approach 3: Telling Your Life Story

There's a big difference between reading a résumé, and meeting a candidate at a job interview.
Likewise, it can be very revealing to hear someone's life story first hand.

An experienced coach who listens to someone talk about their life will see and hear so much
more than simple facts. These stories can reveal whether people really understand who they are,
and why their lives have turned out in the way they have.

Do they understand the impact of the way they were raised, and the influence of their friends and
family on the decisions they've made so far? What types of emotional journey have they taken?
Is their life full of joy, or weighed down with deep fears or anger? To what extent do their past
experiences affect their current experiences? Do they accept themselves for who they are, or do
they fight against this, and have a false self-perception?

Whatever the content of the story, a coach's questions and feedback often make the difference
between a story that's just told, and a story that's really heard and understood - by the person
being coached as much as by the coach.

Approach 4: Daily Writing

It's often said that to write well, you have to write every day. By writing down your thoughts and
feelings on a daily basis, you build fluency - particularly, emotional fluency. This habit also
captures the mood of the moment - when reviewed at a later date, the collection of writing can
help the writer understand the range of emotions he or she has experienced.

For the creative writer, this is an exercise of skill and fantasy building. But for people who write
about their experiences and feelings, this regular writing improves their self-awareness.

In coaching, a coachee's daily journal is great resource to use. The journals can often be an
excellent prompt for discussion during your coaching conversations.

Approach 5: Defining Your Role

We all play many roles in life. To some, we are colleagues; to others, we may be family or
friends. Describing the role each of us plays - at work, within our family group, across our circle
of friends, or in our local community - builds a picture of how we see ourselves relative to
others.

In coaching, the way the person being coached perceives his or her role can help you understand
their underlying motivation for achieving tasks and goals. It can also help explain why coachee's
may fail to make progress towards their goals and objectives. If you have issues with people in
these areas, take your time to explore their understanding of their roles - this may provide a great
opportunity to help people improve their performance.

Approach 6: Using the Coach as a Mirror

The very best coaches are careful to tell the people they're coaching precisely the truth they need,
at precisely the time they need it. When they do this, they are the perfect "mirror" for coachees to
see themselves as they really are.

To do this well, coaches need to invest time and attention in understanding how people see their
lives, what they're sensitive about, what energizes them, and what makes them lose energy.
Within a safe and trusted coaching relationship, coachees should expect that, when asked, their
coach will tell them honestly what they've seen and heard.

As well as providing this valuable feedback, the coach's role here is to help the people they're
coaching to be honest and straightforward when observing their own behaviors and actions.

Key Points
With high levels of self-awareness, we can find a the right direction in life, and we can build
better relationships with other people. Coaching is great for helping your people build this self-
awareness.

As a coach you can help the people you're coaching interpret and understand information about
themselves, and there are six main approaches you can use to do this. These include examining
feedback, analyzing outcomes from psychometric tests, learning from new experiences, and
considering people's life stories.

Try using these approaches with your people - you'll be surprised by how powerful they can be!

Myers-Briggs Personality Testing

Understanding How We Relate to the World

Understand your co-workers better

© iStockphoto

Do you have people on your team who just can't seem to get along? And do some struggle to
communicate with others, seeming to "live in parallel universes"? If so, identifying their
personality types – and acknowledging the differences between one-another – may help the
members of your team work together more harmoniously.

While each person is unique, personality theorists believe we have common characteristics that
group us into certain personality types. If you know what type you are, it can lead to some
interesting insights into why you do things a certain way – or why you do them at all. As a
member of a team, recognizing your colleagues' types may improve your understanding and
appreciation of one another's differences – and can show you how to get along better with them.

One of the best-known and widely used personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI). It's based on the work of Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who studied
personality archetypes, and founded analytical psychology. Katherine Briggs and her daughter,
Isobel Briggs Myers, expanded on Jung's theory to identify a total of four pairs of opposing
psychological elements. According to the theory, everyone has a preference for one of the
characteristics within each pair, and we use that preferred approach most of the time.

The Psychological Scales

The four psychological scales are as follows:

1. Extroversion – Introversion

This deals with our flow of energy.

 Extroverts are stimulated by events and people external to themselves. They show
their feelings, learn by talking, and work well in groups.
 Introverts prefer private reflection, self-examination, and self-discovery. They
hide their feelings, prefer to work alone, and learn by watching.
2. Sensing – INtuition

This is how we learn information.

 Sensing people use their five physical senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and
smell) to interpret the world. They like real-life examples, prefer practical
exercises, and get the facts while possibly missing the main idea.
 Intuitive people prefer to rely on instincts. They work based on hunches and
feelings, use their imagination, and get the main idea while missing some of the
facts.
3. Thinking – Feeling

This is how we make decisions.

 Thinking people use logic and objective criteria. They ask 'Why?' and enjoy
debates.
  Feeling people use their values and subjective ideas. They use lots of words, and
they prefer harmony, agreement, and helping others.
4. Judging – Perceiving

This is how we deal with the world.

 Judging people are purposeful, and they like structure, plans, rules, and
organization.
 Perceiving people take a laid-back, relaxed approach. They're flexible, open to
change, and like to explore.

Although one side of each scale is thought to be dominant for each of us, that doesn't mean it's
the only way we can relate to the world. However, this is usually our preference and the style we
use most naturally. So, if you're a person who relies on feelings, this doesn't mean that you can't
use objective data to make decisions. It simply means that you'll probably use feelings to some
degree.

Also, part of the MBTI profile assesses the relative clarity of your preferences for a particular
side of the scale. This is known as the Preference Clarity Index (PCI).

Determining Personality Type

To identify personality type, the MBTI separates 16 different typologies, based on which side of
each scale is dominant. A person who has a preference for Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, and
Judging would be an ISTJ. A certain set of personal characteristics is associated with the ISTJ
designation to describe what this person is like.

For example, ISTJs are serious, quiet, practical, and dependable. They are responsible,
accomplished, and determined. They work accurately, and handle high-pressure situations
calmly, but they tend to make quick and impulsive decisions. They may be impatient, and forget
to appreciate the work of others. The most popular occupations for ISTJs include accountant,
corrections supervisor, doctor, engineer, manager, and technical operator.

At KnowYourType, you can find out your type and more. The KnowYourType personality test
will give you important insights into how and why people understand and approach the world in
such different ways. You can get a similar assessment at HumanMetrics for free, but please
consider that this is not quite the same test.

There's no right or wrong type, and there are no combinations of types that are better or worse in
business or in relationships. Each type and each individual bring special gifts. And it's important
to remember that even if you had 100 people with the same personality type, each would be
different – due to genetics, experiences, interests, and other factors. According to personality
theory, however, they would have a significant amount in common.

How to Use Personality Types

The purpose of learning about your personality type is to help you understand yourself better.
When you know what motivates and energizes you, it helps you to seek opportunities that most
suit the way you are.

This insight also helps improve your relationships with others. The more you recognize your
own tendencies, the better you're able to monitor and control your behavior around others. When
you know the personality types of those around you, you can use that information to improve the
way you work and communicate with each other.

For example, Thinking people and Feeling people often have a hard time getting along. The
Thinkers can't understand the need to agree, because they see debate as a healthy way to discover
the truth. Feeling people, on the other hand, can't understand why someone would want to argue,
because they're focused on getting along. As each becomes aware of the other's preference, they
can build tolerance and understanding – and they may even be able to use their different
personalities to find a balance, especially if they're working together on a team.

Remember, you're the final judge of which type fits you best. Your MBTI results suggest your
probable type, based on the choices you made when you answered the questions. Therefore, your
type is not unchangeable, and it's open to personal interpretation.

Of course, type doesn't explain everything: human personalities are much more complex.
Instead, MBTI scores show how clearly a particular preference was reported in the questionnaire.
They don't measure skills, or ability, or degree of use, but they may help us to understand a
person better – or even match a job with a worker.

Typical applications of the MBTI include:

 Managing staff – What are a person's natural strengths? For what role is an individual
best suited?
 Guiding careers – What types of jobs and positions will a person find most fulfilling?
 Improving interpersonal relationships – How can we best relate to and communicate
with other personality types to maximize understanding?
 Developing education and training – Which teaching methods will ensure that all
personality types benefit from the information presented?
 Coaching and advising people – How can we help people understand themselves better,
identify their strengths, and address their weaknesses?

Key Points
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire designed to make psychological types
understandable and useful in our everyday lives. MBTI results identify valuable differences
between people – differences that can be the source of misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Completing an MBTI allows you to explore your personality, and reading your MBTI profile can
be enlightening. Being aware of your personal preferences is one step toward understanding
yourself better, and improving your relationships with others. By recognizing your preferred
style, you have an opportunity to develop skills to strengthen the weaker side of the scale. And
this can help you become more well-rounded, and more capable of achieving great things.
How Good are Your Motivation Skills?
Discover key factors for building a motivated team

Motivate your team for real success!

© iStockphoto

Managers everywhere want teams that are effective, focused, and committed to organizational
goals. With a team like this, just think of the performance and results you could deliver!

Teams only perform like this if their managers are motivating them effectively.

This is why you need to be able to motivate your team if you want to create a productive work
environment. By combining good motivational practices with meaningful work, the setting of
performance goals, and use of an effective reward system, you can establish the kind of
atmosphere and culture that you need to excel.

The better you are able to link these factors together, the higher the motivation levels of your
team are likely to be. That's a win-win for you, them, and the organization.

The interactive motivational skills quiz in this article helps you identify the aspects of team
motivation that you can improve. From there you will be directed to specific tools that will help
you improve your motivation skills.

Take the test and apply the things you learn from it. You could well see the performance of your
team soar!
Cat de eficiente sunt abilitatile tale de motivare ?

Nr. Niciodata Rareori Uneori Frecvent Intotdeauna

crt.
INTREBARE A B C D E
1. Cand ma confrunt cu o problema legata de
performata, am grija sa vad daca este cauzata
de o lipsa de resurse, de motivare sau o lipsa de
abilitati?
2. Stabilesc standarde clare de performate si
asteptari?
3. Recompensele si disciplina pe care le folosesc
sunt strict legate de performanta si definesc
obiective comportamentale?
4. Am structurat activitatile astfel incat sa fie
interesante si provocatoare si sa permita o
autonomie corespunzatoare?
5. Cand ofer o recompensa am certitudinea ca are
valoare pentru destinatar?
6. Sunt consecvent in modul in care disciplinez
 oamenii cu performante sub-standard?
7. Recompensez imediat un lucru bine facut?
8. Ma asigur ca oamenii au instrumentele,
resursele si instruirea necesare pentru a atinge
rezultatele pe care le astept?
9. Incerc sa inteleg ce anume il motiveaza pe
fiecare membru al echipei?
10 Fac un efort major sa ma asigur ca ofer salarii
competitive si alte forme de compensatii?
11 Pentru a fi corect, folosesc aceleasi premii
pentru toata lumea atunci cand recompensez
performanta?
12 Ajut oamenii sa-si stabileasca obiective specifice
si provocatoare, care sa fie legate de obiectivele
organizatiei?
13 Ma asigur ca stiu ce se intampla in sfera reala a
job-ului inainte de a lua orice masuri de
remediere sau disciplinare
14 Ii incurajez pe oameni sa-si fixeze obiective
inalte si fac din evaluarea lor periodica momente
provocatoare pentru ei?
15 Am cautat sa combin si sa schimb misiunile
oamenilor la locul de munca, astfel incat acestia
sa poate invata si folosi competente diferite?

Pentru fiecare intrebare, bifeaza casuta cu raspunsul care ti se potriveste. Pentru a calcula scorul,
foloseste urmatorul tabel. In functie de raspunsul bifat, aduna punctajele corespunzatoare fiecarei
casute.

Tip A B C D E
raspuns
Nr.
intrebare
1 1 2 3 4 5
2 1 2 3 4 5
3 1 2 3 4 5
4 1 2 3 4 5
5 1 2 3 4 5
6 1 2 3 4 5
7 1 2 3 4 5
8 1 2 3 4 5
9 1 2 3 4 5
10 1 2 3 4 5
 11 5 4 3 2 1
12 1 2 3 4 5
13 1 2 3 4 5
14 1 2 3 4 5
15 1 2 3 4 5

Interpretarea scorurilor - Cat de eficiente sunt abilitatile tale de motivare?

Scorul Interpretare

Nu e de bine! Dar vestea buna e ca ai marea sansa sa-ti imbunatatesti modul in care ii
motivezi pe ceilalti, astfel incat sa obtii impreuna cu echipa ta un succes pe termen
15-34
lung. Totusi, pentru a realiza acest lucru, va trebui sa-ti imbunatatesti semnificativ
abilitatile de motivare. Incepe chiar acum!

Esti bun in anumite aspecte legate de motivarea celorlalti, dar sunt si domenii in care
35-52 poti sa vii cu imbunatatiri. Concentreaza-te pe cateva aspecte in continuare si vei
descoperi ca performantele echipei tale vor creste.

Probabil ca deja iti motivezi echipa foarte eficient. Poti sa citesti paginile urmatoare ca
53-75 sa vezi daca nu cumva gasesti cateva trucuri care sa te ajute sa faci acest lucru si mai
bine.

As you answered the questions, you probably had some insight into areas where the motivational
practices you use could use a pick-me-up. The following is a quick summary of the main areas of
motivation that were explored in the quiz, and a guide to the specific tools you can use for each.

Providing Productive and Challenging Work

(Questions 1, 4, 15)

The first step in building a highly motivated team is providing interesting work, which is well
organized to meet the needs and desires of team members. No matter how self-motivated a
person is, how challenging the goals he or she sets, or how wonderful the rewards, if the work is
badly designed, it will be hard to motivate people and work will be less than ideal.

Effective motivators understand that work design has a strong impact on performance. When a
person finds a job inherently unsatisfying, there's not much you can do to motivate him or her.
Job design and enrichment combine to match characteristics of the job with workers' skills and
interests: The more variety, challenge and autonomy there is to a job, the more intrinsically
satisfying it will be.
Our article on Job Enrichment details how to set up meaningful work assignments. Other articles
of interest include Pygmalion Motivation, which addresses the impact that your work
assignments have on conscious and unconscious motivators, and Dealing with Poor
Performance, which outlines steps that you can take to ensure you have a good fit between the
person and the job.

Setting Effective Goals

(Questions 2, 3, 12, 14)

When you are confident that the work you provide is well organized, the next thing to do is to
ensure that workers have clear and attainable goals that they're working to achieve. Managing the
goal setting process is essential for creating a highly motivating environment. The effectiveness
of goal setting in motivation is a well-recognized fact, and by making goals specific, consistent,
and appropriately challenging, you can set goals that are powerfully motivating. As such, the
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) acronym helps you define
effective goals.

Specific goals are measurable, unambiguous and behavior-changing. They outline exactly what
needs to be accomplished, and when it will be considered as "achieved". Having goals that are
consistent with other personal goals as well as organizational goals is also important. If goals are
inconsistent, the resulting confusion and incompatibility would like cause the person to do
nothing rather than work in different directions.

For more on goal setting, read our articles on Locke’s Goal Setting, which explains the principle
of setting SMART goals; Management By Objectives, which details how to align personal goals
with those of the organization; Performance Management and KPIs and Performance
Agreements.

Finally, challenge is important, due to the observation that we get what we expect. Up to a point,
the more you expect from someone, the harder they will generally work. This has been shown
time and again, and is explained by the idea of Expectancy Theory: The idea here is that you
need to link high effort with high performance, and high performance with a positive outcome.
With those two linkages established, people are motivated to work hard to achieve a positive
outcome. Read more in our article on Expectancy Theory.

Tip:
Think carefully about the goals you set, and make sure you adapt them to circumstances in a
reasonable way. If you're too rigid with your goals, you may motivate members of your team to
"cut corners" in order to reach them.

Understanding Individual Differences in Motivation

(Questions 5, 9, 10, 11)

Motivational techniques should bring out the best in people. That means they should build on an
individual's strengths and minimize his or her weaknesses.
There are certainly some common denominators in motivation, like fair wages, decent working
conditions, a sense of camaraderie with co-workers, and a good relationship with one’s
supervisor. Abraham Maslow and Frederick Herzberg are two famous motivation theorists who
established that even if these sorts of things are not necessarily motivating in themselves, they
have to be present in order to even think about enhancing motivation.

However, the assumption in most modern workplaces is that these lower order, "hygiene" factors
are being met, and that people are seeking the things that provide real motivation. These are
things like challenging work, control, growth opportunities, and recognition for a job well done.

To decide which motivating factors to provide you need to look at the individual employees.
Some will be motivated by more time off, while others may prefer to gain status and recognition
in the company. Understanding these individual needs is mandatory for building a motivating
workplace, and is why question 11 above is a "trick question": if you try to motivate everyone in
exactly the same way, you're likely missing plenty of opportunities for motivating individual
members of your team.

Meeting peoples' needs, providing challenge, using a variety of rewards, and matching them to
the right people are issues discussed in the following articles: Using Maslow's Hierarchy,
Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors, Alderfer's ERG Theory, Theory X and Theory Y,
Adam's Equity Theory, and Expectancy Theory.

Providing Rewards and Recognition

(Questions 6, 7, 8, 13)

When you know what you want to provide in terms of reward and recognition, it's important to
establish an effective system. The primary focus of a reward system is fairness. Both reward and
discipline have to be perceived as fairly distributed according to clear guidelines. This is why
setting specific performance expectations is so important. ("Fairness" doesn't mean that everyone
has the same reward package – it means that differences between people's reward packages need
to be clear and understandable.)

It is equally important to make sure you give your team members the tools they need to be
successful. If you're setting goals, then you need to make sure that they are attainable, and you do
that by providing the necessary support, tools, resources, and training.

It's also important that you get to understand the challenges your team faces. This way you can
appreciate the small victories that lead to the major accomplishments. Motivation is all about
encouragement and appreciation.

When you are part of the team and not simply an "observer from above" you will have many
opportunities to thank people and recognize good work right on the spot. This is a really
important factor in successful recognition. You have to be in a position to show or tell people
everyday that you appreciate their contributions. Once or twice a year in formal review
process is not enough!

To help you understand these key concepts and develop a great reward system, learn to use the
following tools: Management By Walking Around, DILO (Day In The Life Of), Expectancy
Theory, and "A Bit of Perfume" – Giving Praise.
Key Points:
If you want to build a high performance team, then you absolutely have to learn how to motivate
team members. Side benefits of this include high levels of team-member job satisfaction, and
good staff retention.

You can stimulate high performance through providing interesting and challenging work, helping
people set and achieve meaningful goals, and recognizing and rewarding high performance in
ways that are valued by each individual.

Making a point of motivating people is a challenge in and of itself. Once you decide you are up
to it, however, you too will reap the rewards and benefits. This creates a momentum that will
help you and your team achieve great success.

To explore how you can apply some of these teachniques in your work situation, take our Bite-
Sized Training session on Motivating Your Team.

Managing People with Low Ambition

Motivating People Who Don't Want Advancement

Some people won't have a desire to progress their careers.

© iStockphoto/ravzan

Your boss has just assigned you to lead a team with a mix of full-time, part-time, and temporary
staff. You're feeling unsure about this new team, because you sense that some of its members
have no real desire to advance their careers.

You soon realize that the management strategies you've used in the past aren't going to work
here. After all, you won't be able to motivate these people in the same way as team members who
want to advance their careers. And you can't keep dangling a raise in front of them - your
department would go broke!
So how do you manage and motivate people who have no interest in learning new skills, or
advancing their careers?

In this article we'll explore strategies and tips that you can use when managing and motivating
people with low ambition. We'll look at various scenarios, and we'll cover management and
motivational strategies that you can use with these people.

Defining "Low Ambition"

When we use the term "low ambition" in this article, we're using the term in a broad sense. We
don't necessarily mean that these people aren't ambitious - just that they don't wish to learn new
skills or advance their careers right now.

For instance, you might be managing a busy parent who's working in a part-time, entry-level
role, and simply wants the opportunity to earn a small wage and have regular social interaction.
All of his spare "emotional energy" is focused on supporting his family.

Or, you might have a person on your team who considers her role as just a short-term job, while
she waits for a convenient time to return to college to continue her education.

Even people in highly-skilled roles may be happy where they are in their careers - they've
learned the skills needed to do their jobs well, and they don't wish to add to their responsibilities
by climbing further up the corporate ladder.

In fact, when many of us think about the people in our teams, it's unlikely that everyone will be
looking to learn new skills and advance their careers.

Common Challenges
The most important challenge when managing people with low ambition involves motivation.
These people may not be motivated by learning opportunities, greater responsibility, or
challenging projects; so you need to have a strategy in place to ensure that they stay motivated to
deliver high quality work.

Another common challenge involves loyalty and retention. If people have no ambition to build
their careers, or to progress through an organization, then they're more likely to jump ship if
they're not enjoying their work. This is especially relevant to people in low-skilled roles, who
have little to lose by changing job.

Management Strategies
Start by examining your own assumptions about your team members, because your perception
affects the way that you behave.

For instance, if you believe that someone is simply coming to work to earn a paycheck, then you
may unconsciously adopt an authoritarian management style with them. Our article on Theory X
and Theory Y will help you identify your unconscious assumptions about your team members'
motivations, so that you can apply the right management style for the situation.
You can also use Path Goal Theory to identify the most effective leadership style to apply in
different situations. This model is helpful, because it helps you to choose the best leadership style
to adopt, depending on your people's needs, as well as the environment they're in and the task
that they're working on.

Another approach is to work on your emotional intelligence - this will help you build better
relationships with your people.

Tip:
Our Book Insight on Dale Carnegie's classic book "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
includes further strategies on building good relationships.

Motivational Strategies
Motivation is probably your biggest challenge when it comes to managing people with low-
ambition. Without an effective strategy in place, your team members will not be as productive,
satisfied, and loyal as they could be.

The following strategies will help.

Get to Know Your Team

It's important to get to know the individuals within your team. The more you know about their
personal lives and goals, the better you'll be able to structure rewards that keep them motivated.

For instance, a good way to motivate single parents who work part-time might be to offer them
flexible working hours, or on-site daycare usually reserved for full-time workers.

Tip:
Our article on Coaching to Explore Beliefs and Motives can help you better understand what
drives your people.

Identify People's Needs

You can also use models such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to identify people's fundamental
needs. This will allow you customize your motivational approach for maximum impact.

For instance, doing what you can to boost people's confidence can be a great motivator, and can
lead to significantly increased productivity.

Increase Job Satisfaction

Use strategies from our article on Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors to eliminate any
elements that might be leading to job dissatisfaction.

A good example of this would be to get rid of an oppressive company policy such as banning the
taking of personal calls at work. Trusting employees by removing these negative elements can
build team trust (member-only article) and create loyalty.
Also, ensure that you provide a fair and safe environment, one in which people can have great
working relationships with co-workers, and one where people are given proper recognition for
their achievement. You can find out more about doing this with our article on Sirota's Three-
Factor Theory

Further Motivational Strategies

 Try to make the work environment as pleasant as possible for your team, especially for those in
low-skilled or monotonous roles. Make sure that it's clean, well-lit, and comfortable.
 According to McClelland's Human Motivation Theory, people have different dominant
motivators, whether these are the needs for achievement, affiliation or power. Learn which
dominant motivators work for individual members of your team, so that you can structure
rewards and praise effectively.

 Reward your team by simply saying "thank you" - recognition and appreciation for a job well
done can be an incredible motivator.

 If you're finding it difficult to get your team motivated then use principles from Expectancy
Theory. This helps you motivate people by linking their effort with the outcome of the project.

 People with low ambition are often responsible for doing work which everyone else in the
organization considers "low status." If this is the case in your team, make sure that they are
treated equally, especially when it comes to company perks like holiday parties or leaving early
on Fridays.

 Having control over what we do is a major source of job satisfaction for most people. Whenever
possible, give your workers the opportunity to choose their tasks and projects. The more control
they have over their work, the more they'll own, and take responsibility for, their tasks.

Tip:
To assess how well you motivate your team currently, take our How Good Are Your Motivation
Skills? quiz. This interactive quiz will help you uncover your motivational strengths and
weakness, so that you can become an exceptional motivator of people.

Key Points
People with no ambition to progress their careers can have special management needs. Applying
the same strategies you use with other people in your team won't be as productive or effective
with these team members.

Start by identifying what truly motivates every individual on your team. Next, use this insight to
tailor your motivation and rewards so that their job is meaningful and effective.

It's also important to modify your leadership style with these people. Use tools like Path Goal
Theory to help you identify the best style to use with these team members.