How do I motivate my team when I am completely de-motivated?

It is a challenge to motivate others when you are lacking in motivation yourself. To be an inspiring leader of others it is important to walk your talk and to be congruent.

To motivate we need to be motivated, which at different times of our personal and professional lives can be challenging. During the more challenging times it’s important to look at who your allies are, who are the people that you can turn to for support both personally and professionally?

The first place to look is at what’s going on for you? What’s up? What’s the talk that is going on in your head?

Take some time to reflect on your life both personally and professionally to help you identify what is causing you to feel de-motivated. I have listed a few questions below for you to ponder to help you to get some clarity.

• What’s worrying you?
• What are you dissatisfied with?
• What’s the thing that has your attention right now?
• What’s most important to you?
• What’s the real issue/challenge for you right now?
• What’s difficult for you here?
• What’s the one word, or short sentence that describes what is happening for you?
• What’s the most pressing challenge you need to address?

Once you have spent some time getting clear, it may be useful to move toward possibility. I have listed some questions to help.

• What stands out as the obvious thing to do?
• What would be fun?
• What are you afraid of?
• What would be the most courageous thing to do?
• What is the choice you are longing to make?

You and your happiness are your most import asset, so invest some time in yourself to help you to identify what you need to move forward.

With regards to motivating your team, people are motivated when they are clearly connected to their values, their purpose and find meaning in what they are doing. I have provided some tips for motivating your team below:

• Involve your team in the ongoing vision and development of your project/ company.  People need to feel valued, to contribute and to feel that their contribution is valued.
• Set team goals together, factoring in accountability, timelines and how you are going to celebrate each milestone or end result.

Pollyanna Lenkic is the founder of Perspectives Coaching, an Australian based coaching and training company. In 1990 she co-founded a specialist IT recruitment consultancy in London, which grew to employ 18 people and turnover £11 million ($27 million). In this blog Pollyanna answers questions from our readers on issues they are experiencing leading or being part of a team.  She offers insights on teams and team dynamics. For support and information on team days run by Perspectives Coaching see here. Her previous Blog for SmartCompany, 2nd Time Around was about the mistakes she made and the lessons she learned building a business the first time round and how to do it better second time round.

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