Motivation

Culture eats Strategy for breakfast

Before even touching the topic of motivation, I’d like to talk about some very important prerequisites I think needs to be there. Trying to motivate people without having great leaders is like try to make a Volvo 240 from 1982 balance on their back wheels only. It's impossible.

So as with so many other things, we need to clean our own entrance first as the Swedish saying goes.

A great thing to start with is to have great leaders, open people and a welcoming culture. Easier said than done, and this is of course not easy to have. Didn’t say that.

But it's also very hard to build on the motivation of people unless you have the above. Some people are self-motivated by the new feeling about changing their role and starting in a new company, getting to know new people and are busy learning their new job.

But long term, they’ll slowly get unmotivated unless they receive feedback and are encouraged. In 2016 I wrote an MBA Master Thesis about “What motivates professional early millennials in the workplace and what is the best way to manage them to reach their potential?”.

Spoiler alert, it turns out that it has very little do with the actual age.

I did identify these 5 areas. And this is actual research, built on personal interviews qualitative interviews.

#1: Give feedback

#2: Share responsibilities

#3: Offer flexibility

#4: Reward

#5: Support

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