Overview: A leader’s motivation is a precious resource for any organization. It is a source of inspiration for employees. Leaders should pay attention to their intrinsic motivation, quality of life, and well-being. All these factors determine the success of an organization. 

6 Motivation Hacks to Keep Your Team Inspired

Staying motivated is easy in theory, so long as you have well-defined goals, and you know how to achieve them. In the grind of everyday life, however, even well-defined goals can fade, taking with them the motivation they should support. 

An adverse organizational culture can also kill off goals, motivation, and even the will to persist for some leaders. 

Motivation-wise, leaders face a double challenge. They must find ways to motivate themselves while motivating their teams and organizations. Leaders can’t look to others for motivation and inspiration. They are the sources of these virtues. 

Motivated leadership requires the best version of you. Leadership coaching can help you find or create your best self. 

1. Rethinking Goals and Objectives

An organizational purpose or goal may be too distant to elicit urgency or motivation in the present. Having overarching goals is a necessity, but motivated leadership often requires closer, more achievable objectives. 

Set smaller goals for yourself and your team and reward yourselves for achieving them. This gradual approach always gives you a target and the motivation you need to keep moving towards your objectives. 

2. Nurturing Your Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is a persistent, innate motivation that prompts people to explore and seek new experiences. It goes hand-in-hand with natural curiosity. It requires progress in meaningful work as a key facilitator. 

Unlike extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation does not depend on material factors like satisfactory remuneration. Leadership coaching can facilitate intrinsic motivation through several points.

• Autonomy creates a sense of freedom and a lack of restraints that is empowering and exhilarating. 
• Connection is the key to satisfaction. Its central constituent is a deep-rooted sense of purpose. 
• Mastery allows leaders to take pleasure in meeting challenges that are neither overwhelming nor insignificant. 

3. Finding Inspiration

Employees expect leaders to be their sources of inspiration. Theoretically, leaders can’t go to someone else for inspiration as they reside at the top of the authority chain in their organizations. However, nothing can stop leaders from finding someone outside their organizations who can give them the inspiration they need. 

Sources of inspiration can be historical figures, successful leaders, executive coaching professionals, motivational speakers, etc. Leaders with vivid imaginations can build powerful reservoirs of positive references, experiencing challenges and solutions vicariously through their sources of inspiration. 

4. Engaging in Mentorship

Even the most passionate worker or leader can succumb to the dull and repetitive nature of work. Routine is one of the stealthy killers of motivation.  

Mentoring a high-potential employee is one of the most satisfying ways to break out of the stranglehold of routine. Such mentorship can be part of a coordinated effort to ensure leadership succession, thus benefiting the organization as well as the leader. 

The determination, excitement, and motivation of a young, up-and-coming employee can be contagious. Leaders can get as much out of a mentoring relationship as they invest into it. 

5. Delegating Soul-Sapping Tasks

Repetitive tasks don’t just put leaders’ motivation to sleep. They also drain their energy. Some leaders are reluctant to hand off mundane tasks to reports who may not complete the tasks as well. If you are one of these leaders, you have to unlearn this behavior. Write down some of the tasks that drain your energy. If you can find someone who can do them nearly as well as you, hand them off immediately. 

6. Striking a Work-Life Balance

A healthy work-life balance is essential for maintaining your motivation. Leaders who fail to address this issue are at risk of burning out. 

The quality of your work life determines your motivation. Leaders who put bottom-line results ahead of their well-being will find themselves robbed of the spark that makes them effective as leaders. 

Motivation is the engine of creativity and accomplishment. As a leader, your motivation is a strategic asset for your organization. Take good care of it.

To learn more about how you can join the IL Movement as a coach, or how you can benefit from bringing IL Solutions to your organization, contact us today.