LooseSuits

Hey aadil,

It's not really a straight forward answer. The question you should be asking your team is what motivates them. What are their values and what are the values of the business?

When you know that then you can try and achieve a win win balance by seeing how best to work those values together.

You can get quick motivational hits with bonus etc but, longer term, people can come to expect it as the norm and still feel disillusioned.

Generally, people are more willing to work for values such as fairness, openness, and respect than for bonus alone. Of course there are those that would but not everybody.

Make people part of the success when it comes to recognition, purpose and thanks. There's a story about a member of staff at NASA being asked by President Kennedy what his job was. The man replied something like "To put a man on the moon Mr President". His job, a Cleaner.

It's clear that people get a lot from how they perceive they are valued and how they perceive what their role is - you play a big part in creating that.

I hope that helps as a quick response.

Those sound like nice things to do, but not necessarily "motivating".

Motivation comes when people catch the vision and see the possibilities clearly. When they can feel the energy driving it forward and can share your passion in making it happen. Motivation happens when your purpose for working truly fits their purpose for living.

Movies, picnics and such are a nice occasional benefit which can work to keep everyone aligned, but not a primary tool of motivating.

Fuscom is correct. There are many different motivational strategies, tips/tricks, etc. For example, eliminating job dissatisfaction and turning those negatives into reasons why employees are satisfied working there, giving credit/recognition where appropriate, not taking team members for granted, etc.

Having a paycheck next month is good sometimes, in the case of unfunded/boostrap startups. Fretting over making ends meet isn't an ideal motivator but it does segue into something that I feel is VERY powerful and often completely ignored.

Seeing how what you do affects the success of the company, and how it applies to the company's goals.

In small companies this is usually obvious, but not always. It's very powerful. Throw out the complexities of performance metrics and all that, and ask the question "How is what (name) is doing contributing to the success of our company?" Now, does (name) know that? Viscerally? Or is it just some form of abstraction? The more directly you can communicate this concept, the better aligned your workers will be not only with your company, but with your customers.

If you're aligned, you're going to be a lot more likely to do the right things, instead of just doing things right.

Fuscom stole my answer. The people involved have to believe in the vision of whatever the start-up is doing and understand their role and how important it is for that vision to succeed.