Motivation is an important function of every manager. It deals with actuating the people to work for the
accomplishment of objectives of the organization. A manager has to make appropriate use of motivation to enthuse the employees to follow them. In order to motivate the employees, the management has to understand their needs and satisfy them by providing financial and non-financial incentives.Motivation is a psychological concept. It develops the mental power of an individual and motivate him to do more and better.Motivation increases the quantity and the quality of production.
If I were a project manager in a medical industry, I would motivate the team members by using various methods, since I believe everyone is motivated differently. However, I think the project manager should first be motivated, since setting a good example is often the basis. After setting a good example for the team, I would acknowledge when the project team is doing well and give words of motivation to each individual, in addition to treating the team when something goes right. Agreeing with the posts aforementioned, I think the project manager's level of motivation does directly affect the team's productivity and motivation level. I think motivation can be contagious, in a good way, since the reason for one being motivated can motivate others to do the same, especially if that reason is very powerful and moving. Also, people usually learn better by looking at what others are doing or how others are acting, rather than being lectured on how to do something specifically. Therefore, a motivated project manager can lead to motivated project team members.
How to motivate someone will vary greatly based on the person they are and what drives them. If you are a manager in this situation it is on you to figure out what motivates that person and then use that information to motivate people. Some people are motivated purely by money. In this case setting financial incentives for milestones reached would be an easy way to keep that person limited. This becomes harder as people’s motivation becomes more nuanced. The theory still remains the same. If someone responds well by having their work praised and recognized then you need to be doing that as often as possible. If someone is motivated by a sense of importance of the impact that the work will have then ensuring that you frame the work correctly when giving it to them is important. In the end motivation boils down to understanding. To be a good motivator, you need to understand what makes people tick and then adjust how you work with them as such.
It is definitely true that showing motivation as a project manager is an important when it comes to motivating your team. As a team member you wont want to work as hard on something your boss hates and doesnt care about versis something your boss is passionate about. Other things I would do as a project manager is reminding my team about the significance of goals and accomplishments. People want to know the work they are doing is important because it makes them feel important too. If I worked for a medical device company, for example, I would remind my team that we saved X amount of lives by getting our product to the customer, or by doing whatever the members of my team are or were working on.
Suppose you are a project manager in a medical industry. What are some ways you would motivate the team members you are managing? Does a project manager’s level of motivation affect the team's productivity and motivation level? Explain.
I would motivate the team by presenting the type of challenge contained in the project.
I would also remind the team of the impact the project can have on advancing the companies products or business strategy
Additionally, I would remind the team of the impact to customers that we are making
The venture supervisor can be a surprising huge motivator. To know that someone believes in what you can do so much to put forth a lump sum to create a product greatly validates your own abilities as an engineer even further and pushes you to perform at a high level. Those high expectations eventually become more of a blessing than a curse, so I agree, the venture supervisor can have a huge impact on the motivation of the group. I agree that the venture directors level of inspiration spreads through the group. The soul of inspiration is infectious and extremely supportive. The venture supervisor needs to show intrigue, energy and inspiration to enable others to go about as their pioneer. On the off chance that a venture supervisor is not roused, it will affect every other person on the group, much the same as a domino impact.
Showing people what the end product will be, explaining how it will be impactful, and showing them who it will have the impact on is a great motivation tool.A team is going to follow their project manager's examples. Therefore if he is lackadaisical his team is most likely going to slack off on assignments, thus causing a cascade of issues. It is important for a project manager to be communicative with his team, neat, and enthusiastic about all aspects of the project. Team motivation can be as simple as talking to the team members, and giving them positive feedback on what they are doing.
Like many have said, the project manager’s level of motivation is critical to a team’s productivity. The project manager’s overall motivation can be a contributing factor in the overall success of a project. One thing I would do to keep up motivation, taken from one the findings from the survey conducted regarding “Why Do People Stay?”, is Recognition. What I have seen work best from my own work experience, is ensuring that each member of the team is frequently recognized for their contributions to the group project. Although it may sound trivial, having your work acknowledged often validates all the time and effort put into a task. When employees feel that someone appreciates their work, that will motivate them to continue their work and seek that appreciation. Additionally, another thing I would do to motivate my team is to create incentives that will engage the team. As we learned from this past week, employee engagement is key to satisfaction with staying at a company. In regards to a project however, coming up with creative incentives that will engage members of the team will definitely ramp up motivation as well.
Prior to understanding the concept of motivation it's important to get a grasp on how important the team members are for the project and what role they play. The result of the project is directly dependent on how good the team members for the project are. In my previous project that I was a part off, something subtle that my PM did was make everyone feel as if they are directly responsible for. No doubt everyone is responsible indirectly but providing insight as to how your work is directly impacting the project. Another small step the PM took was, he used to communicate with us in personal basis as to what is the bottle neck that is stopping you progressing and how can he be off help. Such small action definitely kept the team in line and on track. Finally if any of the team members had any out of the box ideas, he didn't dismiss them immediately but entertained the idea.
Project managers play a major role in impacting team motivation. Based on attitude and character, a project manager has the capability to either help the team’s motivation or hurt it. A good project manager should provide affirmations to the team when key steps have been taken. Obviously, a project manager must still be timely and strict (to a degree), but how well a project manager “praises” a team can directly motivate the team to continuously do better. During a past internship I had, my team had two managers who we primarily worked under. One manager was very kind and caring. She was always open to interact with the team and get lunch together. She was actively involved to help with problems and was keen on appreciating achievements made by both the team and individuals. The other manager was the opposite. She would interact with the team minimally, and when she had, it typically ended in a mad manner. More than providing constructive criticism, this manager was more degrading which ruined the team morale. The mood of the entire team was different depending on the manager who had assigned the work to our team. In fact, one team member who left my team left primarily because they were fed up and tired of the rude manager. Therefore, I think project managers play key roles in maintaining motivation within a team, and from personal experiences, I understand the impact that different managers can have.
As a graduate student who oversees a small hoard of undergrads, I have a bit of experience in motivation and how motivating others can modify their work. For the purpose of this prompt, I am going to reply via my personal experiences since I think my current position is similar to that of being a manager in a medical device industry.
I motivate those I work with by always starting conversations about their work with compliments. Even if they have been struggling, it is important to me to make sure that they know that I appreciate what they are doing and that their work is beneficial even when it is not 100% perfect. I also try to ensure that any conversations about work struggles or mistakes are spoken of in ways that make the person believe they can improve. If someone does make a mistake, I do not criticize or demean them. Instead I point out the mistake, let them know why this mistake occurred, and then provide them with information so that they can avoid making the mistake in the future.
Motivating people can be tricky though. I think good, motivating managers need to not only be focused on improvement but also need to have the ability to direct those who they oversee when those individuals begin to feel lost in their work or demotivated. I've personally struggled with this as sometimes I am not as aware of an undergraduates project and cannot provide them with directions that may effectively help them get back on track. I can try and motivate them in other ways, but if I cannot motivate them about the project itself then I've found its very hard to improve their overall motivation.
To answer the prompt: in short I think the managers overall motivation can very much set the motivation of the entire work environment but only to a certain extent. Its not just about making people feel confident, its also about the managers ability to guide those they work with during periods of uncertainty and frustration. If the manager is not able to do such, then they may end up with a confident and motivated worker who simply appears unmotivated because they are not sure how to move forward with their work.
What are some ways you would motivate the team members you are managing? Does a project manager’s level of motivation affect the team's productivity and motivation level? Explain.
I would try my best to become an easily approachable person so people don't find it intimidating to communicate with me first of all. Then, I would try to create a purposeful and creative environment. And assign people tasks that interests them and challenge them. I think problem solving jobs are more interesting to the engineers in general. But before assigning them the task, I would call for a meeting and offer different options and ask who is interested to do which tasks. Once they chose, I would try to stay updated with their tasks via regular meetings. I would also make them feel wanted and inspired by sharing their good work with the team and my supervisors. Besides the heavy and challenging work, I would try to come up with some team building activities for everyone to de-stress.
I think being cheerful with employees is very important as many people get influenced by the environment they are at. Therefore, I would try to be cheerful with my team and become a good listener and understanding when it comes to discussing complex matters with them. Team productivity flows smoothly while the leader is showing that they care for the team members individually.
I agree that the project manager's motivation level affects the team productivity because a project manager is the very critical position in the team where he has to support the entire team with the work and keep them continuously with the same level of encouragement throughout the project. The PM should keep on motivating the team in innovative and friendly ways which will help the growth of the project in a positive way. Appreciation is important to the employees to keep them motivated.
As mentioned in the lecture, one important thing to do is to ensure that no event occurs that would de-motivate any member of the team. With the lecture mentioning low performing coworkers being a major de-motivator, an initial step would be to establish a team of self-motivated and high performing team members. With this established, efforts should be made to determine the factors that motivate each individual on the team and to leverage those to increase productivity. For instance, a project manager can define and lay out a plan for those individuals that are motivated by career growth and development. Therefore, the project manager should establish a method such as meeting everyone individually to determine the factors that motivate them. Lastly, in relation to the project manager, I believe their level of motivation has a major impact on the productivity and motivation of everyone else on the team. The reason for this is that if the project manager isn’t showing motivation and enthusiasm for the project then it is difficult to expect this from others on the team.
I feel like the project manager's level of motivation affects the members of the team as time goes on. As work persists members might start feeling sluggish and unmotivated to continue the work, especially if the work being done is repetitive. Ways to motivate team members could be by setting goals every now and then or make work feel more like an addiction than a boring task.
