Back to the Basics of Building High Performing Teams
This month the ADP Research Institute released its lowest rating for Employee Motivation & Commitment since June of 2022. A survey of more than 490,000 workers in 29 countries, the EMC index is widely recognized as the international barometer for workplace productivity and employee satisfaction. So what is driving such a drop in employee motivation and what can we do about it?
First, it’s crucial to understand just how important motivation is to a high performing team. If you want your team to succeed, whether it’s a small scrum team of 5–9, or an entire department, you need to have workers who are willing and ready to do the job at hand. Ultimately, it goes back to the original four-pronged McKinsey model of developing high performing teams. Encouraging your people to be “Willing” and “Ready” to perform the job at hand can be bolstered by having the Right Resources, proposing the Right Mission, bringing in the Right People, and by providing a Nurturing Environment.
As a leader, you only have so much control over the above. Unless you’re building a company from scratch, you’re often stuck with the talent provided and resources already acquired. Even your mission may be predetermined by your business model. What you always will have control over though, is the working environment. Establishing a healthy and organized working environment can go miles to help build team identity and support employee motivation.
DAC
The Center for Creative Leadership pioneered the DAC model to support leaders in their quest to build this healthy working environment. DAC stands for “Direction, Alignment, and Commitment.” Without all three of these clearly visible, an organization can begin to see employee motivation tank. There’s nothing enjoyable about putting effort into a project that leadership doesn’t value. Without the proper Direction, a team can work aimlessly and never deliver any real value. Without Alignment, teams can find themselves rowing upstream without any progress to show for all of their effort. Without Commitment, your talented workforce begins to degrade and you’re left with those who are less motivated to make your organization stand out amongst the crowd.
So back to the ADP. The sad truth is that the jury is out on the true cause of the lack of recent motivation. Some argue it’s the large scale return to office trends among major organizations. Some suggest wages aren’t keeping up with inflation which makes a larger proportion of workers feel that they are underpaid. No matter the reason, there are tools at your disposal to ensure that your group remains productive even if that means coming into the office at the same rate of pay. No matter the organization, establishing a culture of empathy will unite employees with leadership to address the challenges at hand. From there, ensuring that all employees understand the strategic Direction of the organization and are Aligned to work towards common goals will allow them to build the Commitment needed to begin achieving them. Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.
