Unconventional Ways to Motivate Your Team in 2021
By: Sid Khaitan
Tags: Startup, Culture, Teamwork, Collaboration, Leadership

Unconventional Ways to Motivate Your Team in 2021

Leadership when it’s not ‘business as usual.’

Photo credit: Mitchell Luo

Let’s face it: this year was tough. Next year might prove nearly as challenging. Times like these have fundamentally changed what it means to be a leader. It’s no longer just about driving short-term results — building sustainable teams and processes is more important.

All the while, those at the helm are charged with demonstrating authenticity, encouraging others to be themselves while maintaining the integrity of organizational culture.

The challenges are immense, but so are the opportunities. A long-term focus creates the need for better incentive alignment. Honesty allows us to get to the root of problems faster. And a world in which the individual is celebrated paves the way to more effective collaboration.

Ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table

It’s not enough to get it right once anymore. Winners are replicating success by facilitating the right teams, processes, and most importantly, incentives.

Have you ever heard of the “agency problem”? Economists define this as:

“A conflict of interest inherent in any relationship where one party is expected to act in another’s best interests.”

For example, let’s say Jon wants to start and own a consulting business. If he hires two employees to work on the business and only rewards them with minimum wage, they have no incentive to think like an owner.

However, this problem could be mostly solved if Jon gave the two employees a reason to work harder, such as stock options or performance-based bonuses. A classic case of incentive alignment.

Such a mechanism becomes even more important when we zoom out to examine companies with shareholders. CEOs are tasked with driving stakeholder profits, but often act on their own interests to maximize wealth. Without a system in place, this should be expected since it’s human nature.

Because it’s not the player, it’s the game.

The good news is, in a world where long-term visions are gradually overtaking short-term targets, this might become less of a problem. As leaders, employees, investors, customers, and the world begin to prioritize sustainable outcomes, incentive alignment is being spoken of more often.

The most tangible way I’ve seen this play out is the transition from customer acquisition to retention. When a business changes their key metric from reducing customer acquisition costs (CAC) to improving lifetime value (LTV), they are making a statement.

That keeping a customer matters more than the costs of acquiring them. As you might imagine, this can cause a ripple effect across an organization, shifting everyone’s focus from “bait and hook” to “surprise and delight”.

Having honest conversations about real problems

Live virtual events and meetings bring a certain sense of excitement.

Because they’re not always scripted or rehearsed, which creates an environment in which serendipity and transparency are possible. There’s only so much you can prepare, and that’s a good thing.

Real-time conversations force us to draw from experience, rely on intuition, and say how we truly feel. Instead of one-way dialogue, interactive experiences are about co-creation. You’re learning more about yourself as you speak, and hopefully imparting some lessons to others at the same time.

It’s a journey, not a destination.

And such gatherings are more important than ever before. After hearing “all things considered” during every call or witnessing the perils of miscommunication due to less time in-person, we know this to be true.

So instead of controlling the discussion, it behooves leaders to participate. By striking a balance between your personal and professional lives, prompting others to speak their mind, and fostering a community as opposed to a cult.

That’s how leaders harness the power of authenticity to solve problems faster.

Bringing the best out of individuals and their teams

This year has made it clear that at the end of the day, we’re on our own.

Which isn’t good or bad, it just is. We’re all responsible for our own health, financial security, upward mobility, and career trajectory. The only difference from years past is that the lesson came to us as less of a frog in boiling water and more of an emergency crash course.

Similar to how the Great Recession influenced Generation X’s perspectives, the pandemic will change our way of thinking about work and fulfillment. You might be thinking that this makes the job of a leader only harder.

I say the opposite.

Instead of having to be the source of motivation, leaders can and should ask teams to take matters into their own hands. Let individuals find their drive, searching across the landscape for hints of impact from customer testimonials, revenue growth, and user success stories. Then reward them for performance.

After all:

“True leaders don’t create followers. They create more leaders.” — Tom Peretz

We’re better off designing systems as opposed to a patchwork of parts. Especially when the not-so-distant future looks so opaque and unpredictable. Instead of offering prescriptive advice, organizations will benefit from having the proper guardrails in place.

Structuring the right incentives, deploying radical honesty, and providing autonomy will empower happier, more effective teams come 2021.