Why is my team not motivated / not working hard?
Founders and leaders often struggle with teams or individuals that don’t share their sense of urgency about getting work done. I think of motivation as a stack-- all of the pieces need to be in the stack for an employee to be fully motivated - if one or more is missing, you will get lackluster performance. Here are the pieces of the stack I look at with my clients:
--Are they aligned with the overall strategy of the company & mission? They don't have to be as on fire about the mission as you are, but they do have to feel like the strategy you're implementing will actually create good business results. As a leader you're working on the strategy for your company or team for weeks, reviewing it over and over. By the time you have a change to share more broadly, you may feel like a single All Hands will get the job done. Your team will need to hear the strategy repeated several times, ideally in different formats, and both broadly, and with details that may apply only to their team. You'll be surprised by the payoff you'll get by spending more time on alignment than you think you need to. My bar for effective strategic communication is when your employee can repeat the strategy back to you, and connect it to their own work - from memory.
--Are the goals for this person or team clearly aligned with what will make the business successful? People will work hardest on the things they think will truly move the needle. You may understand how your request connects to overall business success, but explaining the linkages to your people help them get onboard. Here's an example -- you may need to hit a certain revenue target to raise your next round of funding, and that might have you pushing to launch a certain feature. Your teams need to understand the physics of startup fundraising, the reason you believe this feature is critical to reach that milestone, and the timing needed to get there in time. A lot of founders aren't explicit with their teams about their remaining runway or their next fundraising milestones. You don't have to reveal all, but sharing an appropriate and relevant amount of information can really help them feel the sense of urgency that you have.
--Do they feel their time is being well used? If you've given them multiple projects that didn't reach completion because you changed the goal or scrapped the project before they had a chance to finish, you start to lose credibility. If you need someone to shift their attention to a different thing and set down what they're working on, you'll take less of a hit if you explain the business reason why, and make sure they understand.
--Are your expectations clear? If you want someone to work harder for a specific week or even month, you need to make a direct ask about it. It's not enough to say that this is important, and hope they pick up on your hint.
--Are others being held to a high standard? If you're asking someone to stretch and put in extra time, it will work against you to keep others on the team. There are many reasons to manage out underperformers, but one of the most critical reasons is that they make the employees you want to retain feel less motivated. That goes double for the leader of the team -- if the leader isn't engaged in helping to finish the project (or very actively and visibly engaged in other work), the team generally won't work harder than their leader.
--Does their compensation feel fair to them? You may not have the cash to pay market rate, but if you don't, make sure the employees you are pushing are well compensated with stock options, and understand the potential payoff. It really helps to ask people what matters to them in terms of rewards -- the variables you have to play with are title, mentorship, options, cash, vacation time, and other perks. If you're asking your team to push hard to make a big deadline, make it clear if/how you're going to reward them with extra time off, or find something else they value to reward them with. As a founder, your payoff is huge if the company is successful -- make sure your best people are going to leave your company someday feeling like the tradeoffs they made were equitable.
--Do they have commitments outside work that prevent them from doing what you need? Most employees think they are signing up for a 40-50 hour week during their interview, unless you make it abundantly clear from the start that you expect more. You should be explicit in interviews about your culture & expectations, and if you change that after someone is hired, you need their agreement to push harder, if it lasts more than a week or two. Are they the primary or secondary caregiver for children or elders? Are they in their first year of parenting a new child? Do they or immediately family members have illnesses or disabilities that require their care? Are there other regular or one time activities they've committed to? Check with people about their availability, ideally with as much lead time as you can. "We're going to be asking everyone on your team to put in some extra hours over the next month. Is that something you're willing and able to do?" They may need time to talk to a spouse, and/or to arrange to have other responsibilities covered by someone else.
This may feel like a long list, but tending to these will create a far more motivated and effective workforce!