The Question

Here are the results of a survey on the motivation of people on a project. 74 people across the world participated and they were asked the following question:

The Results

It was interesting to find out that well over half the ideas people mentioned fell into one of the following 5 categories. Each category was mentioned over 10% of the time. They are ranked in order as follows: 

1. Recognition - give them praise and thank them privately and/or publicly
2. Leadership - give them an inspiring leader
3. Communications - find what motivates them and treat them as individuals
4. Achievement - give them opportunities to achieve their goals
5. Incentives - "What's in it for me", give them a small reward and/or a personal benefit from the project

Clearly different people are motivated by different factors, which have been proved by great thinkers like Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg and David McClelland. What our survey showed is that in our world today, most of the time, team members consider the above five categories as the most important factors that will motivate them.

The next five categories were mentioned about 5% of the time each:

6. Pay top rates - but effect does not last long 
7. Challenge and Satisfaction - give them a goal and interesting work
8. Responsibility - Make them proud of their work and give them more direct control
9. Openness - tell them of any constraints that occur
10. Belonging to a team - make them feel they are part of a team

There were 8 other categories that were mentioned typically between 1% and 2% of the time, such as having “personal development opportunities”, “fun at work” and “no micro management”.

Comments

When I look at the top 3 items on the motivational list above, I notice that all these relate to the behaviour of our project managers. Recognition is something that people say they want the most, and it comes primarily from the project manager. Next comes good leadership – that speaks for itself. Finally, in third place is communications, the desire by individuals to be heard, to be listened to and for our managers to find out what motivates them as individuals.

The message is clear, all three motivators are things that a project manager can do, and they don’t need a budget!

Next Steps

If you found the results of this survey interesting, you may wish to subscribe to my project management newsletter. I go into more depth than the information presented in this article, with more insights and tips to reminding you of the things we all should be doing to manage our projects better. To subscribe, please visit www.itcentre.com or subscribe below.

Have you thought of running a highly interactive project management training course for your company? Do send me an email at sam@itcentre.com and we can discuss your needs. Let’s give your colleagues the right tools and techniques to reach project success and apply what they learn immediately after the course.

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Dr Sam Elbeik publishes his monthly Project Management newsletter for anyone who manages a project, from beginner to expert. If you want to reach project success more easily, then get your free tips and techniques now at http://www.itcentre.com/

With regards