How to Deal with Low Team Motivation & Engagement

Well, hey, hey, and welcome to today's bonus. So, as I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to be doing a series of bonus episodes based on the biggest bummers that all y' all shared with me about that you didn't see coming. As a female entrepreneur, these are things that you just didn't count on. And surprise, surprise, nine out of the 10 have to do with all those people that you hire. And it's so interesting to me, you know, I've been doing this for so long, and for all of the energy and exhaustion and frustration. And I was talking to.

One of my new team partners, and she was reading through all of the comments that I got from you, all from my private, private subscribers about.

You know, the biggest bummers. She said, I just didn't expect sort of this big visceral.

Resentment and anger and just vitriol. Right. And we harbor so much frustration towards our team members who don't perform. And I know why. I know it's because as a small business owner, you are so passionate about what you do, and it is so disheartening to feel like you're on a treadmill of constant disappointment when. With the people that you hire. So. But bec. But despite how much you spend your time trying to deal with all of these problems, it's so.

Boggling to me how few of you who are even listening to this podcast right now are actually investing in helping yourself. It's like somehow we've just decided this is.

It's just supposed to suck. I don't think so. Now, are there always going to be people that are hard to manage and deal with? Huh? But it doesn't have to be so consuming. And there are. There are people who responded to me who, it sounds like they may give up on their business because of the people.

And I. That is, like, the last thing I would want you to do, because I know that can change if you're willing to change yourself. So today we're going to talk about lack of motivation and disengagement. This is a very common issue that a lot of small businesses are talking about. A lot of my clients talk about. They're just like, they don't care as much as I do. They don't. They're not as invested as I do. They, they. They show up late. They don't come to work. They call in sick. They have issues with their.

Car, their cat, their haircut, their emotional issues. Right? There's just a general.

Challenge with people's investment and willingness to commit to their work and so what I want to do on this podcast is give you ideas and recommendations for how to deal with that. All right? And the way that I always think about the problems that we face as leaders of businesses is there's them and there's you. There's. There's what you can do for yourself, and then there's things you can start to do with and for the team or to the people on the team. Right. But we have to remember that. That both are at play here. This is not just a them problem.

It isn't just a you problem. It's likely a little bit of both, especially if you're on a treadmill. If you're on what are they? What's the rat wheel, the hamster wheel? You just feel like you keep facing the same things over and over again. Then we have to evaluate, like, there's a me here and there's a them here, even when the thems change. And that's what we have to pay attention to. So the first thing is I want to talk to you, and I want you to just listen to me as, you know, a girlfriend who cares about you, who just talks to women all day, every day about some of these frustrations.

Yes.

No one will ever care as much as you do.

Yes.

That's okay. You're not hiring them to care. You're not hiring them to be loyal.

You are hiring people to work in your business to deliver results.

This is not a relationship that you are, like, hoping they'll like you or that you like them. This is not a relationship that they should be able to read your mind or you should read theirs.

There are a lot of people on this planet who only want to work so that they can go home and watch football and have money to buy Doritos there. You started a company, and you likely started a company because you have a personal promise that you want to fulfill through the business, through the work of the business. You want to serve great food. You want to create an incredible experience for people. You want to save part of the planet. You want to elevate apart an industry.

But that guy just wants to take his paycheck home and be able to cover his daycare expenses and take his wife out to dinner.

He's not necessarily is invested.

But because you think he should be, and because you take the fact that he might be late or that he's catastic and he can't work, or he has a, you know, problem with this, or he's generally just struggling with other things because you take all of that and you get very personally either offended, insulted, resentful, burdened by. You are missing the entire reason that you hired him.

Which is for results.

It's not for him to get on board, it's not for him to be pleasant, it's not for him to get to work on time.

Is for him to deliver results. But what I am willing to bet is if you are.

Deeply bothered by people's lack of motivation and their disengagement.

I would bet money you're not holding them accountable to results. You're holding them accountable to make you feel better by behaving the way that you want them to. Stop it.

What we teach in Lead for Women is how to extend an invitation to people that you hire so that we're making a mutual agreement that is designed to co create an outcome.

That's it. I hire people for results. If I love and figure amazing and we are friends for life, this is good news. But that is not why I hire people. And so if we make those agreements and we're really clear, if you've written a job description and that job posting was very reflective of that, and your job offer was very reflective of those agreements and your job offer was very clear about what their results are that they have to deliver and you onboard them with those expectations and you hold them accountable to those expectations and you're really clear about what it looks like to win in this role.

And they fail to do that. They call in sick 7 out of 10 days.

They can't meet deadlines.

You walk in and they're all just lounging around not working. When there are things to be done and they don't perform. It doesn't have to be personal because we've set the table before we even started about what the agreements are. But I am willing to bet money.

That you haven't done that. You think you have, but there's a sneaky thought in there that's preventing you from really getting what you want, which is I shouldn't have to explain this to an adult. I shouldn't have to be this specific. People should just use common sense.

Our job as the leaders of our company is to be very clear about what we expect and to make sure that that is, there's no daylight there between it and then if they don't deliver, I don't have to take this personally.

I just address it. Hey, you're supposed to be at work at 8 o' clock the last four days, you've been to work at 9. If it happens again.

You Won't work here anymore.

Now there's another issue.

And that is. But it's so hard to find people that if I can't just fire him, I can't just let him go. I can't just. I can't keep. Yes, you can.

The better you get at holding your own expectations, even just for yourself, the better you will get at hiring people who are respectful of them.

If you are too tolerant and you accommodate, you're too people pleasy. You just. You're afraid you're going to lose people. So then you don't actually hold people accountable to the very thing that you told them that they were here to do. Why would they change?

If you have a lack of motivation and a disengagement problem on the team, Guess what? The person I want to start with is your motivation and your disengagement. Because if you're not holding people accountable.

Then you are disengaged as a leader. Ouch.

I listen, you can be mad, you can be resentful.

Or you can tell that truth and start with, okay, I gotta reframe this so that I am so specific when I make an. An offer and we go back through your first module in lead for women is everything I'm telling you. We do a team audit, we do team design, and we do something called the RE offer and we learn. I teach you how to go back to everybody that's already on your team.

And we're going to assess who are the people that we need to give these RE offers to.

Okay? Now, do we have a little bit of an issue in the world right now with work? I think so. I want to give you that. I want to validate that. I think that we definitely need to all.

Rethink why we think people work.

That doesn't mean your expectations have to change, but I think you have to be more scrutinizing, not less. Go longer without someone than hire the wrong someone.

We are in an environment right now where there's a lot of people who I think have had to work for a lot of years or watched people, younger people have watched their parents work for years, giving up a lot, and they're not willing to do that. So we have to consider, are we inviting people into an environment that is an environment our ideal employee or team member wants to work in?

Are we creating an environment where they can have thoughts about themselves and what they do that they feel motivated, that they feel engaged?

Do we create an environment that feeds and nurtures their growth?

Most employees, especially small businesses, a lot of small businesses hire younger people, not all of you guys. I totally get that a lot of you are hiring professionals, but in either case, people want to know that what they do matters and that they're an environment where they're respected and they're seen and, and developed because so many people don't have a lot of development.

So number one is you. Are you setting up the role with a lot of clarity? The agreements are clear. We're co creating this, whatever. These are the results that are expected.

If someone doesn't achieve those results, are you holding them accountable?

And if we know that the relationship with work is changing.

Are we giving thought to the environment that we're inviting people into? Is it inviting? Is it engaging? Is it mo? Is it helping them think thoughts that help them feel motivated? And the way we do that is we make sure that our promise and our values are really clear.

So the one thing you can do today, the one thing, if you are struggling with a, with a belief that people lack motivation and lack engagement, is stop worrying about what their feelings are and start focusing on what their results are and look at those from a factual perspective and then balance those with what you have specifically said is expected of them in their role. And if what you have said is not crystal clear, there's daylight in between it, then get that clear and start to address and work with your team based on the agreements you make for results, not your opinion of their behavior. Okay. All right. So if you'd like to work with me personally, I'd love to invite you to get on the Lead for Women invitation list. We are going to start a whole new session on October 9th and I'm super excited about it. And if you're on the invitation list, you're going to get some really, really cool.

Special offer.

To start with us and register early. And that will open on Friday. But you have to be on the invitation list to get it. This is not going to be broadcast publicly. You must be on the invitation list. So go to the visionary CEO forward slash, next step and add your name to our invitation list. And then on Friday, after the podcast releases, you're going to learn everything about it it and where to go. You'll be getting emails from us on where to go to get your special super duper cool early and advanced registration offer since you're on the invitation list. Okay, friend. All right, thanks for tuning in today. See you next time.