Motivation Motivator2

Sometimes people lose motivation in their jobs because they're not doing something that truly inspires them. This happened to a team supervisor at a manufacturing company. He seemed lackluster and unmotivated, but nobody bothered to ask him what truly motivated him. When someone finally did, they discovered that he loved working on race cars. They found a way to incorporate his passion into his work, and he became much happier and more motivated. This shows the importance of understanding someone's motivators and having open conversations with employees. When it comes to coaching to the motivator, it's a little redundant, obviously. And I'll go back to finding someone's motivation. People sometimes get put into jobs and situations with home life, with bills, with kids, saving for college, and they feel like they can't disrupt what they're currently doing at the expense of their own motivation. And I'd love to share this story. We had someone who was a team supervisor, a leader at a manufacturing company, and people kept saying, you know, he's lost his motivation. He's lost his motivation. And I said, well, what do you mean he's lost his motivation? And I remember someone in HR said, well, he's just lackluster. I said, well, has anyone asked him what motivates him? Well, he's a team supervisor. I said, so let me rephrase the question. Has anyone asked him what motivates him? And she said, well, I don't think we know that answer. I said, okay. So I sat down with this guy. I did not know him well. So it kind of put me in a precarious position, and more importantly, it put him in a precarious position. And I started asking what I thought were all great coaching questions. 30 minutes into it, it's going nowhere. And he kept saying, no, I like my job. It's a good company. I like it. I like the people I work with. There wasn't a lack of motivation, but there was not a ton of enthusiasm going back to our definition. And I said, well, let's forget about work for a second. I said, you know, what kind of gets you passionate? What turns you on outside of work? He said, oh, working on race cars. I said, excuse me? He said, working on race cars. I said, really? And he said, yeah, I work for a professional race car driver. I said, why do you like that so much? He said, I am a certified mechanic. I love working with my hands. Everybody, you will have what I call defining moments in a conversation. And I'm as guilty of this as anyone. We're all guilty of it. We're thinking about what we want to say before someone is done talking. And I was really in that mode of really good listening when I was talking to this gentleman, and that hit me. Because I knew the team supervisor did not work with their hands. So I said, well, how do we bring that guy who loves to work with his hands back into this workplace? He said, what are you talking about? I said, well, we have all these job openings in maintenance where you'd be working on the machines. I would imagine that would, you know, excite you. And he said, it does. I just can't do it. I said, why? And he said, I'm a single dad with three kids. I can't afford the pay decrease. I've already looked into it. I said, okay. I said, could I have your permission to go to HR? And the HR manager is a friend of mine. I said, what if we pursued a resolution, a solution, maybe a hybrid job? I said, geez, I'd be all for it. He later became a supervisor of the maintenance department, but as long as he could work 50% of the time on the machines. So later, I circled back and said, hey, look, he said, I really want to thank you. He said, I'm so much happier. It wasn't a big bump in pay. If anything, it was kind of a lateral move. And I said, I have to ask you something. He said, why? I go, has this made a difference for you? And he said, it's huge. I love it. And I said, how come you didn't share that with anybody? He said, nobody asked me. I said, but why didn't you share it? He goes, I just wasn't comfortable. And I said, how long have you felt like that? He said, a couple years. I said, I'm going to ask you a question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to. I said, you must have been out looking. He said, oh, all the time. We risked losing a great employee because nobody was having the conversation with them. So when we often hear, I don't have time to coach, you don't know someone's motivator, it changes the game. You find out somebody's motivator, you dramatically change the game positively.