Motivational Mapping

Driving Staff Productivity and Welfare

Motivational Maps are fast becoming a staple of the management toolkit, providing valuable insight into what motivates their team members, enabling managers to play to staff strengths and abilities. Management expert and founder of Motivational Maps, James Sale, developed the method which is now used worldwide and includes a series of best-selling books on the subject. But to fully understand why Motivational Mapping is so effective in the workplace, it’s good to know a few things about motivation first …

What is Motivation?

Motivation is described as ‘a direction and energy to initiate and persist with behaviours in order to satisfy needs’ (Paulsen & Feldman, 1999, Young Sung & Nam Choi, 2009).

… in layman’s terms, it’s the engine that drives us to do what we want – or need – to do.

There are several different types of motivation too, but let’s not make this a psychology lesson! Suffice to say that you want to know what motivates your staff, and whether they are motivated intrinsically (e.g., because it fulfils them) or extrinsically (because it leads to something else, like money). Because that really matters when it comes to productivity, creativity and innovation. The ‘extra mile’ comes in when what we are doing fulfils a need or makes us happy, often through a sense of achievement, growth or security. And this is where you want your team members to be.

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The Difference between Motivation and Personality

A common misconception is that motivation is entirely dependent upon our personality traits, but it actually comes from a combination of environmental and biological factors. For example, an introvert may overcome their personality trait to become a public speaker, driven by a deep desire to share an important message with the world, or simply because it pays well. Personality is not the sole factor here, and differs from motivation in one fundamental way; whilst personality remains relatively stable throughout adulthood, our motivational drivers can change over time. In other words, what makes us ‘tick’, is heavily influenced by life’s twists and turns, altering your perception of your own talents, skills and abilities. This is why it’s crucial as a manager, to regularly review your staff roles, goals and tasks to ensure that their motivation is matched to the task in hand. Change in their working environment may leave staff feeling unchallenged, or overloaded – and they may not always know why. Motivational Mapping can identify problems as they arise, and help to increase staff self-awareness, making issues easier to work through. So that’s a whistlestop tour of motivation! Now let’s look at how Motivational Mapping uses this knowledge to create effective teams.

What does Motivational Mapping do?

Motivational Mapping helps managers, and those in supporting roles to guide staff towards company goals in a way that relates to their needs.
This innovative tool can help provide a road map for larger projects, identifying suitable team members, and potential motivational barriers. It can also help to devise strategies for addressing challenging issues within a team, or guide managers and coaches on reward strategies appropriate to staff motivators.

Motivational Mapping defines motivation by three key areas: growth; relationships, and achievement. Within these categories lie a set of 9 more defined indicators of motivation, all of which determine where a staff member will likely excel – and where they will not. This information provides managers with the detailed information they need to maximise staff development and advancement, and to understand the intricacies of team dynamics.
Example: Consider that you have two people on your team, equally experienced for a new position. One may be motivated by relationship building, another by achievement and recognition. Someone who will forge ahead for their own advancement may be technically suited to the task; but if the project needs a team player who will take everyone else with them, a successful outcome is more likely with a conscientious team player.

This is, of course, a simplified example of how drivers can guide managers to make informed choices; there are many other criteria which come into play, and which are covered in a Motivational Mapping session.

How Motivational Mapping works

Insights are gleaned using a 15-minute questionnaire which can be completed by the staff member online. The results are then analysed by one of our licensed Motivational Mapping practitioners with a comprehensive report to follow.
Results are discussed in more detail in a one-to-one consultation, providing guidance on particular staff issues in relation to their motivators, along with valuable insights and practical solutions.
Our easy to use mobile app provides a snapshot of each staff member’s motivational profile, along with insightful tips and guidance. This information can be viewed instantly; for example, directly before a meeting, to help discussions reach a desired outcome. The app contains snapshots of all profiled staff, and is the latest addition to our Motivational Mapping system.

Knowing what motivates your staff can have far-reaching benefits. Just one session across your team can help you to:

  • Boost staff productivity
  • Support staff wellbeing and welfare
  • Recruit and retain staff
  • Create more effective teams
  • Deliver appropriate rewards and insightful appraisals
  • Turn around an underperforming
  • Employee
  • Effectively navigate conflict resolution between multiple employees
  • Align employee motivations with certain projects or tasks

In a nutshell, understanding staff motivation helps you to speak your staff member’s language and guide their professional development in a way that benefits both you and your team member.

Testimonials

Our Reviews

Premier Life Skills

“ I have been amazed how the maps have helped me to understand how my staff tick, enabling me to work with key areas of the business. We are recruiting the right staff for business development and this year we are in profit. I can highly recommend using the maps and will continue to use Premier Life Skills for our team development ”

Pradeep Mehta

CEO AMAX LTD
Premier Life Skills

“ My predecessor had been with the company for 18 years, so joining a well-established team was always going to be a challenge. I found that using the Motivational Maps and also having Jane as a ‘career coach’ really benefited me at the start and set me up with a very strong foundation for managing my team. I still use the Maps and would highly recommend it to all businesses and especially to those starting in a new role or company ”

Fola Salako

Events Manager
Premier Life Skills

“ I am a big believer in the product and it has been extremely beneficial to identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the leadership team. ”

Chief Inspector Murray

Northamptonshire Police
Premier Life Skills

“There are lots of ways of addressing leadership development, but what I like about motivational maps is that it gives you both individual feedback and can be used as a team development tool...it's also easy to relate too. In East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service we used the maps at a team development day as a basis for reflecting on the team strengths ...and also potential vulnerabilities and in order to shape our future leadership development so that we can give the very best to our organisation.”

Dawn Whittaker

Chief Fire Officer - East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
Premier Life Skills

We have worked with Jane Thomas from Premier Life Skills for a number of years now, both in terms of use of motivational maps and team profiling to both aid and support team development, but also as part of senior leadership recruitment. Insights into people’s profile can also aid their own development and Jane has added extra value by facilitating some coaching to individuals to think about their personal impact and contribution to teams. In summary People are one of our most important assets, so investing in them makes sense.

Dawn Whittaker

Chief Fire Officer - East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
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