Leaders Letter 154 - Motivated Demotivated Empowered Powerless Management Matrix

Dear leaders, a big part of what I do is to get under the base layer and understand what the key drivers and triggers of people, teams, departments and leadership teams are.

One of my preferred ways of getting the best results whilst coaching and running workshops with managers and c-suite execs is to ask a series of questions about themselves (remember you are the protagonist in your own story) and then dive into their management practises.

Reduce Your Personal Management Struggles

Most managers struggle to answer simple questions about their team members, rightly or wrongly most of these don’t work on these issues and don’t want to even attempt to go another layer deeper, my own strong personal belief is that approach is going to hinder you, especially when performance is dropping or team members start to struggle. Retaining staff or being able to decide to let them leave comes down to how much you know about them alongside their personal metrics.

I have a simple set of questions managers should be able to answer on each one of their direct team members (or direct reports).

Motivated – Demotivated – Empowered – Powerless Questions:

Motivates – what motivates your team member (is it money, it is status, is it opportunities to step up)

Demotivates – what demotivates your team member (is it a lack of recognition, is it poor results from their work, is it struggling with their colleagues)

Empowers – What empowers your team member, where do they feel empowered?

Powerless – When does your team member feel powerless? In what situations does your team member need extra support?

What will these help with?

Better 1:2:1’s
Better team management meetings
Improves your team or department subculture
Better ways of motivating the team
Better ways of understanding when team members are low or need a rallying cry, what you need to say collectively or to individuals.
Better ways of pairing your team members and connecting your department or team leads together
A way to keep a record and update when you notice patterns or shifts and provides you with a way to coach your direct reports with theirs.

My leadership hypothesis is:
If you cannot boil down management into tables and simple matrixes, most people will struggle to keep on top of management tasks and people leadership. Without these tools, you will not be able to break down the task at hand.

With the continuing demands of management and non-stop work, you need better, not more tools in your arsenal to keep a record, have a log of change and importantly coach those around you.

This week’s focus action: look to complete the simple management matrix with your direct reports, bonus points if you can include your skips (those who report to a layer below you) and see how you can either find out more or motivate in different ways.

Thanks and have a great week.

Danny Denhard