What actually motivates your team

You motivate people the way you like being motivated. If public praise lights you up, you give public praise. If you love a stretch project, you hand out stretch projects. Then you are puzzled when it lands flat. Motivation is not one dial you turn up — it is a different set of dials for every person, and you do not know where anyone's are set.

This lesson is for new managers wondering why something that works on one person does nothing for another. It covers the assumption almost every new manager makes, how to ask what actually matters to someone without it sounding like a performance review, and what to do with answers you cannot deliver. You get one question to ask each person, and what the answers usually reveal.

Part of the Recognition track. About two minutes to read, with a seven-day practice plan and a recall check a week later.