How to Build and Motivate a Team to Change the World

The team that will change the world.

You want to make the world a better place.  To do this, you know you need to lead others, to build something that will last, to start a revolution for positive change in your community.  You need to build and motivate an effective team.  But you’re not interested in forcing people to do things they don’t want to do, and maybe you’re afraid this is what leadership requires.  Let’s dig into this and see where we end up.

It’s almost impossible for you to force someone to do something he or she doesn’t want to do, even if there’s money on the table.  All companies pay their employees and provide various benefits to incentivize them to work, but supervisors must fight constantly to ensure that employees are, in fact, getting the work done and not slacking off.  This, unfortunately, is the image of leadership in our society.  The goal of the leader is to get the work done at minimal cost.  The goal of the workers is to get the paycheck for minimal work.  This dichotomy turns a company or organization against itself and strangles productivity, and the two competing agendas trample the true vision or goal of the organization.

Let’s say you need someone to monitor several social media channels for your organization and act as a media buyer on search engines and other web sites.  This is interesting work, right?  Maybe.  Would someone do it for free?  Probably not.  And this means you’re going to have to pay someone to do it, which means you’ll have to micromanage his or her activities to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, which means you’re stuck in the trap described above.

What’s the solution?  Stop paying your employees?  Sort of.  The solution is to tap into intrinsic motivation.  Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within a person, as opposed to extrinsic motivation, which is tied to external rewards.  Fill your team with people who want to do the work that’s needed for no reason other than that it’s needed.  They care about it.  It matters to them.  They want to see positive change in their community, too.

As a leader, your responsibility is not to micromanage or supervise.  Your responsibility is to spread your vision, to stir up intrinsic motivation.  Your responsibility is to convince others that they are the ones who need to take action.  This is intrinsic motivation.  There’s a good chance you’ll still need to pay your team members, and you almost certainly should, depending on the scope of your ministry or whether you’re starting a for-profit or non-profit project.  But the money is secondary, entirely disconnected from the goals of the project.  If you’ve found the right team members, they’ll agree.

Find team members who will do the work for free, on principle, because they care.  Better yet, find team members who are already doing the work themselves, and combine your efforts under a single vision for positive change.  Leveraging intrinsic motivation is the key to true leadership.

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