Flu season is upon us, but do you know what's just as contagious as the flu? Motivation.
A recent Johns Hopkins University study found that when we see other people challenging themselves and achieving "exceptional success," we're more likely to do the same.
This is tied to motivation – when you see others do something, it gives you that extra push to achieve. It raises the bar. I can think of countless examples in my own life of seeing others do something well that inspired me to learn to water ski, run farther, faster and more frequently and even start a business. Being inspired by others is why I belong to several women's business groups, follow business influencers on LinkedIn and enjoy talking to local leaders at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, Central Illinois Customer Service Association and other networking events. I gain inspiration and motivation from talking to others who are reaching their goals and taking their businesses to new heights. If they're doing it, why can't I?
A research study published in Academy of Management Discoveries found that exceptional results (defined as outcomes that go above and beyond business as usual) create learning opportunities and should be studied in the same way that many organizations and individuals study their failures. And as a bonus, highlighting above and beyond wins from your team generates learning without all the negativity that comes from talking about losses.
Motivation from others' successes can stem from a few different emotions within us. For example, if we see Dave knock his project out of the park, we might become curious and spark our desire to learn more about Dave's methods. We might also find inspiration to work harder and enjoy the same success (promotions, bonuses, etc.) that Dave is experiencing. And to be honest, sometimes we might feel envious of that jerk Dave and want to show the world that we can perform better than he did. (Sorry to all the Daves out there; I know you're not jerks).
If you'd like to encourage motivation to spread in your workplace, consider first whether your team has a process in place for evaluating completed projects to learn from them. It might be called a debrief, project closing, reflection meeting, post-implementation review or even a postmortem. In any case, if your team is not regularly looking back on the results of completed efforts to discuss what went well and what could be done differently, you're missing opportunities to repeat your success and avoid making the same mistakes in the future. Manufacturing and health care organizations spend considerable time determining the root causes of accidents, defects and failed treatments to improve processes and avoid repeating mistakes. If your team doesn't engage in any type of project debrief, perhaps 2025 is the time to try something new. Getting started is simple. At your next staff meeting, just add project debrief to the agenda and discuss what went well on a recent project, what could be improved in the future and any lessons learned.
Even if your team does look back on completed projects in this manner, the study found that few teams spend time digging into exceptional successes. We tend to expect that success is the intended outcome of our efforts, so when things go right it's because, "We're good at what we do." While this might be true, this attitude misses the opportunity to understand the secret ingredients that could turn your team from "we won" to "we can't lose."
Another reason managers don't debrief exceptional successes is because we don't want to be seen as bragging or playing favorites at work. I'd certainly agree that playing favorites based on non-job-related criteria ("Jim is my favorite co-worker because we went to the same high school.") is detrimental to company culture. However, highlighting exceptional job performance and working to understand what contributed to it is an effective management strategy that can elevate your entire team's performance.
The shift to remote work has made it harder for employees to observe the successes (and failures) of colleagues. We're less likely to bump into someone in the hallway and hear about their latest project. This inhibits our learning and requires managers to be even more intentional about sharing project summaries and highlighting the efforts of their team members. Managers, if you are leading remote teams, be sure to foster sharing, collaboration and project debriefs on a regular basis in order plant the seeds for co-workers to organically learn from one another.
In order to encourage motivation to spread in your organization, start actively encouraging the sharing of exceptional successes, examples of accomplishments and an understanding of the methods that contributed to extraordinary outcomes so that others can learn the recipe for success. Spread something positive in 2025.