Motivating Software Engineers – 10 Tips How to Motivate Develepors

• Your skills as a team leader are crucial in keeping spirits up and maintaining your team’s productivity. Today we present ten methods to motivate Software Engineers and Dev teams.
• You will learn how to ensure that your team is ready and raring to go in all the ways that matter.

As a dev team leader, a lot of the responsibility for keeping your team’s motivation up is left up to you. While this might seem like a simple task, since motivational factors are not hard to find, it’s important to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It’s the former – intrinsic motivation, which is the form of motivation from within – that you want to nurture. This means that a team member who has an internal drive to work on a project because of their love for programming will work better than one that is simply in it for the paycheck. Here are ten methods for you to ensure that your team is ready and raring to go in all the ways that matter.

1. Make sure all the pieces are in order

There’s one thing about intrinsic motivation that needs to be made clear right at the beginning: motivation can be nurtured, but it cannot be created out of anything. So before you think about how you can raise motivation levels within your team, you have to make sure you have a solid, capable crew of developers that can take on any challenge. The effects on motivation don’t end there, as members that drag the team down in terms of their lack of skill or failure to meet expectations can end up causing the rest of your team to lose steam. Choosing your team carefully thus becomes paramount.

2. Keeping developers’ team spirits high

Once you’ve got your team of reliable experts assembled, your task is to ensure that they have the right conditions to thrive. While there are several benefits to stress, there is more than enough of it within a developer’s life as it is, so there’s no need for you to cause more of it. To make sure those stress levels remain sustainable, you’ll need to have a lot of patience and empathy so that you can prevent conflicts before they escalate. Make sure everyone is comfortable in their work environment to ensure productivity.

3. Encourage healthy communication

The language you use within the dev team environment can have a profound effect on motivation. If your language becomes too controlling, e.g. you use words like “should” or “must” a lot, you run the risk of the dev becoming more stressed and more disheartened as a result. What’s more, do keep in mind that the rest of the team will echo the language you use as a leader to a certain degree. If you’re losing language that is detrimental to the team’s overall motivation, there’s a good chance others will further reinforce this. Instead, consider asking questions. This will encourage your teammates to communicate more and make them feel more like they’re fully-fledged team members, raising their motivation.

4. Appreciate ideas

Motivated developers have a lot to say – don’t miss that! While you need a clear vision for where your project is going, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be open to new ideas from others. Two heads are better than one, and you might find that your dev team has a couple of good ideas that will make your project run more smoothly. On top of that, you notice these ideas are bound to make them feel more appreciated, boosting their motivation further.

5. Get everyone on the same page

Nothing is quite the motivation killer is a lack of clear direction. If your dev team is working on a project that they have no idea is heading towards, they will not be working at their best. Everyone will have a different vision of the end goal, causing plenty of chaos and confusion, which will result in poorer productivity. Once again, communication becomes key. Please ensure everyone knows where the project is heading and keep them updated whenever something changes.

6. Be a good example

As we’ve already mentioned initially, low motivation can be contagious, but no one’s level of motivation is more contagious than that of the leader. If the team can tell that the leader is into the project, they’ll be more eager to bring out their best. Conversely, if the team can tell you are not pulling your weight, they will remember that, and they might even turn against you.

7. Forge relationships

You can’t ensure that your team works to its full potential if you don’t know them from Adam. Make sure that you make an effort to make connections with all your teammates. This will allow you to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and by playing to their strengths, you will make their work more satisfying to them. Additionally, it’s much more rewarding to work with people you know instead of being surrounded by strangers.

8. Credit where credit is due

Praise can have a tremendous impact on your employee’s motivation. With carefully chosen words that will show them that you truly appreciate their efforts and talents and how they help drive the project further, you can give your developers a big boost in their confidence, resulting in better motivation to be productive.

9. Make the process fulfilling and educational

You can’t expect your dev team to be fully productive if they aren’t challenged in any way. We’re not talking about putting on a larger workload to increase stress levels here – what you need to do is set specific goals that will get fulfilled by them regularly. They need to be challenging but still challenging. That way, they’ll feel that they are learning something new, making them much more motivated to keep going forward.

10. Forget about expected external rewards

Our final tip may feel counterproductive: expected external rewards are a detriment to motivation. Software development is an incredibly demanding field that requires a lot of creativity. However, numerous studies have found that focusing on meeting specific goals to gain raises is linked to declining creativity. On an external level, it motivates, but it kills intrinsic motivation as the goal overtakes the whole process’s joy. Appreciate your team members, but don’t make them chase external gains when they could instead focus on the excitement involved with your project.

Conclusion

Motivation can make the difference between an incredibly productive team and one failing to meet expectations. As much as this depends on the individual team members, your skills as a team leader will be crucial in keeping spirits up and maintaining your team’s productivity. Luckily, there is a lot you can do to make true intrinsic motivation skyrocket.

You have all the tools you need at your disposal – learn how to use them well and watch your team reach its true potential. We would be happy to hear about your experiences and methods. Please, leave us a comment!

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