Leaders understand that it’s easier to motivate and inspire their team members when they understand their work “why.” It’s true that everyone needs to make a living, but after that, everyone has a work “why”.

A person’s why can change depending on what’s changed in their life.

So as we begin the year, take a few moments with each person individually to reassess their work why.

• Did they get married or have a baby?
• Are they taking care of aging parents?
• Do they want a promotion?
• Do they enjoy building their skills and networking with other departments?
• Do they look forward to their 3 weeks of vacation time?
• Are they waiting for their retirement date?
• Do they love the majority of what they do — the industry, customers, or the tasks?
• Do they simply want their paycheck to pay the bills and live for the weekend or soccer practice with their kids?

In some ways, the why doesn’t matter. I mean yes, you want your team to want to do the best job they can because it’s the right thing to do. But, it’s easier to inspire excellence when you understand each person’s why — then you can manage, or more accurately, better communicate to that why.

Unless your team consists only of baby boomers, then they most likely expect more fulfillment than just being grateful that they have a job. Millennials expect their leaders to customize their leadership style to them. Whereas baby boomers typically customize their communication and work styles to their leaders.

Understanding each team members personal why, or why’s, will help you customize your communication to best motivate and inspire each person — which makes it easier for you to lead a happier at work team in 2019.

This is also a good time to make sure you understand your work “why” for 2019.

We want to help leaders CARE more with our monthly Happier @ Work Leadership Newsletter. And, we want to send you 5 Recognition Certificates you can use anytime to show your TEAM how much you do CARE

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