How to Motivate Underperforming Team Members

A couple of questions a lot of us research team leaders struggle with is: 

“What do I do when team members are underperforming?” 

or a variation thereof:

 “How do I motivate my team members to be more engaged?” 

And to those of you who are tired of being the cheerleader–we hear you! 

And yet, when team members lack motivation, productivity, innovation, and overall success is hindered, at least as long as you don’t have a big team that compensates for underperformers. 

It doesn’t need to be your job alone to galvanize your team. You can and should enlist the help of your team, especially those folks who may enjoy galvanizing. In this blog post, we’re not talking about cheerleading or infusing your team with short bursts of energy to get over the next small hump. This is what we call “galvanizing”. It’s important too and all team members can participate.  Here, we’re addressing a more fundamental way of helping folks connect with intrinsic motivation. 

Sustainably motivating a research team is a critical responsibility for academic research team leaders and has more than one benefit. 

Numerous studies have shown that intrinsic motivation, mental health, well-being, and engagement at work are closely tied to three fundamental needs of self-determination  (Perlman, Patterson, Moxham, & Burns, 2020; Sheldon & Filak, 2008): 

• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness 

In this blog post, we will explore how academic research team leaders can address these needs to inspire and motivate their team members. As typical for our blogs, this is comprehensive and for good reason. Human performance is complex and we want to provide you with a comprehensive resource for helping your team do well and be well. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a quick fix for turning someone around who is disengaged. 

The good news is that disengagement doesn’t happen overnight and it is very likely that your team members are somewhere along a sliding scale from highly motivated to completely disengaged. 

There are multiple reasons why people disengage and your first responsibility is to figure out the reason(s) that apply to the team member you worry about:

• Lack of meaningful work: When your team member feels that their work lacks purpose or significance, they may become disengaged. If tasks are monotonous, repetitive, or do not align with their skills and interests, it can lead to a sense of disconnection.
  • This can be subtle like I shared in a previous blog post: When I moved to the U.S. and everything became about clinical translation of my work, I lost my purpose for a while. As bad as this may sound: I just don’t care as much about that as I care about puzzling out the mysteries of cell biology in response to brain injury. Sounds like the same thing to you? Exactly! We may do the exact same actions but the frame that you put on it matters. One frame (how are you helping people with brain injury) may not resonate as much as another frame (what happens to cells after brain injury?) with your team member. 
  • As a leader, you need to know what speaks to your team member! Subtle shifts in how you communicate the purpose of the work can make a big difference. 
  • In addition,  working on something  that doesn’t contribute to a higher goal, makes it much harder to stay focused. Now, depending on the type of work you’re doing, a direct purpose like serving humankind may be challenging to see for the folks on your team. It’s your job as a leader to help them see the purpose (which needs to be larger than securing the next job). The purpose may be to contribute in some way. You don’t have to save humanity. Perhaps you contribute to the team’s research goals. Or to the scientific field. Or by serving as a role model for others. Importantly, this purpose has to resonate with your team members on the emotional, not the mental plane.

• Management and leadership style doesn’t match the competency of team members: Supervisors play a crucial role in creating a positive work environment. If managers are ineffective, unsupportive, or fail to provide clear expectations and feedback, employees may disengage.
  • There is a leadership style called “situational leadership”. Embracing this style means that you manage and lead according to a team member’s competency. This may mean “micromanaging” someone who is new and may not have the skills required to plan and manage a project independently (think first year graduate student or first year on your team). 
  • It’s key however that you have a strategy to encourage independence and autonomy as part of the onboarding process or training. If you continue to do the planning for your team members instead of expecting them to become self-sufficient or if you keep solving the problems for them, you do not only make your leadership more difficult. 
  • A lack of autonomy interferes with people’s motivation. Vice-versa, expecting a team member to perform far outside of their comfort zone may message to them that their competency is continuously inadequate. This, too, can lead to loss of motivation. 

• Limited opportunities for growth and development: Most folks in academia are growth-oriented and  seek opportunities to learn and advance in their careers. When they feel stagnant, they may lose motivation. An important distinction here is: You can feel completely overwhelmed and have more work than time or you may not yet have mastered a skill or task and still feel that your development is stagnant.
  •  Especially when progress is slow because the project is difficult, you need to help your team members with resources, training opportunities, and intermittent wins to stay engaged. 
  • Sometimes that’s as simple as helping them see how they have grown since they started. 
  • Sometimes this requires sending them to participate in a course, work with collaborators to build their skills, or pay for equipment/resources that make the task at hand easier or less tedious.

• Inadequate work-life balance: We hear all the time that maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for employee well-being and resilience. But how do you do that and why isn’t there a simple formula that works for all? 

When work and life responsibilities exceed the resources available to a team member (they can be external or internal) and there is little flexibility or support to manage professional and personal obligations, individuals may disengage to cope with the stress and prioritize other aspects of their lives.

• Importantly, what a good responsibility/resource balance is, differs a lot from individual to individual. Every one of us can potentially burn out if responsibilities exceed resources consistently. 
• These responsibilities need not be imposed on your team members by you alone. They could be self-imposed due to perceived expectations, personal standards, or explicit and implicit messages originating from the academic culture. 
• Help your team members navigate the level of responsibilities and resources available to them. Put cultural expectations into perspective. Encourage them to build resilience by balancing responsibilities and resources and by increasing internal and external resources (exercise, healthy nutrition, self-regulation skills, support at work and home).
• Marie-Helene Pelletier is an expert on resilience and is worthwhile following. She has a book coming out in February 2024 that provides a step-by-step guide for creating personalized resilience plans. 

• Poor communication and collaboration: We make more assumptions about other people and what they have on their plates than we realize.
  • Above, we talked a lot about the things you need to know as a leader. But how do you figure out what your team members care about and what they feel responsible for, what the demands on them are? 
  • The answer is simple: You have regular conversations about this. Now, sometimes people are worried about crossing boundaries and asking people about what may be considered “personal.” Yet,  good communication includes talking about your team member’s capacity. This isn’t just determined by their responsibilities at work but also by their personal life. Our experience is that people like to talk about themselves if they feel safe to do so. 
  • When it comes to other aspects of work-related communication,  a lack of transparency, insufficient information sharing, or limited collaboration among team members can lead to disengagement and frustration. 
  • Because team members often cannot pinpoint or articulate the exact reason for a lack of enthusiasm, you have to do some forensics. Ask a lot of questions, be a keen observer of your culture. Address team communication challenges in team meetings. 

• Culture and values mismatch: When a team member’s personal values and beliefs do not align with your team culture, they may struggle to connect with their work and the broader goals of the team.
  • For example, Stefanie once interviewed someone who made it quite clear during the in-person interview that they felt  the team’s work on culture and personal and professional development was a waste of time and distraction from work. Because this is how we create a culture of belonging and an avenue for professional growth, this person was not a fit for our team. That is despite them being an excellent fit skillswise and their drive to get stuff done was desirable from a PI’s perspective. 

• Lack of recognition and reward: Team members who do not feel appreciated or recognized for their efforts may become disengaged. Recognition can come in various forms, such as constructive feedback, rewards, or opportunities for advancement. This is one habit to really make an effort to develop, especially if you are like us and see the stuff that doesn’t work readily while you take the things that are excellent as a given. Sometimes it helps to think about what you found uplifting moving through your career. It often is just a few words of encouragement or appreciation.
  • One way of rewarding team members is to share their stories publicly with the team, with the department, with colleagues, on Twitter/ LinkedIn.
  • Make a habit of including what worked really well into your individual meetings. 
  • Having a little team awards ceremony with fun awards that highlight specific strength once or twice a year is a possibility. 
  • Annual merit increases are one option although they should be in addition to other ongoing and more frequent rewards. 
  • Access to personal and professional development opportunities beyond what those typically available. Stefanie’s  team members have had access to coaching programs or coaches and business training to broaden their horizon and reward highly self-driven team members.
  • Another way to reward team members is leniency when it comes to vacation time. At Stefanie’s university, postdocs are guaranteed only 10 vacation days/ year. Productive team members don’t have to keep track of the time they take off. 

• Job insecurity, stress, and overwhelm: Uncertainty about job stability, excessive workload, or high-pressure environments can contribute to disengagement. When employees feel overwhelmed or fear losing their jobs, they may withdraw and disengage as a self-protective measure.
  • Encouraging discussion about the nature of an academic career and the pervasive expectation that team members eventually move on and complete the next stage of their career at a different institution can be helpful in navigating the potential stress associated with this. 
  • Ongoing discussions about workload are key, especially during high intensity work times. As a PI, you are not expected to manage your team’s workload. But you need to create a culture where people speak up when their workload is unsustainable. Help set priorities and realistic timelines.
  • Lastly, you do not have to lower performance standards as long as you cultivate psychological safety and are realistic about your expectations with respect to your team member’s level of competence. Again, having an ongoing conversation about workloads, work quality, expectations, and how they match on the results that the team is getting is essential to navigate stress and overwhelm.

Let’s circle back to the three needs of self-determination, which drive intrinsic motivation. 

We already gave a few examples of how to feed these needs above. Here is a summary and highlights of the important points: 

Belonging/Relatedness: A sense of belonging and relatedness is crucial for team members to feel valued and supported within the academic research team. Enhance this aspect with the following strategies:

• 1. Foster a supportive environment: Encourage open communication, active listening, and mutual respect among team members. Regular team meetings, where everyone can share their progress and challenges, can help strengthen bonds. In the Robel Lab, we do monthly day-long retreats for this purpose. Sounds like a big time commitment? It is! And it provides a set avenue to address conflict, build a safe environment, in short a culture of belonging and high performance. 
• 2. Promote collaboration and teamwork: Assign tasks that require cooperation, encourage peer mentoring, and create opportunities for joint problem-solving. Collaborative efforts not only boost motivation but also enhance the quality and creativity of research outcomes.
• 3. Recognize and celebrate achievements: Acknowledge and appreciate the individual and collective efforts of team members. Celebrating milestones, such as paper acceptances or conference presentations, reinforces a sense of belonging and motivates team members to strive for further success.
• 4. Give purpose to work: Explaining and putting it into context why this project,  this piece of work, this specific experiment, etc. contributes to the team’s success creates more buy-in.

Competence: Feeling competent and capable is essential for maintaining motivation. As a team leader, you can support your team members’ sense of competence through the following strategies:

• 1. Set clear expectations and goals: Clearly define research objectives, milestones, and timelines. Break down complex tasks into manageable steps and provide guidance on how to achieve them. Clarity and structure instill confidence and promote a sense of accomplishment. Also see our previous blog posts for guidance on systems to use.
• 2. Provide constructive feedback: Regularly provide feedback that focuses on strengths and areas for improvement. Offer specific guidance and suggestions to help team members refine their skills and enhance their research capabilities. Constructive feedback promotes growth and fosters a sense of competence.
• 3. Enable systematic skill development: Think about ways to incorporate deliberate practice approaches into training team members. When we recently onboarded several new team members, we discovered that our training is not as effective as it could be. We do what most folks do: Have someone show the technique to the new person, then have the new person try. But we found that most of our protocols lack detail, that people take shortcuts when training others (as in not going through the entire process but assume the new person knows or can pick up how to continue), or that trained team members don’t effectively transfer all their knowledge, in part because they are not aware of all of it. Can you think of better, more systematic, perhaps even partially automated ways of training new team members? We do a lot of microscopy. So one of my future projects is to create a training that introduces folks to the intricacies of the cell biology we regularly analyze using example images, instruction videos, combined with hands-on tasks that are easy to provide feedback on.
• 4. Offer professional development opportunities: Encourage team members to engage in relevant workshops, conferences, or training programs. Supporting their growth not only improves competence but also demonstrates your commitment to their professional advancement. For example, I have all my team members take a specific online grant writing course. It helps to get us on the same page, develops shared language, and enables me to focus my feedback. All my team members also have access to the GLIA-Leadership training. They assist in developing leadership skills and increase competence and autonomy.

Autonomy: Granting autonomy allows team members to take ownership of their work, fostering intrinsic motivation. Consider the following strategies to promote autonomy:

• 1. Delegate responsibilities and accountability: Assign tasks that provide autonomy within the team members’ expertise. Empower them to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This autonomy encourages innovation, creativity, and a sense of personal investment in the research project. But always consider the competence of your team members: Giving responsibility for a whole research project to an undergrad student might not work out well. That said, it depends on the person. Adjust your approach to their level of competence instead of their seniority.
• 2. Do not take over responsibility: Do not provide solutions for problems or take over tasks that your team members are in charge of. Ever assisted with a manuscript but instead of providing advice on how to fix it, you rewrote it? Even if they ask. Even if they are stuck. Even if it would be faster (There is an exception and that is when you need these manuscripts out. Use with caution!). Instead help them help themselves. This may take longer in the short-term but in the long run it will definitely not only preserve your time but it will also make your team members become more autonomous and thus more self-motivated.
• 3. Encourage individual interests: Allow team members to pursue research topics aligned with their passions and interests. Provide space for them to explore new ideas and directions, fostering a sense of autonomy. Often questions arise of how to do this as a new PI, when you want to pursue your interests, or when you need funded work done. There is nothing wrong with guiding people’s interest or letting them explore their own within topical constraints. I once had research contract work to do. It took a special person to get this completed. It was hard and not very satisfying work. I was very open with my team about it and had this special person sign up for the job and make a career around this. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. But you can’t make those kinds of assumptions. Be open about the nature of the work and what it takes. And allow people to take ownership.
• 4. Flexible work arrangements: Whenever possible, provide flexibility in working hours or remote work options. Granting autonomy over one’s schedule and work environment can enhance motivation and work-life balance. Now, with freedom comes responsibility. If you feel, people aren’t as productive as they need to be, have a conversation about it. This may be because they cannot manage this flexibility or have other root causes. Asking questions instead of making assumptions is a key leadership attribute! 

In conclusion, motivating academic research teams requires a comprehensive approach that addresses the fundamental needs of self-determination: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By fostering a sense of belonging, supporting competence, and granting autonomy, you create an environment where team members feel valued, motivated, and engaged. Remember, a motivated team is a productive and successful team, and by nurturing self-determination needs, you can unlock the full potential of your research team.

Happy Leading!

Stefanie & Robert