Motivation Enablers in 121s

Here are some questions you may want to incorporate into your one-to-ones. These questions can help you understand how employees are motivated by their work, self-assess their skills, and view their control over their work.

1. Prompts To Understand Purpose/Relatedness

What are you most proud of?

How is your current work linked to our company’s goals?

When have your contributions to our company’s overall goals inspired you?

How can I help you feel that your work is even more meaningful and crucial to our company’s overall goals?

What feedback has been the most insightful and useful that you have received?

What challenges/barriers are you facing, and how can I help remove them?

What part of your daily activities do you feel wastes your time?

2. Prompts To Grow Mastery/Competence

Tell me about something you’ve learnt this week.

If you reflect on your output and achievements, which were you unsure how to do before you started?

What is something you will do differently next time?

If you were to critique a recent project you completed, what grade would you give yourself? Why?

Are you celebrating the things you do well?

Are you avoiding anything you didn’t do well?

How can you become even better at…?

What can I, as a leader, do to help you to become even better?

3. Prompts To Support Autonomy

Do you have enough space to perform?

Do you feel able to make decisions that use your experience and move your work forward?

Do you feel able to use your experience/expertise to help the company make good decisions?

Do you have the right level of influence to feel you are having an impact and adding value?

Are there things we should change so you feel like you have more ownership of your work?

What types of decisions do you feel comfortable making yourself? When do you hesitate to decide on your own?

As a manager, it’s your job to create environments and conditions that put employees where their intrinsic motivations are and let them be productive.