When people are inspired, things get done and done well. Consciously or not, a work environment impacts performance and satisfaction level of a team. Managers find themselves either using a carrot or stick to get the most out of their team. But, this has its limits for driving performance. How do you inspire?

Enter AMP: Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose. These 3 elements can take a team a long way.

Autonomy:

Giving individuals and teams a level of autonomy not only encourages innovation it actually increases satisfaction. If you think about activities you participate in, you are likely to be more satisfied and perform better in the ones where you have a say and some level of control.  A simple example of this is an organization that gives its employees the choice of what dev tools they want to use (Mac vs Wins vs Linux) as long as they generate code that is reusable across teams.

Mastery:

A role that provides a sense of mastery is simply unbeatable. Numerous researches have shown that one of the reasons top performers change jobs is a lack of challenge and complexity at their current role. Think Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for self-actualization. We all are driven by a sense of mastery. Why do you think people get hooked on games like candy crush and angry birds? Ideally, it would be great if the actual day-to-day responsibility provides an avenue for learning and mastery. An alternate real world application of this is to find out what certifications or technologies people are interested in (which also add value to your business) and look to support them in that pursuit; if not financially, then through rewards and recognition.

Purpose:

A sense of meaning can never be understated. Why are we doing what we are doing? It’s so easy to get focused on the ‘What’ and lose a sense of the ‘Why’. Understanding the why is what inspires. An organization struggling with understanding or communicating their ‘why’ cannot be a top performer in their industry. Also, loosely tied to this is the ability of an individual to clearly see the connection between effort and reward.

What could these 3 elements look like in your organization? It’s worth giving some thought to. I believe this lesson is also valuable for individuals as well who are evaluating potential companies to work for. It also makes for good talking points during yearly performance review in a company you feel valued at, but they can’t quite figure out how to help you perform better or make your job more satisfactory.