Aspirational Management: A Motivational Framework

Most motivational techniques today are lacking.

Some managers use micromanagement, others use penalties or punishment. Some use rewards — especially money — while others create a strong social environment, making failure a shame amongst friends. Whether it’s a carrot or a stick, in my humble experience, these tactics are either impractical or don’t work long-term.

Micromanaging takes too much time and is demotivating for the employees, whereas penalties and punishments push people to leave. Monetary bonuses work in the beginning, but can become a problem if the business hits a rough patch. And creating a strong social environment can encourage groupthink, discouraging diversity of thought and dissent.

At Codex Protocol and Lofty, I’ve found that tapping into individual’s aspirations is the most effective and enduring way of motivating and managing. I talk with my employees about what they want from their career, and find a way to help them get there, via the work we do together.

In other words, I think of employees as partners.

The key to aspirational management is anchored in progress toward an individual’s goals — the one thing that remains constant throughout the many fluctuations of a business. Most people find happiness when they feel they’re moving toward something they love and are passionate about. And employees who feel like they can achieve their goals are motivated to work harder.

As a leader, here’s how you can implement aspirational management:

Ask and Listen

The first step in finding what your employees aspire to, is asking.

At least once a month, you should sit down with each of your team members and check in on their aspirations. Ask what they want from their career, and from their lives. If it’s changed from last month, make sure you know. If the employee isn’t sure, ask them to think about it and get back to you.

By doing this, you’re creating space to talk about their long term career and life goals. They’ll feel comfortable coming to you with their aspirations and then you can discuss together what they can do within the organization to further them. This dialogue leads to a mutually beneficial relationship.

For example, I had a designer who wasn’t very proactive in his duties. I would have to be very specific and direct about what I wanted from him, and his turnaround was always slow.

So, I had a conversation with him about what he wanted out of life and it turned out he was dreaming of starting a business of his own. When I asked him what was stopping him from taking the leap and pursuing entrepreneurship, he said, “Well, I don’t feel like I know enough about different aspects of the business to succeed yet.”

Our solution was to give him transparency. Once a week, during our one-on-ones, I let him ask whatever questions he had about running a business. I gave him access to folders and meetings in other departments so he could see how they were functioning.

Overnight, he transformed. He started proposing ways in which new designs could come in. He started providing things I hadn’t even asked for in the first place, and his work output doubled.

We had a partnership. The company was helping him achieve his aspirations, so he was motivated in his work and wanted to help the company.

Because that’s what partners do.

Furthering Aspirations is Motivating

Most people derive happiness from a sense of progress.

Sadly, most managers don’t create aspirational alignment. The result is that the vast majority of employees are dissatisfied and resentful.

This is especially sad because a manager who fosters your aspirations is incredibly important to building your career. When managers do support aspirations, team members understand the uniqueness and rarity of the situation.

Everyone has had bad work experiences and bad managers. When you find one that partners with you to foster your aspirations, you treasure it and become deeply motivated.

While aspirational management sounds warm and fuzzy, truthfully it’s more effective and enduring than its alternatives.

Alignment is Organic

At first, I was cautious about this approach. There were a lot of what-ifs to consider, such as if the team member wanted to do something unrelated to the company’s needs, or if there wasn’t a way for us to tap into their aspirations.

But I was blown away to find that it almost always worked. People are usually informed, reasonable, and practical, especially when asked directly for suggestions.

For example, I had an engineering manager who had previously been promoted from senior developer. When I checked in on his aspirations, it turned out he just wanted to work on hard problems and didn’t like managing. When I asked him what he recommended I do, he suggested promoting a different team member to his role and reassigning himself to be an individual contributor. I had wanted to do the same for a while, but had been concerned about creating internal discord.

In almost all cases, what the team member wants is what is best for the company. Most people take the business’s needs and constraints into account when they propose what they want to be doing.

Of course, there is never “perfect” alignment. Managers will always need employees to do a few tasks that are unrelated to their aspirations. But some aspirational alignment can be enough. Team members who feel like they’re being helped in their own goals, in partnership with their manager, will also work hard on things unrelated to their goals to help the business.

It’s worth noting that sometimes there just isn’t a good solution between company needs and employee aspiration. If the operations manager wants to do consumer branding, but you’re a B2B sales company, there probably isn’t anything the company needs that the team member can work on. It happens.

While performance issues are typically prevented early on under an aspirational management model, when they do occur, they generally result from a lack of goal alignment. When there truly isn’t a role that would fit the employee, it becomes easy to explain that parting ways is best, allowing them to go somewhere that can further their aspirations.

The manager can even help facilitate the job-search and offer to be a reference. A clear narrative about how the manager couldn’t further the employee’s aspirations is pretty convincing and sensical to a future employer.

In a layoff situation, it’s an easier and more respectful conversation to explain why the business can no longer further the employees aspirations, rather than justifying cost-cutting.

The point is, aligning aspirations is usually the optimal outcome for everyone involved, and when there isn’t a convenient solution, the inconvenient outcome was inevitably going to happen.

The Obvious Solution

It’s convenient that the most effective management technique is also the one that is genuinely best for employees and treats them as partners.

And partnership is the right way to think about it. Consider “boss” and “employee” bad words, because they imply superiority and inferiority. In reality, companies partner with people. If companies hold up their end of the bargain, people will hold up theirs.

More than anything, treating your employees like partners is the right thing to do for the sake of human dignity. They’re people — not tools or resources. Aspirational management helps to create an environment where everyone feels like a real person, not just an cog in a corporate machine. That always ends up leading to the most effective outcomes.