Seldom do you hear about an organisation that is uninterested in better performance for the business. But if you want significant improvements, you must develop the leadership of managers as well as the systems and structures of organisations before you spend time and money training team members in any other technical or behavioural skills.

Employee motivation varies depending on multiple factors, but for most we can split these into two groups: the internal and the external. Internal factors are those within the person—their inherent technical skills, desires, values, and capabilities.

Unsurprisingly, a manager can do little to affect these factors; instead, they must focus their attention on the external. To better predict and understand people’s motivations, leaders can use a motivation model such as the Universal Hierarchy of Motivation (UHM). Such a model allows you to comprehend the leadership strategies that will most likely lead to the most desirable team member behaviours.