Not everyone is on the team for the same reason.

A manager’s genuine understanding of each team member’s key drivers can greatly improve individual and team performance.

In most good teams, there is clarity of mission, good-charactered people committed to playing to their strengths, and accountability on expected efforts and results.

However, the primary motivators for joining and contributing to a team can vary.

In our work, it’s usually one of three things: Purpose, People, or Performance. And while they all matter, different individuals place differing values on each.

PURPOSE

“We have one problem,” the CEO said cautiously. We can’t afford to compete on salary with the rest of the healthcare industry. After all, we are a non-profit in the alcohol and drug sector. The work is hard, the clients challenging, and regrettably, the pay isn’t great.”
“We don’t see that as a problem,” my colleague responded calmly.
The CEO looked back, surprised. “What do you mean? We’ve had trouble finding staff for so long because of affordability?”

“Perhaps we could try a different approach,” she suggested. “Why don’t we talk more about your purpose, mission and the lives you change and less about salary.”
And so started a long-term relationship lasting many years, recruiting staff for this wonderful organisation with a retention rate far higher than the industry average.

Interestingly, most employers we speak to concern themselves with remuneration or Reward. While this is a significant factor (especially at sustenance levels), our research, based on over 3,000 surveys, indicates that other factors, such as recognition, voice, choice, and learning, are also important.

Increasingly, however, Legacy or Purpose has become a key driver in attracting and keeping people. All things being equal, people, especially in advanced economies, want their work to be meaningful.

This explains why, in Australia, 36% or 9.5 million people performed formal volunteer work in 2023 (up from 26% the previous year). For some of us, a compelling purpose is enough to work even for free [Volunteering Australia – Key Volunteering Statistics – March 2024].

They want to be on teams whose mission aligns with their values. They want the organisation’s mission to be well-articulated and inspirational. And they want to know how their team and, importantly, their unique work contribute to the broader objectives and outcomes.

Managers who succeed in personalising the team or organisation’s mission witness higher levels of performance and retention.

Gallup’s research suggests that even a 10% improvement in employee connection to purpose results in a 4.4% increase in profitability and an 8.1% decrease in staff turnover.

To achieve this, managers must have regular conversations with their team members on how their unique contribution is linked to the organisation or team’s purpose.

PEOPLE vs PERFORMANCE – Longley or Jordan

Some people are on the team to win, while others are there for the team. These are not exclusive motivations—they are predominant drivers for differing individuals.

Knowing the difference is critical to get the most out of them.

When success, performance, results, or winning are the primary motivations, individuals can occasionally leave their teammates behind or, more commonly, not be the most congenial. Conversely, sentimental people value interpersonal relationships more than outcomes or objectives.

The former want to win at all costs, whilst the latter are more concerned with camaraderie and team culture.

A great example is the well-publicised championship run of the Chicago Bulls under Michael Jordan. Following the Netflix documentary, Australia’s ABC interviewed Michael Jordan, Luc Longley and Steven Kerr (now head coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors) regarding their time together.

Longley’s perspective of Jordan was a one-eyed, success-focused, results-based team-mate that could not be disagreed with – ‘carnivorous’!

Jordan agreed. “My mentality was to win at all costs and to pull, push, yank, whatever, to get everybody on the same page…I think it was needed in some respects, and our success illustrates that.”

“I don’t think Luc had the mentality of what it took to win. You want to see that frustration; you want to see a little bit of anger. You want to dominate, you know, and there’s times where I had to push him on that,” he said.

Longley’s motivation was quite the opposite. He was what people call a ‘team player’ willing to sacrifice individual glory for the team – putting his teammates over everything else, even performance and success.

“I cared about my teammates more than I cared about winning. Winning became how to reward them, so that’s part of what drove me to be good.”

Longley’s contribution was not limited to the basketball court. He was famous for his home barbecues, which built social bonds among the team, something unheard of in the NBA. In an environment where players were traded like commodities between teams, he built life-long relationships with Kerr, Pippen, and even Rodman and Jordan.

As now NBA head-coach Steve Kerr summarised, “He became one of the people who connected everyone because he shared relationships with everybody.

While there are no statistics or scoreboards to measure the contribution of ‘team players’, their impact is critical.

As Jordan now puts it, “I loved him as a team-mate. If you asked me to do it all over again there’s no way I would leave Luc Longley off my team. No way possible. Because he mattered, he had an impact on me. He made me better as a player, you know, as a person.”

A winning team requires all three types of people: the ones who keep focussing on the why—purpose-driven; the ones who focus on the what—performance-driven; and, more and more importantly, the ones who focus on the how and the who—people-driven.

It takes a good manager, coach or leader to know what drives each individual to ensure they satisfy their needs and mobilise their motivations for the team’s success.

HOW TO ENGAGE?

As a leader, manager or coach, it is critical to understand the key reason individuals are on a team. Those drivers are not the only drivers but the primary ones. They require differing ways of engagement.

1. For purpose-driven individuals, it helps to share in detail the mission and the reasons why. Who will benefit? How will we change the world? How will your contribution help us get there?
2. People-driven individuals will have a lower tolerance for bad behaviour, transactional teammates, takers, and leavers. High on sentimentality, they tend to stay longer in teams with good culture or deep relationships – even if the team is not winning or the work is mundane. Protecting who is on the team, the team culture and authenticity is important for them.
3. Performance-driven individuals must know the scorecard (individual) and the scoreboard (team). They need to know how they are performing. What are my results? Are we winning? In the absence of a scoreboard or even with it, Performance-driven individuals have a higher need for recognition – feedback both good and bad.