Do you really understand what is important for each of your team members at work? Do you know their career aspirations, the purpose that drives them, or what motivates or inspires them to do their best work? Perhaps more importantly, do you know what they feel is missing from their work or what they would like more of? Or do you just make assumptions based on your experience as a leader, or what is important for you?

What we value about work

Why did you leave your last role? My guess is that you weren’t getting something that was really important for you. Statistically, it is not usually money. In fact, only 12% of people leave a job for financial reasons, and 90% of US professionals said they would be willing to earn less for more meaningful work. Only 12% of people leave a job for financial reasons

A huge part of what keeps us motivated and engaged at work is our Emotional Salary, or the emotional benefits we perceive from our work. These will be different for every individual, which is why making assumptions is not a good idea!

Emotional Salary – the emotional benefits we get from our work

In our research on Emotional Salary, we identified 10 main areas or factors that are non-financial and have a significant impact on how we feel about our work. When we perceive these factors in our work, they motivate us, they can shift our perception of work and lead to personal and professional development. In short, the things that help us be our best selves and do our best work. When we are missing these factors and they are important to us, we tend to see disengagement and a negative impact on our performance and well-being.

These 10 factors are:

1. Autonomy: Freedom to manage your working style, projects and time

Studies have shown that employees with a higher level of autonomy report positive effects on their overall well-being and higher levels of job satisfaction[1].

2. Belonging: Feeling connected, appreciated and valued at work

Research shows that a sense of belonging can increase employee commitment[2], meaning employees are more likely to remain in an organisation and put in more discretionary effort.

3. Creativity: Exploration, development and expression of original ideas

In a recent study, Global CEOs were asked to rank the capabilities they felt most instrumental to their success, and the two they cited above all others were a new willingness to experiment and the support of empowered employees.

4. Direction: Being able to co-create a fulfilling career path

Do you have any Millennials on your team? Millennials are more focused on their career development than previous generations and 91% of them aspire to reach leadership positions.

5. Enjoyment: Having fun and authentic social interactions

Humour at work is associated with enhanced work performance, satisfaction, work group cohesion, health, and coping effectiveness, as well as decreased burnout, stress, and work withdrawal[3].

6. Inspiration: Having a sense of possibility and gaining new insights

Inspiration not only increases our well-being, but research has also shown that it increases our progress towards goals[4].

7. Mastery: Working towards achieving true excellence in your work

Personal mastery positively influences organisational performance directly and indirectly through organisational learning and innovation[5]

8. Personal Growth: Gaining self-awareness and developing as a human being

Employees who are committed to personal growth are likely to be more engaged, more motivated and more productive than those who are not.

9. Professional Growth: Developing your professional talents, skills and abilities

According to John Seely Brown, the average half-life of a learned business competency has dropped from 30 years in 1984 to 5 years in 2014 and this is likely to continue to drop much further. We are entering an era of continuous learning, where individuals and businesses will have to develop quickly to survive.

10. Purpose: Feeling that you are contributing to a greater purpose

Purpose is one of the key elements that drives employee engagement according to Gallup and is one of the strongest factors for retaining employees of all generations. A sense of purpose increases motivation, productivity, morale, and job satisfaction according to a study from Harvard Business Review.

Benefits of knowing what the team values most

When do you do your best work? If you look back at the 10 factors of Emotional Salary, you will probably notice that the presence of some of the factors will be key. It is also likely that some of them are more important to you than others. If you understand which of the factors are important for each of your team members, and take the time to have a conversation with them about their Emotional Salary, you will be able to create a working environment where each team member can thrive and do their best work.

How Do You Discover What is Important?

The simplest way is to ask them. However, there is a danger that by simply asking them “What is important for you at work?”, you might not get the best quality information. Sometimes we need to use a little bit more focus to get information that is more valuable and actionable. One way you can do this is by using the concept of Emotional Salary as a framework.

Using Emotional Salary as a Framework

There are three main benefits of using Emotional Salary as a framework to understand what is important for your team.

• You will get a much deeper understanding about which emotional benefits are most valuable to each of your team members.

• By acting on the information you gather, you will be able to improve the Emotional Salary of your team and, by doing so, their motivation, performance and well-being.

• By starting a conversation in your team about Emotional Salary you are empowering your team to take responsibility for what is important to them, which is likely to lead to a shift in how they view their work and you as a leader.

The most effective way to do this is to by asking one or more focused questions about each of the factors of Emotional Salary.

10 Questions to Ask to Understand What is Important to Your Team

Here are 10 questions you can ask your team members to get a better understanding of what is important to them. Alternatively, now you have the Emotional Salary framework, you might want to come up with your own questions!

The idea is that the questions can be used as a springboard to facilitate a discussion, either with an individual or with the whole team.

Think flexibly about how you can use the questions. You might choose to use the questions during one or more individual conversations with a team member. Alternatively, you could take one question to discuss every week at your team meeting or you could organise a workshop with your team on Emotional Salary.

• How do you feel about the level of autonomy you have in relation to the way you do your work, projects or tasks you work on and how you manage your time?

• What would make you feel more connected, appreciated or valued at work?

• What elements of your work or the team’s work do you see the opportunity to be more original, innovative or creative?

• What are your career aspirations and how can me and the team help you meet them whilst you’re working here?

• How can we have more fun in our team?

• What or who inspires you at work?

• Is there anything we need to change so that you have the opportunity to become a master in what you do?

• Are you developing self-awareness and growing as a human being as a result of your work?

• How much are your learning and developing professionally through your work? How do you feel about this?

• How does working here help you to contribute to your greater purpose? How do you see your role in terms of the organisation’s overall purpose?

If you want more detailed information about your team’s Emotional Salary, you might want to consider our Emotional Salary Barometer. Each team member receives a detailed report about their Emotional Salary together with a personalised Action Plan and advice on how they can increase their Emotional Salary. As a leader or organisation, you receive information about key trends within the team together with recommendations on what you can do to increase Emotional Salary. We also offer consultancy and online and face-to-face training for leaders and team members in Emotional Salary.

If you’re still not sure how to start a conversation about Emotional Salary with your team, or if you would like explore how we can help you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

Written by Clodagh Beatty