58 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

If you aren't paying people, you really shouldn't expect them to stay around. If you want to give someone equity in exchange for payment; it should be a large amount of equity, and it should be ...
George Stocker's user avatar
46 votes

Toxic culture - I'm putting in more resources to help the project move faster, but people are slowing down

TL;DR: The main problem is the toxic culture of the company. You can't improve the team's behavior without addressing the toxicity of the environment. You need the company's leaders' full support on ...
Bogdan's user avatar
  • 15k
14 votes

Toxic culture - I'm putting in more resources to help the project move faster, but people are slowing down

The team members understand perfectly how the company "works" and have no reason to change their behaviour. Why would they want to work harder for no reward just because you tell them? If the project ...
alephzero's user avatar
  • 241
11 votes

Toxic culture - I'm putting in more resources to help the project move faster, but people are slowing down

Senior Management Owns "Tone at the Top" Modern governance frameworks like COBIT, COSO, and others all describe some variation of "tone at the top". Basically, it boils down to the fact that in ...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k
11 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

Lots of good answers already, but one thing I think may be missing is customer feedback. Developers will initially be enthusiastic at solving technical problems, but to sustain their enthusiasm they ...
Barnaby Golden's user avatar
10 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

Equity only? Well, you haven't made it clear just how "good" (your word) the equity is, but yes, likely the lack of anything tangible in terms of compensation is one of the factors involved here. But ...
robbpriestley's user avatar
9 votes

How to motivate my team members to start documenting their work

You've identified a risk, and a possible solution. I'd refrain from considering your solution (more documentation) as "the" solution and ask them to apply it straight away. You're working with a team ...
mamoo's user avatar
  • 1,011
7 votes
Accepted

Earning Respect of Team Members When I Know Very Little About the Topic?

I'm a manager of a software development team who was a designer. I started with almost no prior knowledge of writing code, other than simple html and CSS. My initial view was that they are the ...
Simon's user avatar
  • 248
7 votes

How to motivate my team members to start documenting their work

@Mamoo is right. A new and junior project manager does not have the authority or influence to jump to a solution and ask the team to implement it. Even as a two decade project manager I wouldn't try ...
Joel Bancroft-Connors's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

I liked Todd A. Jacobs', Tiago Martins Peres' and some others' answers, but I wanted to add to them. While this isn't a complete answer I think it is too much to place in the comments, so perhaps ...
James Carlyle-Clarke's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

Team velocity declined after legacy declaration

Stop Abusing Velocity I know it is not common for management to rely on velocity as a measure of productivity. But in this company, velocity and individual points are how teams and individuals are ...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k
6 votes
Accepted

How to motivate my team members to start documenting their work

Documentation is always the stepchild of development. Although you could simply order them to do it, there are a few points to take care of when you want to motivate them: Demonstrate the problem Have ...
nvoigt's user avatar
  • 8,456
6 votes

How to improve team motivation with minimal wage increment but fair performance ratings?

The good news is that money has been shown to be a very weak motivator in many studies. The increase one may exhibit by money is short lived. A guy named Daniel Pink argued that motivation is ...
David Espina's user avatar
  • 37.1k
6 votes

Managing a junior project manager who is bored

TL;DR If your employee truly is bored, and one or both of you think this is actually a problem that needs to be solved, ask her for solutions that suit the both of you. The path to professional self-...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k
6 votes

Uncommunicative contractors "just want to work" and not be bothered; but miss deadlines

Just to give a different perspective/possibility than David Espina's Answer... What I'm reading happened is this: Problems occurred You assumed (without talking to the contractors?) that more ...
Sarov's user avatar
  • 14.8k
6 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

First of all i really enjoyed your question Sergey Yakovlev to the point of giving an upvote. It appears to me what you really try to understand is How are people motivated to do their work at ...
Tiago Martins Peres's user avatar
5 votes

Ample free time

How to keep the team motivated Ask the team. Chances are, the team knows both: What they want to do What improvements to their process would help most ...far better than you (or, most certainly, ...
Sarov's user avatar
  • 14.8k
5 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

Frankly, I don't see how it can be done. Specifically, I don't see what you could do, considering the constraints you have (and some of them are assumptions): No real-world contact to your and ...
AnoE's user avatar
  • 689
5 votes

How can I motivate the team to take more responsibility for user stories?

From what you are describing, it looks like: You want your team to be (more) self-organizing and proactive in doing the work, and engaging in conversations with you (the PO) when they spot something ...
Bogdan's user avatar
  • 15k
4 votes
Accepted

How to keep my team motivated during hard times?

This is a change management issue. Unfortunately, successful management of change - particularly negative change like what your organization is going through - has to start well in advance of the ...
Doug B's user avatar
  • 8,899
4 votes

Ensuring team motivation and project progress in a highly complex software project

the complexity of our software project is draining their motivation/enthusiasm/... That's mostly bullshit. Technical problems very rarely drain motivation. There are many sources of draining ...
virolino's user avatar
  • 185
4 votes

Earning Respect of Team Members When I Know Very Little About the Topic?

Define Your Terms Before you analyze any problem, you need to define your terms. What do you mean by "respect?" What do you believe is your actual role on the team as a "project manager?" What do you ...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k
4 votes
Accepted

How to motivate high performers in team?

Many interview questions are less about the answer you give and more about your thought process. I didn't do your interview, so I don't know what the interviewer was looking for, but I could guess ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 16.9k
4 votes

How to manage a developer with poor work ethics

I can share a dialog schema that I use to solve issues such as the one that you have. The schema consists of four essential parts. Prepare your arguments well. Agree on the problem definition. Work ...
Anton Baranenko's user avatar
4 votes

How to motivate a team when you have nothing to offer but equity?

TL;DR Questions about team composition and team effectiveness are on topic here. However, questions about business plans and startup funding are out of scope for a site about the practice and ...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k
3 votes
Accepted

How could you prepare yourself for a new project proposal?

Start small and embrace failure as a learning opportunity. You said you don't have much knowledge in this area and there are some obstacles. In all likelihood, your first attempts will not work out, ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 16.9k
3 votes
Accepted

Technique or good way to talk to functional manager

This is a common threat for PMs running projects in a matrix organization where your team reports to other managers. But do not confuse that structure with the concept that the employee does not also ...
David Espina's user avatar
  • 37.1k
3 votes
Accepted

How can I motivate members of a university project without money or punishments?

Play with their reputation. Create a dashboard/scoreboard and place the photos and names of each team member. Put some metrics there like tasks assigned, completed on time, late tasks and a ...
TTKDroid's user avatar
  • 386
3 votes

How can I motivate members of a university project without money or punishments?

Motivation Requires Perceived Value What you're really asking is "How do I motivate people without meaningful rewards or punishments?" If you don't have people who are intrinsically motivated by the ...
Todd A. Jacobs's user avatar
  • 50.1k

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