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 ...
- 929
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 ...
- 14.5k
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 49.5k
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 ...
- 19.1k
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 ...
- 425
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 ...
- 1,011
9
votes
How shall we deal with demotivation from non-core activities?
Get the team committed to the business goals
In the long run, you should get the team committed to the business goals so much that they voluntarily step up to do what it takes to accomplish them ...
8
votes
How shall we deal with demotivation from non-core activities?
You are creating a cause and effect between a lowering morale and motivation with doing certain tasks. My first reaction is you are creating a cause and effect that does not exist. Every job in the ...
- 37k
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 ...
- 12.4k
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 ...
- 248
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 ...
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 ...
- 49.5k
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 ...
- 8,348
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 ...
- 37k
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-...
- 49.5k
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 2,084
5
votes
Accepted
What we should do, if after planning we still have some free time in Sprint (i.e. unused forecasted capacity) and no tasks that will fit in it
Focus on accomplishing the Sprint goal
Scrum is not just about completing stories. It is about delivering business value. So, you should start by discussing and agreeing on the Sprint goal. And then, ...
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, ...
- 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 ...
- 679
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 ...
- 14.5k
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 185
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 ...
- 16.8k
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 ...
- 49.5k
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 ...
- 211
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 ...
- 49.5k
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 ...
- 37k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible