5 Videos Every Boss Should Watch if He Want's to Motivate His Team

I think for a lot of businesses, what they're doing just isn't working. People are simply not motivated to work to the best of their abilities. Something is holding them back, or just not pushing them forward.

A lot of times, that something is their leader. A manager/boss/CEO/whatever, has the ability to lead their team to greatness, and they also have the ability to crush their passion. The way in which a leader motivates is often demotivating, whether they realize it or not.

So, I've chosen five videos I think every boss should watch if he want's to motivate his team (or her team!). If a leader is actually trying to motivate and lead and has a somewhat open mind, I think these videos will point them at least in the right direction.

In this speech, Dan Ariely discusses how giving value to work motivates people. This "value" is not monetary value, but a sense of meaning. By acknowledging ones work and emphasizing that the work has purpose, a leader can motivate. Likewise, by dismissing someone's labors, a boss can crush their motivation to work in the future.

I also recommend watching Dan Ariely's speech, Are we in control of our decisions? This is an amazing speech filled all sorts of lessons, including lessons in leadership and motivation. In this speech a boss can learn that "how" something is presented can produce action.

Here Shawn Achor gives a quick paced (and hilarious) speech about how happiness can create success, reversing the notion that success creates happiness. Positivity leads to an environment that makes people want to work, and to work better. It is important for a leader to rid the group of negativity and foster a happy team.

If two minutes a day for 21 days could make you happier, isn't it worth it?

Simon Sinek's speech "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" speaks to inspiring action - this could be the action of a customer to buy your product, or the action of an employee to work harder.

Sinek's discusses the "golden circle" of What, How, and Why and shows that those to inspire start with the Why and not the What. If you hire people who believe your why and keep your focus there, they will work for the cause, not for the money.

In this speech, Dan Pink presents his case about how what science knows and what business does in regards to the effect of incentive on work, by discussing several studies on incentives. He discusses how offering a higher incentive only works when the answer is right in front of you, and it's just a matter of doing it, but when the answer must be discovered, when it is creative puzzle involving "thinking outside the box", a higher incentive actually does the opposite.

Jason Fried talks here about how your office is filled with distractions keeping you from your work. Filling the day with a series of interruptions at work - interruptions by managers and meetings - can stunt creativity and melt productivity. While not every business can have work-at-home jobs, a boss can learn from this video that it's important to give them uninterrupted time and not to wast time in unneeded meetings. Flexibility to their creative needs can do wonders in a workplace.