What does it take to win at work?

People have asked me that question dozens of times after a keynote speech or radio talk show. Most likely your team members have asked you the same or similar questions. They want to know what action to take to build a successful life instead of being trapped in long-term failure. It’s a great question. Unfortunately, since every person faces different challenges there isn’t a 100-percent-specific answer that works for every person.

A better approach is to guide your team in focusing on the real source of motivation by exploring their underlying motives. When you discover the motive behind why they want to win at work, you will be on track to help them shape a strategic approach to speed toward accomplishing goals and avoiding distractions that lead to failure.

Here are key questions to ask your team:

• Do you want to win at work to deepen your resume to advance your career?
• Does success at work mean making more money to bring home to your family?
• Does career success give you personal meaning and fulfillment?
• Does winning bring you a sense of satisfaction by proving you are the best?

Greater professional success usually gives a person far greater options in their personal life because increased income brings the flexibility to solve problems and control schedules by delegation. Outsourcing to save time and money is a wise use of resources. Working harder to gain greater self-esteem, however, is a dangerous motivator because it takes major sacrifices of time and energy and can often become a black hole of busy activity leading to workaholism.

Career burnout comes from attempts to fill up deep emotional insecurities through aggressive professional activity. Burnout won’t lead to professional success, and sadly is incredibly common among people who haven’t seen the importance of mapping out a realistic career plan to win at work without losing at home.

So how can your team stay motivated to achieve greater career success? Have them start by identifying their core values, which can be identified through mapping out their internal motives, since motives lead to motivation.

Here are four key areas I use to inspire business professionals I’ve coached to stay focused to win at work while feeling greater energy and fulfillment in the process: insight, interests, importance, and identity.

There is a Scripture verse I was taught to pray every day: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5, NKJV). When you know you don’t know the answers, then asking for God’s direction is a wise use of time.

Generate insight by asking God to reveal your the gifts and natural abilities of each member of your team, regardless of how much they may feel like they are struggling. Everyone has talent and ability at something. It takes insight as a wise leader to see it, and then it takes courage to stay focused to light the fire of desire in their heart, especially when you or they may feel like giving up.

Have your team members enlist of people close to them, like a marriage partner, family member or trusted friend to help identify their talents and abilities if they don’t already know them. Since these people already know so much about their loved ones personality, character, motivation, and inner- drives, they will speak truth when given the freedom to do so.

Asking many questions to gain greater insight will protect against impulsive choices, and insure a greater likelihood of success. So don’t be afraid to ask too many questions - but do be afraid to stay silent on this important element.

Once teams are inspired to pursue the most interesting aspects of their jobs or career callings, the next element to stir up personal motivation is to help them discover what is most important.

What is valuable to them?

What has great meaning?

What activities or organizations do they believe in strongly?

Everyone believes in something, yet many of us haven’t taken time to explore and discover the core motives that fuel our desires to create positive change.

Now that you have mapped out the key areas that motivate people you are ready for each member of your team to advance to the final stage.

Times are tough and many people are afraid about what the economy will do in the future. In fact, they can become so frozen in fear that they are afraid to try. It’s normal to feel afraid, yet when you are overwhelmed with fear it can often lead to becoming indecisive and totally zoning out. Since running away from reality feels easier than facing it for some people, they choose to stick their heads in the sand and completely deny what’s happening to their industry. Think about how Blockbuster Video failed to make strategic changes with their customers and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection, while competitor organizations like Netflix and Red Box were capturing greater market share and thriving.

Some people retreat in a passive way and just slowly sink, while others try to avoid reality by using substances or media to escape. Avoiding major change by hiding in fear will lead to a major crisis. Being aware of these dangers and opening up the conversation with your clients by asking tough questions will help them protect themselves when they are heading toward a dangerous situation.

People often think they are frustrated with marriage partners or coworkers, but the conflict is often more about them. Help them think about the times they were trying, but it just didn’t come together. They knew they wanted to finish strong and have a meaningful career, but they felt like they lacked the horsepower to really pull out in front of the crowd.

When frustration builds up, it puts people at great risk because they face a tough choice: finish with mediocre results and risk getting laid off or downsized to try again at the next job, or just check out to avoid feeling the pain of not performing to their potential and quit. I’ve especially seen this with highly creative or bright coaching clients who procrastinated until the last minute and then couldn’t finish projects needed to move forward. Their frustration often comes out as anger directed toward the closest person to them. It’s not fair, but it happens because they let the frustration take over, which blocks their ability to win at work.

Sadly, a failing, unmotivated person is the easiest to spot because they checked out a long time ago. When someone has reached this level, they are so unmotivated they give up on even trying at the most basic of tasks, so their resume just reflects a free fall down to zero. They totally and completely fail, which crushes their confidence. For many, failure kills the desire to try again, which leads many coaching clients to give up completely and just drop out on the idea that a meaningful career was ever even a possibility for them.

They are too depleted even to believe that God’s promise spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3, NKJV) might still be available to them.

Consider sharing with your team members who are stuck how you have used the truth of Scripture to face fears, frustrations, and the fear of failing. Using timeless words of encouragement from Scripture and then using those truths to spark meditation with insights from the Bible is a way toward deeper peace and strength. I believe this pattern will guide each member of your team fear to greater faith by identifying core motives, and then translating that into the powerful motivation needed to win at work.