Kathryn's Sharebook 

If there’s one thing we’ve discovered over the last few years, it’s that intelligence and creativity pays. After all, we can’t ignore the fact that technology has become a billion-dollar industry primarily because it gave us more clever and entertaining apps than we can possibly imagine. Video games have become a major staple in every household – you can find at least one person in every home who plays video games on a regular basis.

Many of our greatest innovations, like VoIP services and cloud computing, typically come about because we want answers to questions such as “is there a better/cheaper way to do this?” or “how far can we push this technology?” But there’s one thing getting in the way of this: complete and utter lack of motivation.

The thing about motivation

Okay, let’s remember something here – most of the advancements that we’re excited about now came about not because a single person pushed for it; it’s because entire teams of people, entire businesses, worked on it. In order to execute something like that on a massive scale, you need to go beyond the creativity and intelligence of each employee: you need to motivate them.

Sure, the prospect of the project may excite them. But excitement can wane once development starts, or when the undertaking hits several consecutive setbacks (as is often the case in ambitious endeavors). You need to find a way to sustain the excitement. The problem is that most of the people facilitating the entire process don’t know how to make it happen. Instead, they focus on deadlines, overtime, and procedures that often get in the way of making the best product or service there is.

Ironically, they wouldn’t be in this mess if they just asked questions that help them solve this issue the way they asked questions to kick off this project in the first place.

Three questions you might want to ask

Writer Minda Zetlin, who also serves as president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, recently published three questions that can motivate any sort of employee on Inc.com. According to her, you should ask the employee why they are working for the organization, what they want out of life that you can provide, and whether or not they think they can lead a project. These questions are not designed to pressure your people into performing for you. It’s to help you understand how you can consistently ignite the desire to achieve something new and wonderful.

More often than not, there is a reason why a person joined your company. Find out what those reasons are, and help them achieve what they wish to through your organization. If you know what they want out of life and you can give them the tools to get that, then there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t give them what they want. And if you can tell whether or not a person wants to take the lead in a project, then you give them the autonomy to progress at their own pace and do things their way

Asking questions will always lead to progress, whether you’re trying to improve the world or your understanding of others.