Are you giving commandments from on high, or is your staff making commitments for work they think is essential? I’ve been doing some consulting work for a nonprofit, mostly project management and business analysis. They have some SAAS software for managing cases that was purchased over two years ago but is only being used by a fraction of the staff. Almost all of the staff is collecting information via paper forms that are entered into a legacy system, exported, massaged in SQL Server, then uploaded to the cloud where it gets some final massaging.

There is a lot of duplication of effort and many opportunities for process improvement and reporting. We’ve formed a core project team, and I’ve taken on the role of project manager. We are working together to figure out who does what, and I’m asking for commitments from them, not telling them what they will do or when it will be due. I’ve found that working this way gets much better results than giving orders.

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It all comes back to intrinsic motivation. Based on empirical research in the fields of psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive neuroscience, we know that the more control a person has over what they do at work, how they do it, and when they do it, the more likely they are to have a personal stake in the outcome. The more engaged they’ll be, the more likely they’ll be to develop innovative solutions.

It’s much more work upfront and requires knowing the team deeper. But the upfront work pays dividends. The team feels more committed to projects, and the pressure to complete a task is internal to the person, not external. Working this way ensures that no one over-commits or gives an unrealistic timeline. Giving the team ownership and choices makes them more invested and enhances their feeling of success.

Bottom-up is almost always better than top-down. If you want to get the best out of your team, help them to see why the work is important, encourage them to take on tasks that play to their strengths and be the coach that gets commitments instead of the manager who gives commandments.