The team is motivated, so why aren't they pulling together?
Everyone seems committed to doing a good job. People are working hard, deadlines are being met, and nobody appears particularly disengaged.
Yet decisions drag, the same disagreements keep resurfacing, and working together sometimes feels harder than working separately.
What if everyone is motivated, but they're motivated by different things?
In brief:
A team can contain highly motivated people who still struggle to work together. Different needs can shape how colleagues approach change, decisions and collaboration. Understanding those needs can help people move past assumptions, have better conversations and find more effective ways of working together.
Understanding those differences can help explain why apparently motivated people sometimes struggle to work well together, and what you can do about it.
Why individual motivation doesn't automatically create good teamwork
Individual enthusiasm doesn't guarantee easy collaboration. People can care deeply about their work while valuing very different ways of getting things done.
Someone who values independence may prefer to work alone, while a colleague feels more involved when decisions are discussed together.
Both could be enthusiastic, capable employees. Yet without understanding their different needs, they might interpret each other's behaviour negatively.
Researchers Gilad Chen and Ruth Kanfer explore this distinction in their 2024 review of motivation in teams. Their work highlights how individual motivation and collective team motivation influence one another, alongside the wider working environment.
Effective teamwork also relies on shared goals, clear responsibilities, trust, communication and the resources to do the job. Motivation cannot compensate for everything else.
The same workplace can motivate people in very different ways
Relationships
Security, connection, and recognition.
Achievement
Influence, reward, and expertise.
Growth
Innovation, autonomy, and purpose.
Those differences matter because they influence how people approach their work, respond to change and interact with others.
This is something we explore through Motivational Maps.
Motivational Maps identify nine motivators, grouped into three areas: relationships, achievement and growth. They help people understand which motivators are most important to them and how satisfied those needs currently are.
Understanding both what matters to someone and how well those needs are being met can reveal useful opportunities for change.
It's also important to remember that motivation isn't the same as personality. Our motivations can change as our circumstances, responsibilities and priorities change. We've explored this further in our article about Motivational Maps and personality profiling.
Where motivational differences show up in everyday teamwork
Consider two situations that many managers will recognise.
When one person embraces change and another wants stability
Imagine your team is introducing a new system.
One colleague is full of enthusiasm. They can see opportunities to improve how things work, want to try new approaches and are keen to get started.
Another colleague is asking questions. What happens if the system doesn't work? Have we considered the risks? Do we really need to change something that's already working reasonably well?
The enthusiastic colleague may feel frustrated by what seems like unnecessary resistance. Meanwhile, the cautious colleague might see the enthusiasm as reckless.
Creator describes a desire for innovation, new ideas and change. Defender describes a desire for security, predictability and stability.
Perhaps the team agrees to trial the system on a small scale, with clear measures of success and a contingency plan.
When independence meets the need to belong
One team member works best when given a clear outcome and the freedom to decide how to achieve it. They value uninterrupted time, dislike unnecessary meetings and prefer to take responsibility for their own work.
Another enjoys regular conversations, sharing ideas and working closely with colleagues. They feel more involved when decisions are discussed and everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
The first person might see the second as constantly interrupting. The second might see the first as distant or unwilling to cooperate.
The Spirit motivator reflects a desire for independence and autonomy, while Friend reflects a desire for belonging, connection and positive relationships.
Of course, these are illustrative examples. Knowing someone's motivators doesn't mean you can predict their behaviour, and similar behaviours can have very different causes.
At a glance: working with different motivations
These are starting points for conversations, rather than rules about how anyone will behave.
Different motivations | What could help |
|---|---|
Creator and Defender: innovation versus predictability | Try small changes, address risks and agree when to review progress. |
Spirit and Friend: autonomy versus connection | Protect independent working time and agree how and when to collaborate. |
Before trying to fix the team, ask better questions
When a team is struggling, it's tempting to move straight towards a solution.
First check the basics: are responsibilities clear, workloads manageable and resources available? Can colleagues raise concerns safely? Not every difficulty has a motivational explanation.
And rather than relying entirely on your observations, ask people how they're experiencing their work.
Try this with your team
Ask everyone to take a moment to consider these two questions, then discuss what the answers might mean for the team:
What energises you?
Which parts of your work give you the most energy?
What drains you?
Which parts regularly leave you frustrated or drained?
For coaches and managers exploring the answers further, the Five Whys technique can help uncover what's sitting beneath an initial concern.
What can a Team Motivational Map reveal?
Individual Maps help people understand their own motivational needs and how satisfied they currently feel. A Team Map brings those results together to explore patterns across the group.
It can help a team consider which motivators are particularly important across the group, where differences exist and whether important needs are going unmet.
An example: the leader and the team may have different priorities
One anonymised Team Map shows how a group's shared priorities can differ from those of its leader. This is a simplified example with names, organisation and scores omitted.
Priorities across the team | Team leader's priorities |
|---|---|
Searcher: purpose and meaning Builder: tangible rewards Expert: knowledge and mastery | Expert: knowledge and mastery Spirit: independence and autonomy Builder: tangible rewards |
Both share an interest in expertise and tangible rewards, but purpose stands out across the group while autonomy is particularly important to the leader.
These results don't prove that any problems exist. But they raise useful questions. Might the leader offer everyone the same freedom they value personally? Would colleagues benefit from clearer conversations about purpose? A Map provides starting points, not verdicts.
A question worth asking: Are we creating the conditions that motivate our team, or assuming everyone needs the same things we do?
Bournemouth Town Centre BID provides a useful example. Following a Motivational Maps strategy session, its Chief Operating Officer, Paul Kinvig, reflected on what the team had learned:
Using Motivational Maps as part of our strategy day was invaluable in helping the team truly understand our common motivators and where our differences lay.
Paul Kinvig, Chief Operating Officer, Bournemouth Town Centre BID
You can explore this and other experiences on our client stories and case studies page.
Turning understanding into better teamwork
Understanding different motivators is a useful starting point. But if nothing changes afterwards, the same frustrations are likely to return.
1. Make differences easier to talk about
Give people opportunities to explain what matters to them without suggesting their preferences are right or wrong.
Ask each person what would help them contribute, then agree one small change to try. Avoid assuming that colleagues need the same things you do.
2. Agree how the team will work together
Which decisions need everyone involved? What can individuals decide independently? How should information be shared, and when does the whole team need to meet?
Clear expectations can reduce friction without requiring everybody to work in exactly the same way.
3. Pay attention to what's missing
If someone values learning but rarely gets opportunities to develop, consider what could change.
If another person values security but is experiencing constant uncertainty, perhaps they need clearer information about what's happening and why.
Consider whether your own working preferences are shaping the team's routines more than you realise.
4. Keep the conversation going
Review what's working, revisit agreements and ask whether the changes are helping.
Are decisions becoming easier? Are disagreements more constructive? Do people feel better understood and supported?
Where appropriate, repeating Motivational Maps can also help people explore how their motivation and satisfaction have changed over time.
You don't need everyone to be motivated by the same things
If your team is full of good people who sometimes struggle to pull together, don't assume the answer is to make everyone more motivated.
Want to understand your team better?
And if you'd like a more structured way to understand what's driving your team, our Motivational Maps team workshops help individuals and teams explore their motivation, understand one another and identify practical improvements.
If you're facing a particular challenge, we'd be happy to explore what's happening and whether Motivational Maps could help.
