Its time for a reader suggestion thread and todays question is:
What is the best way to motivate project team members?
I have talked enough for a moment. Now it’s you who can have a go at this topic. Please place a comment with your tip to motivate team members; how do you excite your team?
EDIT: The following offer is not valid anymore, but feel free to add your two cents.
As a little incentive (bribe 
) I will give an ebook version of my book “Surprise! Now You’re A Software Project Manager” to the most original entry (so make sure you include your email address in the comment box)…
Photography by BZO.
Thanks a bunch, Bas. I have been visiting this blog since quite a long. (Even before I became a Project Manager). And now mostly read via your RSS feeds. It indeed is a great place to exchange thoughts and to constantly learn.
Keep it up!
-Sandeep
Hi all ,
I just received ebook and it indeed has numerous practical lessons in the layman language which we better know before we experience them, as you all agree that experience is not as good as theory , and Bas’s practical lessons have some interesting points as per my initial glimpse of the book.
I guess all the entries are winner entries and my name came up in the lucky draw.
cheers
satish
I want to share with you a misunderstanding that might have lead to a ripple of motivational effects.
In an e-mail exchange with Bas de Baar I understood the world mean as unkind when he meant it as denoting or implying. I have been asking myself over the last two days had I not been corrected quickly by Bas what this misunderstading could have resulted in. How a small misundertanding could branch out into different relationships. A small misunderstanding could motivate a person to take a totally different course than if this small misundertanding did not occur.
We talk about motivation in a linear fashion: give more incentives and you shall end up in having more productivity. But beware of the Butterfly Effect that could send people into completely different directions.
What prompted me to write this comment is what Satin wrote in the previous comment that he was a lucky winner of a draw. Modesty that triggered rippling feelings of respect for a person that I have never met before.
I was one of the silent spectator (constantly learning) till I saw Bas’s Perception of “Boss being THE BOSS…”
‘My’ answer for this is YES / NO… there are matured ppl who act according to the situations and the rest of them go with the conventional Bossing…
My definition to motivate the team would blend all the above submitted articles… Team activities (Games), Brainstorming, Giving Importance to every member of the team (1-on-1 if possible), Giving them responsibilities after understanding their interests (Some introverts might not choose it voluntarily)… Bottom-Line: Team-Building activities is a must…
-MOhan
Hi Guys, many thanks for the kind words, and great replies.
I have always believed that people participate in the project to achieve personal goals first before eventually achieving project goals. The project manager is suppossed to identify these personal goals and aim at making the team members achieve these personal goals. It is only after team members start seeing the realisation of personal goals that the team members shall produce the project goals effectively and efficiently.
give them afree time out of duty ,an hour every day