In the last 15 years I have invested my life in getting into the heads and hearts of these creatures we call teenagers to find out what makes them tick and how we can best engage and motivate them to help them achieve their full potential.
Through these years of research and working with teenagers in environments from Juvenile Justice through to some of the most elite private schools in Australia I have identified 16 critical keys to motivate teenagers and help them to help themselves.
1. Meaning Inspires Motivation
Recent studies show that in the workplace (especially with teenagers and Generation Y) meaning is more important than money when it comes to motivation. 29% of teenagers say that doing something meaningful was the most important thing about work and the main reason they decided to work where they do. 25% were primarily motivated by money and 17% by recognition.
Therefore one of the key ways to motivate teenagers is to engage them in work or projects which involve something meaningful. This is easy if you have opportunities and projects which help alleviate poverty or provide clean drinking water to 3rd world countries, like ThankYou Water, but not as easy if we’re talking about school or for profit businesses.
One way to engage teenagers in the process of establishing meaning and a greater sense of purpose in what they do, is to involve them in the process of establishing your company mission statement and vision. In the class room, you can always use real world examples which include a sense of meaning and purpose to the work you are doing.
2. Communication Is Key
To maintain motivation in teenagers you must establish a consistent flow of communication.
Ensure you are communicating the following:
- Purpose – Why are we doing this and why is it important
- Potential – What you see in the teenager, your belief in them (their skills, abilities, contribution etc)
- Progress – Where are we now, how have we progressed, are we on track
- Positive Affirmation – Encouragement affirming their involvement and contribution
- Prize – What rewards are up for grabs for positive contributions
3. Expectations and Accountability
Teenagers are this weird mix of being dependently independent. You see while they will insist on maintaining their independence they clearly enjoy their dependence on trusted adults (parents, teachers, mentors etc). In order to maintain motivation teenagers need to have clear expectations and accountability (consequences for their actions and inactions).
Let me use a common example these days with businesses I work with – who tell me that they have an issue with their Teen and Gen Y staff who send them a text message to communicate that they’re unwell and not coming in for work today.
The first question I ask is: “Have you set clear expectations around how to let you know if you’re unwell?”
More often than not the owner or manager will say “Well no, but…”
Make your expectations clear and keep your teenagers accountable if they miss the mark.
4. Give Constant And Constructive Feedback
It’s often easier to react when things dont go as planned than respond constructively in order to empower teenagers to see the situation through the eyes of constructive feedback.
I have a belief in my engagement with human beings that:
All people are doing the best that they can with the resources they have at the time
This belief means that if teenagers I am working with aren’t behaving in a way that I want them to, they simply dont have the resources they need, or they have lost connection with those resources.
Teenagers will respond and be motivated by constructive feedback much more positively than they will to an adult trying to ‘control’ them or ‘make’ them behave in a particular way.
5. Have Faith and Believe In What You Dont Yet See
Most teenagers have relatively fragile self-esteem. If you don’t believe your teens can do something, they won’t believe they can either, and they won’t do it. You must have faith in them. You can’t just say you have faith: you need to show you do to enhance their confidence in their ability.
To achieve this, give your teenagers some autonomy to make decisions. Let them take ownership of projects and decide how to complete them. Although it can be a challenge for almost any adult, you must let them fall sometimes and not try to control them or the outcomes they achieve.
It’s our role as trusted adults to see the potential, see what does not yet exist in the lives of these teenagers and create an environment which can facilitate their growth.
6. Listen, Focus and Respect
The old adage that we were born with 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason – listen twice as much as you speak.
Asking questions of your teenagers will help them to participate; dictating the answers will cause them to tune out.
As I travel amongst communities and work with councils and organisations who have special Teen programs like Youth Action Councils and Youth Board Participants often have a very tokenistic approach. They may listen, they may focus but in the end the opinions of the Teens are hardly respected because they dont actually follow through on the advice of their ‘Teen Representative’.
Yes – Listen!
Yes – Focus!
But make sure you respect the young person, their opinions, feedback and input by actually following through and doing something with it.
7. Recognise and Praise
Recognition is an amazing motivator. I believe that correction should be done in private, but recognition and praise should be done publicly. Develop creative ways to recognise and praise the wins and progress of your teenagers.
Use your words to recognise and praise the teens you work with, high fives, high energy, enthusiasm – make a big deal of the little things. Dont be stingy with your recognition and praise, your teenager cant overdose on praise and no its not your job to keep their feet on the ground.
8. Reward Performance
Recognition and praise are free, but rewards will cost you something. Make sure that you give teenagers rewards to reinforce the performance and behavior you are seeking.
Rewards dont always enhance motivation because there are two types of motivation:
- Intrinsic (internal – feelings)
- Extrinsic (external – rewards)
Ensure that the rewards you use for the specific teenager you’re working with is a motivator. The most effective reward for performance and positive behavior is an unexpected reward after the behavior has been performed.
9. Foster Creativity
Working in an environment where the 5 senses can be activated will enhance not only creativity, but also engagement and motivation.
The human brain was never designed to be motivated by sitting in a room at a desk, using 2 colours of pen for 6 – 8 hours a day.
Get creative with how you can engage the senses in the activities you’re doing:
- Visual
- Auditory
- Kinesthetic
- Smell
- Taste
To best foster creativity with teenagers you may need to consider the following:
- Resources You Need
- Space and Environment
- Freedom to Explore
- Creative Expression For Fun
- There Is No Right Or Wrong
- Focus On The Process Not The Outcome
10. Establish Core Values and Code Of Conduct
Different to #3 “Expectations and Accountability” the Core Values and Code Of Conduct must be established in collaboration with your teenagers. The reality is that 99% of Teens know exactly how they should behave, and they will (with a little help) establish a code of conduct which has the ability to create a safe and productive environment.
By having your teenagers involved in the process of establishing your core values and a code of conduct (behavior) they will have ownership over it rather than feel like you’re simply creating a list of rules for them. You can also allow them to decide on appropriate consequences for people who break the code, even have specific young people take ownership over policing specific elements of the code.
11. Seek Contribution
As well as being a key on its own, its probably one of the underlying philosophies throughout many of these keys. Most human beings, let alone just teenagers hate being told what to do. A collaborative, coaching approach where contribution of ideas, opinions and feedback as well as action is key to engagement and motivation in Teenagers.
Contribution is again not a tokenistic ideal, but contribution must be genuine. If you seek contribution you must be prepared to follow through with the contribution, or at least guide the teenager in shaping their contribution into a usable contribution.
12. Coach Dont Dictate
Teenagers do not like to be dictated to. It’s disempowering. It’s therefore important to distinguish the difference between dictating and coaching. The reality is is that you cannot control any human being.
A coaching approach takes on the idea that the most effective way to get someone to do something is to have them ‘decide’ for themself.
The most powerful element of coaching is asking questions which elicit awareness and understanding to empower the person being coached to make positive change.
Likewise, when coaching, don’t dictate every detail of how to complete a project or activity. Remember, teenagers can’t grow and gain new skills if you’re telling them exactly what to do for everything they work on. They need a sense of autonomy to feel that they’re succeeding.
Here are some powerful coaching questions I use when working with both teenagers and adults:
- How is that a problem for you?
- How’s that working for you?
- How would you like it to be?
- For what purpose?
- What can you do about that?
13. Encourage Teamwork
Teamwork is an important skill that teenagers must learn in order to be successful not only as students, but in life as a whole.
When a team works well together as a unit they are able to accomplish more than its individual members can do alone. When members apply different skills they are often able to come up with a more effective solution than one person working on the same problem.
Mutual support can have the benefit of encouraging teenagers to achieve goals they may not have realized they could reach on their own.
14. One Size Does Not Fit All
Great teachers and mentors let the teenagers they’re working with dictate the approaches they use.
Human beings are diverse and varied based on their:
- Family of Origin
- Culture
- Life Experiences
- Conditions
- Personality Type
- Communication Style
- Motivation Style
- Skills, Abilities, Interests and Passions
Some young people may need or desire more handholding and coaching, whereas others will want or require less. It’s important to think about each young person and determine the best way to lead him or her.
15. Encourage Personal Growth and Development
Growth requires stretching and young people often need encouragement to step out of their comfort zones to experience something new and something different. Awareness is the beginning of growth so creating environments where teenagers can grow in their understanding of themselves can be key to helping teenagers grow.
Personality tests such as DiSC Profiling can be great for helping teens to understand their personality type and how that relates to what motivates them, how they are most productive, potential career pathways and their most productive learning style.
Often this type of personal growth is ignored until much later in life, and teenagers are left to use trial and error to discover their future pathways. Working with teenagers to discover and understand their own uniqueness can set them on a path to success early on in life.
16. Be Consistent And Follow Through
Consistency is key with motivation for teenagers. If their environment is consistent and they know the response they are going to get with specific actions this helps develop resilience and personal growth.
Consistency and Following Through is important in so many areas:
- Consequences
- Your Words (Do what you say you’re going to do)
- Setting boundaries
- The way you treat individuals (Dont have favourites)
- Preparation and Arriving on time (Be reliable)
A lot of teenagers I work with come from family environments which lack consistency, with parents who are absent for whatever reason, different people coming and going and they need consistent trusted adults in their lives who will stick to their word, follow through and do what they say they’re going to do.
So there you have it…
16 Critical Keys To Motivate Teenagers
Nathan Hulls
Teen Behaviour Expert | Motivational Speaker | Peak Performance Coach
www.NathanHulls.com
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