Keeping the Vision Alive on Extended Work Projects

Contrary to popular belief, motivation does not necessarily wane during challenging projects. In fact, it can be even stronger when people feel like they are working on something important. I experienced this firsthand when my team and I developed a proximity awareness application during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the tight deadlines and difficult working conditions, we were all motivated to get the product to market as quickly as possible because we thought it could help save lives. This experience demonstrated that motivation is not about the difficulty of the task, but about the sense of purpose it gives people. When people feel like they are making a difference, they are more likely to persevere through challenges and stay committed to their goals. Here are some tips for creating a sense of purpose in your team: ✅ Start with a clear vision. What are you trying to achieve? Why is it important? When people understand the big picture, they are more likely to feel invested in the project. ✅ Involve people in decision-making and planning. When people have a say in how things are done, they feel more ownership and are more likely to be motivated to succeed. ✅ Make it a team effort. People are more motivated when they are working towards a common goal with others. Create opportunities for team members to collaborate and support each other. ✅ Set challenging but achievable goals. People need to feel like they are stretching themselves, but they also need to believe that they can succeed. ✅ Give people time to recharge. People need to recharge their batteries in order to be productive. Make sure to schedule regular breaks and time off. By following these tips, you can create a work environment where people are motivated to do their best, even when the challenges are great. #management #leadership #triumphleadershipbook ________________________________________ ➡️ I am Talila Millman, a fractional CTO, and a management advisor. I help CEOs and their C-suite grow profit and scale through optimal Product portfolio and an operating system for Product Management and Engineering excellence. 📘 My book TRIUMPH: Leadership in Times of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity is to be published in 2024. The presale starts September 5.  🔔 Follow me and ring the bell on my profile to get notified of new posts

Self-motivation and coming to work wanting to do more, even in the face of adversity, is a skill I bring to work quite often. Recently, I've been reflecting on where I learned to do this, and I believe it was during my PhD years. Like many PhD students, I spent years with seemingly little to show for it. Few publications. No real breakthroughs. Just endless experiments, failed attempts, and the occasional glimmer of progress. It wasn't until my fourth year that I finally published the core idea for my PhD thesis. Looking back, I realize something profound about motivation: We often think we need to feel motivated to make progress, but the reality is exactly opposite. As it turns out, motivation isn't what drives achievement – achievement, even tiny wins, drives motivation. During those challenging early years of my PhD, I learned that waiting for motivation was a trap. The key was creating small, achievable goals each day: running one more experiment, debugging one more idea, writing one more section. Each small completion created a tiny spark of accomplishment that fueled the next step. Here's what I wish I'd known from the start: Don't wait for motivation to strike. Start with small, concrete actions. Celebrate the minor wins. Let each step forward, no matter how tiny, fuel your momentum. This same principle now drives my approach to building new ideas for users. I don't look for big ideas (those are way harder to find!). Instead, I look for small ideas, find ways to validate and prove they have merit, then push for more validation, more results, and eventually, perhaps breakthrough. Achievements breed motivation. Success in long-term endeavors – whether a PhD, building a new product, or mastering a new skill – isn't about maintaining constant motivation. It's about building a cycle of small achievements that gradually compound into significant progress! Think about how you can take the small steps to compound into material changes. For more on this philosophy of incremental progress and how it's really an effective way to execute and have significant impact, check out the roofshot manifesto by Luiz André Barroso (RIP): https://lnkd.in/g3Nh7GEf What small wins are you celebrating today?

YOUR BRAIN ON PROGRESS Ever notice how satisfying it feels to cross something off your to-do list?   Well, that little dopamine hit is worth a whole lot more than a temporary good mood boost.   On the flip side, ever notice what happens when you're neck-deep in those sprawling, ambiguous projects where progress feels invisible? Your motivation tanks. Not because you're lazy or “in over your head” — but because your brain is starving for evidence that you're moving forward.   A big research project at Harvard once analyzed 12,000 employee diary entries from across several companies and discovered something surprising:   The single biggest motivator wasn't money or praise—it was being able to see progress in meaningful work.    Even tiny wins triggered positive emotions and engagement.   So, if you’re feeling uninspired by a current, behemoth project, create your own progress markers:   • Break projects into ridiculously small steps;  • Make physical evidence of progress (move sticky notes, fill progress bars);  • End each day by writing down three micro-advances you made  • Create weekly "before and after" snapshots  • Make it a point to celebrate milestones    Marathon runners don't visualize just the finish line—they focus on the next mile marker. And then the next. And the next.   Your brain doesn't need you to complete a project a day. It just needs proof you're not running in place on a treadmill.   What visible progress markers would light you up? (Are we too old for stickers?) *** I’m Jennifer Kamara, founder of Kamara Life Design. Enjoy this? Repost to share with your network, and follow me for actionable strategies to design businesses and lives with meaning. Want to go from good to world-class? Join our community of subscribers today: https://lnkd.in/d6TT6fX5