3 Types of Challenges That Motivate and Energize Your Team
-Janita Anderson
If you want to engage and energize your team, invite them to work on compelling challenges.
Many leaders try to motivate their teams by pushing performance in core responsibilities, like hitting targets or delivering results. While that matters, some of the most motivating challenges aren’t about what your team is doing—they’re about how they’re doing it.
The right kind of challenge feels like solving a meaningful problem, not just completing another task. It invites people to think, collaborate, contribute, stretch in new ways–and it inspires creativity.
So what makes a challenge compelling?
It should be:
- Framed as a question, not a command
- Relevant and human-centered, so people see their role in it
- Authentic, not forced or artificial
- Focused on solving something new—not repeating the same work
With that in mind, here are three types of challenges that can truly engage your team.
1. Process Improvement Challenges
Every team relies on processes—many more than you might realize.
Some of them work well. Others slow people down, create frustration, or lead to unnecessary complexity, and cause teams to lose motivation.
Get your team involved in improving processes–even small improvements can have a big impact over time.
Instead of telling your team what to fix, invite them into the problem:
- Where are we losing time?
- What’s unnecessarily complicated?
- What would make our work easier or faster?
- What is getting in the way of your performance?
When people help improve the way work gets done, they feel more ownership—and more motivation to follow through.
2. Team Dynamics and Engagement Challenges
How your team works together matters just as much as the work itself.
Communication, collaboration, and trust all shape performance. When those areas improve, engagement naturally follows.
Try posing challenges like:
- What’s holding us back as a team right now?
- How can we increase engagement?
- How could we become better collaborators?
- What would make this a better place to work?
These kinds of questions help teams reflect, adapt, take ownership and build stronger working relationships.
3. Quality-of-Work Challenges
Many teams focus on doing work faster or producing more. But improving quality can be just as powerful—and often more motivating.
Encourage your team to think bigger:
- What would it take to be known for excellence in this area?
- How could we stand out from others doing similar work?
- What improvement would give us a real advantage?
- How can we become a more creative team?
Focusing on quality helps people take pride in their work and raises the standard for the entire team.
The Takeaway
Motivation doesn’t come from pressure—it comes from purpose.
When you give your team meaningful challenges that invite problem-solving, creativity, and ownership, you unlock higher engagement and better results.
And often, the most powerful shift isn’t asking your team to do more—it’s asking better questions.
Learn How to Motivate and Energize Your Teams
FranklinCovey’s The 4 Essential Roles of Leadership (4ERL) course provides a framework and how-to skills for leading a team. Individuals and organizations around the world have sharpened their leadership skills with 4ERL and other courses offered exclusively through FranklinCovey.
For a catalogue of leadership courses, including 4ERL, go to FranklinCovey Academy. By taking a self-paced course, you will sharpen your leadership skills and build a culture that drives motivation and energy.
To help you succeed, you will receive a personal coach who will guide you through your learning application. Your coach will also help you prepare to receive an industry-recognized certificate from FranklinCovey, demonstrating your leadership expertise and helping you stand out as you pursue career advancement or new career opportunities and challenges.
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