We all have seen how motivation decreases for a once highly motivated developer, or maybe even we were that person, and from the outside sometimes it looks very clear although oftentimes for their manager it seems something came out of the blue.

Note that I said that “the motivation decreases” and not “the motivation is lost” and that was intentional: highly motivated people don’t lose motivation, instead the motivation is no longer on the work they are doing for their company but believe me, they are still motivated in other areas and probably they are already thinking of moving on.

How does this happen?

It starts with hiring. If you ask a hiring manager what they expect of their new hire, most (myself included) will say they way motivated, self-driven people, who want to solve problems and improve the product they will work on.

And what does very often happen after they are hired? They can’t work on solving the problems they see because it’s not aligned with the company’s priorities (which in my experience are not well-defined and change periodically), ideas are shut-down because there are “urgent” things to do, and proposals to address root-cause instead of quick fixes are often rejected. After all, we need quick wins.

Surprisingly those motivated, self-driven developers start to be less engaged.

What can managers do?

Assuming that readers of this article are middle managers, the honest answer is minimal and quite a bit. Very little because in mid-size to large companies, there are normally changing priorities and needs for quick wins that come from the top, and most of the time middle managers get caught in the middle too. At least that is the case in my experience.

But there are things you can do to manage how that motivated developer feels about their work and their contribution, at least for a while. At some point things have to happen, no management skills will keep them motivated and engaged forever if all they see is that they can’t fix anything they see broken.

1. Don’t invalidate them

The worse thing you can do to a person self-driven, motivated person, who, additionally, was hired because of that, is to reject their initiatives. I don’t mean you have to accept anything they bring just in case they feel bad but you have to allow them to do things the way they think it’s best and work towards some initiative of their own.

An excellent way for a manager to bring value when dealing with a high performer is to use the “manager thinking” mode to help them approach initiatives in a way that would face less opposition.

And if it’s not possible to carry out certain initiatives, be honest and share as much context as possible as to why is not possible. Is it that it is not aligned with the company’s vision, is it a lack of resources, is it a political reason that that particular project can’t be pursued, is it that the goal of the initiative is framed in a technical view that doesn’t convey value for business stakeholders? The reasons can be endless but it is important to not lose engagement that is more than just “we have other priorities”.

2. Be aware of early signals

Remember that self-driven, engaged developer who used to challenge ideas, speak up whenever a decision was made he didn’t agree with, and come up with solutions to ever-existing problems and now they’re more silent, less challenging, bringing fewer proposals? Probably, it is not the case that they are ok with more things than before: they just care less.

Be aware of such things. Once a once-motivated developer gets into this mindset, it’s not too late but it’s moving in that direction. Bringing them back up will require a lot from you the further this is allowed to happen.

If you value these developers, be very vigilant of this subtle change of attitude. Once it’s not subtle anymore it’s done.

3. Stand up for them

This one sucks but, not only is it a part of the manager’s job, but also people reporting to you expect that of you, even if they don’t say it.

This point is about saying the right things and doing the right things. This is the difference between being a mediocre manager and a good manager.

Support them and their initiatives with your higher-ups, help them approach any initiative in a way that would be better received, and advocate for the benefit of following initiatives like that. Most of the time, you will not be able to get them to do things their way but it will hugely impact their engagement if they see there’s someone who cares about the things they care about and act on it.

I see motivation as a constant force, but where a person decides to focus it can change, very fast. If you’re in a position to create an environment that makes people want to focus their motivation, please do! It will be lots of work but well worth it.