How to Motivate Teams and Drive Personal Development: 6 Expert Insights

Motivating a team while helping people grow personally and professionally is one of the most important challenges any leader can take on. It’s about more than just checking off tasks or hitting numbers—it’s about creating an environment where people feel inspired, capable, and connected to something bigger than themselves. When individuals are engaged and growing, teams naturally become more creative, productive, and resilient. Understanding how to motivate teams is essential for sustainable success.

Too often, leaders focus solely on outputs and deadlines, overlooking the human side of motivation. True engagement comes from understanding what drives each person—their strengths, passions, and sense of purpose—and helping them flourish while contributing to the team’s goals.

Todd Hagopian, a business transformation expert and the creator of the HOT System (Hypomanic Operational Turnaround System), has spent years helping teams and organizations reach new levels of performance. His approach is simple but powerful: focus on people, set ambitious goals, and provide the guidance and structure that allow everyone to shine.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through Todd Hagopian’s six insights for motivating teams and driving personal development. Each insight is designed to help you create a culture where people feel empowered, challenged, and inspired to do their best work—not just for the company, but for themselves.

Understanding How to Motivate Teams

Learning how to motivate teams effectively can lead to improved performance and job satisfaction.

1. Stop Underpromising: Be Bold in Your Commitments

“Underpromising and overdelivering is for losers. Overpromising, and missing, will get you promoted every time if you come out ahead of the underpromisers.” — Todd Hagopian

Many of us have been taught to “underpromise and overdeliver.” While safe, this approach can actually hold you back. Bold, ambitious goals show confidence and vision. Even if you don’t hit 100%, the act of aiming high demonstrates leadership, courage, and drive.

How to Apply This:

• Pick one goal for yourself or your team that feels slightly outside your comfort zone.
• Be transparent about your ambition while showing a realistic path forward.
• Focus on impact over perfection—results matter, not just the number.

2. Set Grandiose Goals That Inspire Action

“Set Grandiose goals. If you promise 25% and get 19%, you will still get promoted over the guy who promised 6% and blew away his goal with 9%.” — Todd Hagopian

Big goals excite people—they create energy, focus, and a sense of purpose. Small, safe targets rarely inspire extraordinary effort. Grandiose goals give direction and spark ambition, motivating everyone to step up their game.

How to Apply This:

• Identify one bold, aspirational goal for your team.
• Break it into measurable milestones that everyone can understand.
• Keep communication clear and inspiring—help people see the bigger picture.

3. Align Team Goals with Individual Stretch Goals

“Teams need big, scary, ambitious goals. Individuals need accountability-based, reasonable stretch goals. But, if you can get everyone on your team to commit to an accountability-based stretch goal, it is amazing what kind of ambitious goals you can hit.” — Todd Hagopian

Ambitious team goals are exciting, but individuals need achievable, challenging targets they can own. Balancing both ensures motivation at every level—people feel challenged but not overwhelmed, and the team moves together toward a shared vision.

How to Apply This:

• Define your team’s “north star” goal—a target that inspires collective effort.
• Give each team member a stretch goal aligned with their role and abilities.
• Foster accountability and celebrate progress, helping everyone feel their contribution matters.

4. Motivate Through Strategic Battles

“Motivating teams is simple. Create strategic battles. People love to compete. It can be a battle against a competitor, against a government regulation, against an internal record, or even against an internal process that they have to overcome. Name the competitor, set goals around defeating them, and your team will rise to the challenge.” — Todd Hagopian

Humans are wired for challenge and competition. Strategic “battles” tap into intrinsic motivation and inspire engagement. These battles don’t have to be external—they can be about beating internal records or improving processes.

How to Apply This:

• Identify a challenge or obstacle that the team can rally around.
• Define success in measurable terms.
• Recognize progress and celebrate milestones—every win fuels motivation.

5. Focus on Strengths, Not Weaknesses

“The best way to drive personal development is to lean into people’s strengths, instead of trying to fix their weaknesses. People do better at their strengths, they are inherently motivated when they do a good job, and weaknesses are demotivating and nearly impossible to fix while driving exponential improvement. Reorg your team so that everyone is in a strengths-based position, hire for your weaknesses, and watch your team’s personal development go through the roof.” — Todd Hagopian

It’s natural to want to fix weaknesses, but that approach can drain energy and motivation. Focusing on strengths allows people to excel and feel confident, while hiring or supporting for gaps ensures overall success.

How to Apply This:

• Identify each person’s natural talents and skills.
• Align responsibilities to strengths so people feel confident and effective.
• Provide support or hire strategically to fill gaps rather than forcing everyone to improve in areas they aren’t naturally strong in.

6. Multiply Productivity with the A × E × F Formula

A x E x F = The Karlin Method of explosive productivity

“Personal development is as easy as giving them an equation that will make them up to 500% more productive. Activity x Efficiency x Focus = Results. Activity is how hard you work, employees control that. Efficiency is all about systematizing, automating, using AI, or outsourcing activities that take up your time, but don’t drive an immense amount of value.

Focus is the part that almost nobody masters. Focus is about spending 100% of your time on the vital few things that drive all of your results. The bottom line is that a normal person works 40 hours a week, doesn’t automate/systematize/outsource anything, and spends about 20% of their time on the most important items to driving profit. So, 8 hours a week driving pure profit.

If you commit to working 48 hours per week, you automate and drive 20% more efficiency in your job, and focus 100% of your time on the most important items to driving profit, you can get that number up over 32 hours a week and be 300% more productive than your peers.” — Todd Hagopian

The formula Activity × Efficiency × Focus = Results is a simple, actionable way to boost productivity and personal development. By increasing focus on what truly matters and improving efficiency, people can achieve extraordinary results without burning out.

How to Apply This:

1. Audit your daily and weekly tasks. Identify low-value activities that can be automated or delegated.
2. Focus your energy on the tasks that truly drive results.
3. Continuously refine your systems to increase efficiency and productivity.

FAQ

Q1: How can I motivate a disengaged team?
Use strategic battles, align goals with strengths, and set ambitious, measurable targets.

Q2: How do I drive personal development in employees?
Focus on strengths, provide tools for efficiency, and encourage accountability-based stretch goals.

Q3: Why are bold goals more effective than small goals?
Bold goals inspire higher performance, visibility, and engagement, even if targets are not fully met.

Q4: How can I use the Activity × Efficiency × Focus formula?
Audit tasks, streamline processes, and concentrate on high-impact work to exponentially increase results.

Conclusion

Motivating a team and fostering personal development doesn’t have to be complicated. By following Todd Hagopian’s six insights, leaders can:

• Encourage bold thinking and ambitious goal-setting
• Align team and individual objectives
• Leverage strengths to maximize engagement
• Create a culture of accountability, focus, and intrinsic motivation

These principles help create a team that isn’t just productive—they’re inspired, empowered, and continuously growing.ke it possible to create highly motivated, high-performing teams while supporting continuous personal development.

About Todd Hagopian

Todd Hagopian is a business transformation expert who has turned around four companies and signed a three-book deal with Koehler Books to share his HOT System. He regularly writes about leadership, motivation, and personal development at HypomanicToolbox.com and ToddHagopian.com.