• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns

2

Melinda French Gates' advice to new IPO millionaires: 'Give half your money away'

3

Anthropic disables Fable and Mythos AI models after U.S. government bars it from giving foreigners access

1

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns

2

Melinda French Gates' advice to new IPO millionaires: 'Give half your money away'

3

Anthropic disables Fable and Mythos AI models after U.S. government bars it from giving foreigners access
Fortune Insiders

This Is What Makes a Great Boss

By
Dev Ittycheria
Dev Ittycheria
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Dev Ittycheria
Dev Ittycheria
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 2, 2016, 8:30 PM ET
493816419
Creative coworkers doing high five at the officePhotograph by Klaus Vedfelt via Getty Images

The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question: How do you keep your team motivated? is written by Dev Ittycheria, president and CEO of MongoDB.

Roll up your sleeves. Give your team a reason to believe they can succeed. Celebrate success. These are all standard principles of motivating your team. They are foundational, but still relatively basic. However, to drive a massive team to do great things, you need to do more. So here are four things you can do at your company that every employee can rally behind:

Make people believe in your mission
Your team needs to know what you’re trying to accomplish, and your mission needs to be compelling enough that they will want to be a part of it. So provide a clear purpose, and explain the “why.” Most importantly, your goal can’t be limited or obviously tactical.

Show how every employee can make an impact
Next, the team needs to understand the steps you plan to take to implement the mission. In addition to creating clear and winning strategy — that puts focus on the core (no more than five) initiatives for the year — you also need to ensure the entire company is aligned around the strategy, meaning everyone’s work plan can be tied back to your initiatives. One useful model is Objectives and Key Results (OKR), a method popularized by Google (GOOGL). The OKR process not only allows you to link all your employees’ work to the broader company critical initiatives, but it also allows them to see what other employees are working on, creating opportunities for alignment, collaboration, and cohesion.

See also: The Most Effective Way to Motivate Your Team

Define your best
Once everyone sees how you plan to implement your mission and believes that they can be a part of it, they need to also understand how you operate. This is your DNA, something that can’t be replicated from one company to the next. Your culture is your company’s personality. Your values are the principles that guide how you operate — essentially how you work when you are at your best. When a company is very clear on its values, it provides a framework for employees to model, helps screen and recruit new staff, and effectively reward people who exemplify these values.

Provide opportunities for growth
Employees get motivated when they believe they are learning valuable new skills and building relationships that will span not only their time at the company but during the course of their career, and having the opportunity to take on bigger challenges than they ever had before. By doing this, you have a greater ability to grow and promote internal candidates for leadership roles. This is a positive way to retain our culture, create a meritocracy and keep our best people.

About the Author
By Dev Ittycheria
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

mid
Real EstateMidwest
The Sun Belt boom is over. Midwest real-estate investors say ‘I told you so’
By Ivan BarrattJune 14, 2026
2 hours ago
SpaceX went from three consecutive rocket explosions and near-bankruptcy in 2008 to the biggest IPO in history
Startups & VentureSpaceX
SpaceX went from three consecutive rocket explosions and near-bankruptcy in 2008 to the biggest IPO in history
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJune 14, 2026
2 hours ago
A 1% mistake costs $10 billion: Inside the impossible math of managing Elon Musk’s trillionaire SpaceX wealth
Personal FinanceElon Musk
A 1% mistake costs $10 billion: Inside the impossible math of managing Elon Musk’s trillionaire SpaceX wealth
By Sydney LakeJune 14, 2026
3 hours ago
Boomers actually do hold most of the wealth and power. So why do they call it ‘whiny’ to point that out?
Economybaby boomers
Boomers actually do hold most of the wealth and power. So why do they call it ‘whiny’ to point that out?
By Nick LichtenbergJune 14, 2026
3 hours ago
Whop CEO Steven Schwartz
SuccessMillionaires
The Gen Z cofounder of $1.6 billion Whop says his platform has minted over 650 millionaires—he wants to make work fun and money worries obsolete
By Emma BurleighJune 14, 2026
4 hours ago
t
CommentaryTariffs
A quartz countertop tariff could double your kitchen renovation cost — and kill 13 jobs for every one it creates
By Steve SwedbergJune 14, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns
Real Estate
Gen Z fled San Francisco for Texas and Florida. Now they’re turning ‘welcomer cities’ into the next big tech towns
By Sydney LakeJune 13, 2026
1 day ago
Melinda French Gates' advice to new IPO millionaires: 'Give half your money away'
Startups & Venture
Melinda French Gates' advice to new IPO millionaires: 'Give half your money away'
By Emma HinchliffeJune 13, 2026
1 day ago
Anthropic disables Fable and Mythos AI models after U.S. government bars it from giving foreigners access
AI
Anthropic disables Fable and Mythos AI models after U.S. government bars it from giving foreigners access
By Jeremy KahnJune 13, 2026
1 day ago
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen quietly engineered its historic IPO and became an overnight billionaire
C-Suite
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen quietly engineered its historic IPO and became an overnight billionaire
By Sasha RogelbergJune 13, 2026
1 day ago
Trump expects to sign a deal with Iran on Sunday, but Tehran may want to avoid giving him a gift on his birthday
Middle East
Trump expects to sign a deal with Iran on Sunday, but Tehran may want to avoid giving him a gift on his birthday
By Jason MaJune 13, 2026
18 hours ago
'It's not a jailbreak' — Research leading to U.S. export restrictions on top Anthropic models was for defense, cybersecurity CEO says
AI
'It's not a jailbreak' — Research leading to U.S. export restrictions on top Anthropic models was for defense, cybersecurity CEO says
By Jason MaJune 13, 2026
21 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.