Being a Leader that’s Motivating Your Team for the Year Ahead

Motivating and inspiring are the quintessential aspects of leadership, no matter whether you are a seasoned or a new leader. It becomes even more important and challenging when we all are working or are on-boarded virtually, without seeing each other for months or even years! As we look at returning to offices albeit hybrid mode, motivation assumes forefront. Motivated and happy employees become valuable assets and contribute to the organization’s growth.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, it is all about growing others .” - Jack Welch

As leaders, we all have our own ways of motivating our teams. Some of the key steps to motivate, in general, would be :

Now let us look at some effective strategies to keep your team motivated f1.or the year ahead:

1. Brainstorm with Team for Ideas

Reiterate the vision of the organization and gather ideas to create a plan for the year. Involving your team in drawing up the plan will leave them feeling valued and their morale boosted.

2. Prioritize and Delegate

Once the ideation is done, prioritizing the relevant ideas paves way for setting challenging yet realistic goals for the year. Most people are inclined to perform better when they must work towards achieving the targets. It is also important to divide the goals into manageable tasks with regular milestones, and delegate rather than holding on. Decentralization brings in better ownership and productivity, as it offers autonomy.

3. Facilitate Teamwork

Targets are like puzzles. When the team works on their delegated tasks and supports each other, the missing blocks also resurface to solve the puzzle. All we need to do as leaders is to provide them with the necessary direction and resources to do their job better.

4. Be A Leader Who Walks the Talk

Leadership is multi-dimensional. Facilitate autonomy with responsibility for your team to be proactive and productive. Inspire your team by going the extra mile to know each one of them, and actively support them through this change of returning to office or adapting to a hybrid work culture.

5. Review and Reward

Timely review and tracking of progress made towards achieving the goals helps in quality work and saves any duplication of efforts. Constructive and positive feedback is crucial to encourage them and create a platform for their growth. Similarly, recognize their efforts and reward them.

As James Patterson says ,“Sometimes being a leader is about doing what is right, instead of what is powerful”.

“All work and no fun” can be a great demotivator at work. Hence fun awards, non-purposive catch ups and sharing can be the add-ons in your ‘armour’ while keeping your team happy and motivated to show up for their respective roles each day.

Source: HD Monthly Influencer, Being a Leader that’s Motivating Your Team for the Year Ahead ; authored by Consultant @ Human Dynamic.