How To Motivate Your Team

Regardless of how much you invest into your company operations, true profit is driven by a motivated team. A low level of motivation can lead to stunted productivity, poor quality of work, lower engagement, and overall low morale. So, the real question is; how do you motivate your team?

Surely, you wouldn’t want that. Luckily, you can always motivate your team to perform better and enjoy better performance outcomes. Motivating your team and employees always bring results for personal and organizational success.

8 Ways to Keep Your Team Motivated

Understand that man is the greatest resource any company can have. To achieve your organizational goals, you need to maintain a motivated workforce. Managers must recognize that motivating individuals today requires:

• Admiration
• Respect
• Constructive criticism and honest feedback
• Healthy work life balance
• Space to grow
• Opportunities for development

Here we will discuss ways in which you, as a leader, can motivate your team.

1.??Make Them Feel Important

All humans inherently have the need to feel important, to feel respected, valued, and appreciated. Similarly, at the workplace, employees who feel important and valued tend to work harder at their job. They are also happier at their job and feel motivated enough to go above and beyond.

Research has shown that employees who feel important and valued are more likely to report better physical and mental health and higher levels of motivation than those who do not feel valued by their employers.

As a leader, you should offer words of gratitude to your employees for their specific contributions, acknowledge what they do at the workplace, and offer recognition to make them feel valued. It wouldn’t hurt you to say ’way to go team’ once in a while.

2.??Lead by Example

A motivational leader can take their organization to the next level. They see the best in their employees and further inspire them to work harder to achieve common goals.

The best leaders are those who are consistent, ethical, and genuine. They help their team see the challenges that lie ahead, the goal they are working towards, and how they will navigate their way to them. A leader, after all, is meant to be the change you wish to see in your organization. Their model behavior is what motivates their team to follow in their footsteps.

The best way to lead by example is to show commitment to the team and your work. Show up with energy and work alongside the team, listen to what they have to say, and offer words of encouragement. Remember that your team looks up to you, be supportive, and set a good example.

3.??Set Challenging Goals

As a leader, you can motivate employees through goal setting. You should offer SMART goals, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Your goals should provide clarity on what your team needs to achieve and mentally prepare you for what’s ahead.?

Studies have shown that setting goals can actually increase performance and productivity by around 11%-25% . SMART goals tend to motivate employees because they give direction and allow employees to think outside of the box to achieve goals. On the other hand, poor, vague goals won’t motivate your employees and instead will hinder productivity.?

?4.?Offer Positive and Honest Feedback

Offering positive feedback allows you to reinforce good performance in an employee; it further builds self-esteem and self-confidence. Even if your employee hasn't performed well, offering honest feedback is vital as it promotes improvement. It encourages them to complete their goals and objectives and allows them to recognize the areas that call for improvement.

Moreover, when quick and daily feedback is provided right away, it has a better impact on employees' overall behavior, motivation, and performance.

5. Share a Clear Vision

Setting a clear vision allows your team to track their progress as they achieve individual smaller goals, and they are further able to see their success in a tangible way. A vision helps to motivate employees to work towards a common shared goal. Think of it this way, if your employees aren’t really sure of what you hope to achieve, they can’t help you achieve it.

Studies further show that organization vision is positively related to creative performance in their work roles. This is why as a leader, you should clearly communicate your vision for your organization to your employees so they may act with purpose and passion and feel motivated to deliver.

6. Offer Opportunities for Development

Your employees will feel more motivated to perform well in the workplace if offered opportunities for growth and development. Keep in mind that as a leader, you need to offer individual opportunities tailored to each of your team members' needs.

Moreover, when your team can acquire new skills and work on their development, they can return those skills to the workplace, allowing them to perform better at their jobs. An employer who is offered growth opportunities will further have a stronger sense of belonging with their company, reducing turnover rates.

To prove this point, refer to the global study conducted by BlessingWhite , according to which nearly 26% of employees stated they would quit their job due to a lack of growth opportunities.

7. Promote a Healthy Work Environment

The type of environment you provide your employees will directly influence their individual and team motivation to work. A positive and healthy work environment will motivate employees to deliver high-quality, consistent work, whereas a toxic, draining work environment will pull down this motivation to deliver. To make your space more enjoyable to work in, add some natural lighting, offer areas to relax, add ergonomic furniture, think of privacy, and offer break rooms with healthy snacks.

But apart from the physical environment and occupational health, you should also work on fostering a positive workplace culture that keeps your employees happy.

8. Communicate with Your Team

Finally, as a leader, you must communicate with your employees. Clear and frequent communication will help boost your team's morale and motivate them to perform well . Today's organizations are run by multi-functional teams that want to communicate with their higher-ups; unquestioned authority is never appreciated. You should promote both upward and downward communication in your organization.

Downward communication will allow you to communicate decisions taken by the management and explain them in grounded reasoning, so your employees are motivated to convert them into action. Similarly, upward communication will allow leaders to see issues from employees' points of view. Employees want to be heard and can offer creative suggestions that are key when it comes to effective decision-making and devising ways to improve the organization as a whole.?

I'd love to partner with you and your team and craft a workshop to meet the needs of your organization. Workshop ideas that I have facilitated in the past are: Branding like a Boss, Owning Your Career Path, Taking The Lead On Change, and so much more.

Dm me to discuss your needs.