Employee Motivation – How to motivate your staff and Set your team on fire
Think and plan for a team dynamic
A team is made up of a set of individuals. Everything you do from strategy downwards should be done with the team dynamic in mind and not the individual. Avoid preaching team yet rewarding individuality. Think carefully about the balance, as it will effect motivation very positively if you think team.
Praise and challenge as a team wherever possible
Share the good and bad if the whole is to be greater than the sum of its parts. Never shy away from this responsibility and always have the facts. Challenges should be presented openly and the team should be encouraged to work out the solutions. Here, the team leader takes on the role of a facilitator, helping the team to arrive at the right solution. When they do it effectively becomes their strategy. This will hugely improve motivation.
Communicate with clarity
Day-to-day activities and tactics have to be communicated. You might think you do this with crystal clarity you probably don’t. Thinking in bullet points can be helpful in ensuring that an important message is understood. The more important the message is, the more essential it is to use written media like email. Follow up verbally to ensure understanding and commitment.
Bring humour and fun to the task
Nothing motivates a team more. A challenge undertaken willingly is far more likely to generate results than one that is inflicted and presided over with a rod of iron. This certainly doesn’t mean that you turn the business into a holiday camp, to the contrary however fun humour and a consistent culture makes it so much easier to go in on a Monday morning.
Hire and fire as a team
If your communications are crystal clear and you are sharing the performance outputs, which go to make up the teams results, it becomes only too obvious who is unable or unwilling to contribute. Wherever possible you should encourage the team to help each other, although in cases where someone simply fails to contribute, that person’s departure from the team should never come as a surprise. Likewise try and involve the team in the recruitment process.
