Motivating Your Team

Exploring factors that play a role in team motivation. From specific motivational factors such as level of personal interest to enabling successful motivation through goal setting.

The Importance of Motivating your Team

The people of a business are the most important and most valuable resource organisations/businesses have. In order to retain employees and get the most out of them, they have to be motivated and engaged in what they do on a day-to-day basis.

Motivating Factors

There are evidently common denominators that prove to motivate us such as:

Wages
Good working conditions
Team spirit
A good relationship with your boss

However, in this modern world, we live in today, these factors are more frequently being met, losing their capability to motivate us in such a way. Society now pursues other incentivising factors such as power and control, growth opportunities, challenging and difficult work and recognition for exceeding expectations in the workplace. Therefore:

Each member of a team has to be motivated for the entire team to be motivated.
Every individual is driven by different stimuli, meaning the same technique cannot be used successfully for all employees. As a manager, you have to understand these variances and establish individual drivers. A One-to-One meeting can be a good opportunity to find this out.

Goal Setting

Moreover, setting clear and precise team goals allows all members to inclusively work together toward a collective, shared vision. Contributing to an end product motivates an employee to produce good work as they feel like they have a purpose and responsibility.

A **SMART ** (Specific-Measurable-Achievable-Realistic-Time based) approach helps produce effective goals.

Tips on Motivating Your Team as a Manager

Try and avoid boring work and getting into too much of a routine in the workplace you manage. No matter how self-motivated one is if the work is ‘same old - same old and poorly organised, it is hard to stay positive and actively working.
Provide a working environment employees can excel in and constantly develop new skills and abilities to grow within the department.
The office is normally a fast-paced work environment where as soon as one target is met, all eyes change focus to the next set objective. Why not celebrate success? A richly-deserved pat on the back contributes a feel-good factor. As they say ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step’ – So why not acknowledge each step of success.
Furthermore, a healthy competition reward could be introduced to enhance motivation if necessary, such as voting for ‘Employee of the Month’. As a manager, you are in such a powerful and meaningful position, that frequently praising and acknowledging team members’ good work can go a long way. Whether this is informal praise, public recognition in front of co-workers or via email – it doesn’t take much to give employees the credit they deserve. It makes them feel valued and appreciated, which in turn will motivate them to work harder.
Additionally, Managing Team Expectations effectively works as a motivator as the more that is expected from them, the harder they will work.
As a manager, another factor that can encourage your team is Avoiding Micromanagement . Constantly hovering over team members’ shoulders won’t motivate them to produce quality work, but trusting them to do the job will. Giving members a sense of authority and liberty to work will naturally encourage them to do well as they can uniquely contribute to the organisation.

Summary

Encouraging the team boosts self-esteem, morale, confidence and productivity. A win-win for you, them and the business. In sum, to motivate a team, each team member has to be motivated. Apply incentives and opportunities uniquely tailored to them. The way work and the workplace are designed has a strong impact on performance. Teams will only reach their full potential if their manager is a good motivator. Consistently give effective appraisals throughout the year.