6 Ways to Motivate Your Team

These can rip the soul out of any worker. Too often, meetings are a waste of time and unnecessary. Numerous staff meetings can be replaced by the informal communication that goes on daily, and there are productivity websites such as Evernote where messages can be communicated back and forth to the entire team quickly. If you must have meetings, limit them to one hour and not a minute more! It is simple to situate yourself where you can easily see a timepiece.

While this is sometimes misinterpreted, it goes to the heart of the idea of not micromanaging. It also underscores the importance of assigning challenging responsibility to a staff that is highly educated and wishes to contribute. The leader’s responsibility here is to provide help when it is needed.

Management pundits will all recommend the importance of attention, and they are not wrong. Younger staff people, in particular, want to be noticed and not ignored. However, just giving out certificates or other acknowledgments may not be sufficient. Many staff grew up with “feel-good” awards handed to them in school. A leader needs to go a little bit beyond.

Training opportunities provided indicate a concern on the part of the leader for a subordinate's development. Allowing creativity to be a part of a person’s work contribution recognizes the value this individual brings to the table. Attention also is giving each person some time to provide feedback. These can be informal, 15 minutes, meetings in the office. Such time allows a person to appreciate the team leader is noticing them.

Sweatshop conditions are not the way to impress or motivate highly skilled people. Paying attention to the ambiance of the workplace is going to help. It means making use of white noise to cover any distracting sounds. Additionally, windows are great but can bring in a lot of hot sunlight. Having window film put on the glass to block ultraviolet rays can make the area more comfortable.

A leader can consider an alternative to the traditional work area. Telecommuting is becoming a means of getting the work done. An employee can work out of his or her home, saving the need to fight traffic into the city. Allowing a person to telecommute is a way of recognizing outstanding performance. It can be a very strong motivator, and someone who has small children will greatly appreciate the work-from-home opportunity.

Goals and objectives are crucial to any organizational success. They cannot be vague, and there must not be any misunderstanding about what the team leader expects. Good motivational tools include setting timetables and benchmarks for tasks to be completed. These measures can be team oriented as well as individual.

Employees do not exist 24/7 for their jobs. They have outside interests and activities as well as family concerns. A good leader recognizes that. He or she will take pains to be sure that work scheduling does not conflict with important outside activities. While it is a good idea to take an interest in a person’s interests, there is no need to ask for any more information than an individual is willing to share.

The American workplace has come a long way. The days of Corporate Man are gone as well as the problems this type of environment created. Leaders have an opportunity to exercise the full range of their emotional intelligence to help employees be more efficient in their jobs, and deliver the output necessary to be competitive. It does not require elaborate schemes or sophisticated strategies to motivate people. Essentially, basic empathy skills with an eye toward efficiency will be enough to enable a leader to guide a team toward corporate destinations.