When you’re running a business with a team of people, you’ve got to make sure they never take their eyes off the prize.
In fact, first, you have to make sure there is a prize for them to focus on!
We, as people, need to be motivated in order to perform and succeed. Not just in business either, this applies to every single aspect of our lives, our careers, our families – literally, everything.
When it comes to sports, the motivation is to hold an accolade and be awarded for effort and to stand on the podium and receive the trophy.
When it comes to our careers, we perform in order to enjoy the fruits of our labour. For instance, if you take a job with a better salary as the result of you learning more about your role, you can inevitably enjoy the benefits of a larger salary, like buying a bigger house, or buying the house in the first place!
You get my drift. We’ve all got a prize in mind, and we need to be motivated to want that. We all have different motivations in life because we’re all wired differently. In the workplace, however, there are key motivations that work well in order to keep your staff in check and performing to the standard necessary for your business to continue to grow.
Here are 5 ways to motivate your team:
1.Share Your Vision & Set Goals
If you’re on a mission to win and grow your business, involve your team in that mission and get them accustomed with your goals and the goals of the business.
In order to succeed, everyone needs to be headed in the same direction. Not only this, you can incentivise milestones to make this even more motivational and appealing to your team. For instance, if we reach X number of clients by the end of the quarter, we can have a team weekend away or bonuses, etc. Give them a piece of the pie!
2. Give Positive Feedback
In a lot of cases – and I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past – we don’t communicate effectively with our team unless there’s an issue or a problem. We forget to praise the good stuff and focus on the problems in order to move forward.
This does not motivate a team, in fact, it has the opposite effect!
Wherever you can find an opportunity to praise a member of your team for a job well done – grab it with both hands!
3. Physically Reward Your Team
As much as verbal and written feedback can be well received, physical rewards are an excellent motivator – understandably!
We’ve always made sure that incentives are on the table for our staff, whether that be team nights, team days, additional holiday days, monetary bonuses, vouchers, prizes, holidays. In fact, last year, we took everyone to Dubai for the weekend!
A positive experience or physical reward that can be enjoyed by your team will keep them feeling positive and motivated to get that reward again!
4.Provide Opportunities For Development
If you’re hiring or working with the right kind of people to grow your business, the vast majority of your team won’t be content just ‘standing still’ and I would suspect this applies to a lot of different businesses out there.
To motivate your team to become the best version of themselves, it’s important that you – as a business owner – provide ample opportunities for development.
At The Interactive Team, we have a lot of professional development programmes in place for our Consultants, and we even work with a dedicated Business Coach for our senior leadership team to support them in driving the business forward.
If you’re not sure which professional development opportunities would best suit the needs of your staff to ensure that they continue to improve or upskill – open the floor and ask them – you might be surprised!
5.Create A Healthy Working Environment
You’ve got to give your team a reason to get out of bed in the morning and go make the most of the working day. Of course, if you’re doing all of the above in terms of offering physical rewards and development opportunities and sharing your goals and praising them, a lot of those boxes will be ticked.
But consider how their actual daily working environment might motivate them further.
A team member coming to work in a tiny, cramped cubicle with little room and no allowance for personalisation or to make their space their own will inevitably be far more demotivated than a team member who has the space and options to thrive and enjoy the workspace.
Even introducing small incentives in the office, such as free fruit in the canteen or premium coffees to go, or discounts for local business services. Any small token will be greatly received; perks work!
So, with all that in mind, how do YOU motivate your team?
