Success is better when it is shared!

Your team is vital as it is the way your organisation will get its work done. It is much better to fire up your team than to leave them drained and demotivated. A strong team taps into everyone’s energy and strengths to produce tangible results.

It can combine the energies, skills, expertise, and knowledge of every individual present and accomplish their goals. Read on to know how you can utilise the core strengths of your team what strategies you can adopt to motivate them.

Boost performance with pleasant workspaces

Every person wishes to work in a stimulating and organised workspace that provides inspiration and fresh perspectives. This doesn’t mean you should spend an exorbitant amount of money to make your office look ‘fun’ or ‘chill’. Ask yourself one question – would you feel inspired and motivated to work at the office you are in right now? If the answer is no, then this is exactly how your employees are feeling too.

“We always keep our workspace lively, inspiring, and welcoming. The walls are painted in bright and vibrant colours. The whole office is filled with comfortable sofas and beanbags for people to lounge in while working. The lights are not blinding white ones that will cause a glare on the screen – they are warm, yellow ones that are calming. It is subtle changes like these that make employees feel more stimulated and comfortable while working,” said Dhivya, the sales team lead at a SaaS marketing agency in Coimbatore.

While you are ensuring that the office is inspiring and fun, don’t forget that it should be functional as well. When designing the workspace, make sure you keep ergonomics in mind, so employees are comfortable as well.

Avoid unnecessary meetings

“This meeting could have been an email” – ever come across this statement or said it yourself? You would be surprised to note that an average employee wastes about four hours in unproductive meetings every week. It is good to keep your employees updated about the organisation. But it makes no sense to hold unnecessary meetings that will have no fruitful outcomes. This is also part of time management.

If at all the meeting is unavoidable, plan ahead and hand out the agendas in advance. Let people know what is going to be discussed and fix a specific time duration to cover each topic. Try to invite only those who are relevant to the meeting instead of calling the whole team. It is a waste of time if you are having people counting the hours till they can leave. A majority of your employees will be lazing around and might feel demotivated if they have nothing to contribute to the meeting.

Begin the meeting on time and try to end it as per schedule. You could even split the work among your other employees – ask the people attending the meeting to assign their urgent work to people who aren’t. This will ensure that the invitees can be completely present and focused during the meeting for optimised results.

Provide avenues for self-development

Always remember that your team isn’t here to only help your organisation succeed. They are aiming for personal growth and to gain value as well. Leaders can nurture a confident and motivated team if they are offered opportunities to learn new skills and grow. Try to dedicate time regularly to encourage self-development in your team. Give your team the exposure to advance in their careers. They deserve to gain knowledge and expertise outside their roles and responsibilities.

Some employees might require training to learn about the latest technologies and techniques to progress. Maybe you recently moved to a hybrid workspace and some of your employees are taking time to get used to this new environment. Or they are not aware of industry news and trends to curate relevant content. For all these scenarios, try to motivate your team by dedicating time each week for team sessions. Instead of pinpointing people and calling out their lack of knowledge, hold a workshop for the whole team.

Reward your top talent with good payment

Your best employee must not be working at some other organisation. Pay your people what they are worth to incentivise them to stay. Ensure that their pay grade is consistent with the work they are doing and feel free to give them hikes and bonuses if they go out of their way to contribute to projects. When people go out of their way to achieve success, reward them and appreciate them openly.

Keep track of what other companies are offering and how the work culture is in your industry. Do not lose your best employees because they feel valued elsewhere and you are underpaying them.

Encourage happiness and appreciate your team

Your team needs to feel that they are playing an important role in your business and have tangible results to work towards. You need to reciprocate their efforts by appreciating them and reassuring them that their inputs are necessary. Encourage them to participate in events or discussions and provide their inputs irrespective of your business hierarchy.

Ask them questions and brainstorm ways to improve on their suggestions. Sometimes, it takes just one small nudge to craft a great idea. Listen to your employees and implement their solutions whenever you can. Always remember that happy employees are infectious – their enthusiasm and positivity will motivate others to work better too. On the other hand, unhappiness is equally infectious and if your employees are not happy with their job, the attitude will spread. Try to strike a balance with your employees and arrive at a common ground.

Set goals and avoid micromanaging your team

Nobody wants to work under a dictator who is constantly looking over people’s shoulders to see what they are up to. Imagine how you would feel if you had a manager who was second-guessing all your decisions and provided numerous amendments to your ideas. It is a demotivating situation that will hinder the employee’s personal growth.

Being a welcoming leader, you must learn to trust your employees and give them the freedom to work as per their instincts. It works to set and communicate your goals. You can map out where you are, where you wish to go, and how you think you can get there. Assign roles and responsibilities for each person and let them figure out the best way they can contribute to the team.

“I used to expect my employees to read my mind and arrive at the solutions I had already thought of. I would keep badgering them for updates and was dissatisfied until they arrived at the ideas I wanted. My team began to improve once I left this controlling behaviour and trusted them to know what to do best. My employees reverted to me with better solutions than I had in my mind, and we would collaborate to improve the idea even more,” said the Project Manager of a reputed IT company in Chennai.

In conclusion

Let’s just say that the best way to motivate your team is to make them:

• Feel valued
• Adapt and be flexible
• Feel incentivised to work
• Understand the business’s goals and their role in achieving it
• Feel acknowledged and appreciated
• Find avenues for personal growth

The idea is to equip your team to perform to their full potential while achieving the targets you have set. Ultimately, you will notice a team that grows both personally and professionally. Your team will feel stimulated and motivated to work and put forth their suggestions. To leverage your team’s strengths and efforts, you need to inspire them and motivate them to be the best versions of themselves.