When you’re running a business, your team is your most important asset and biggest resource. Without them the business could not function so it’s essential that your employees feel encouraged and inspired on a daily basis.
In order to achieve great results, you should be constantly thinking about ways you can motivate and inspire your team. Here are some ways you can steer your employees in the right direction and achieve your goals together.
1. Set Challenging Goals
Most people are often capable of doing much more than they do, and not just from a productivity standpoint. Part of good leadership is helping your employees to reach their full potential and letting them know that you have confidence in their ability to handle a bigger challenge is a great motivator for them to meet that goal.
2. Communicate with your staff
Part of clear goal-setting relies on effective communication with your team. Communication is a two-way street and you should make sure that there is a constant flow of communication between you and your employees. This way you can not only keep them up-to-date with what needs to be done but you can also listen to their ideas, opinions and feedback. This will ultimately have a positive impact on your business as they may approach dilemmas in a different way to you.
- Share your vision
You can only motivate and inspire your team if they know what they are working towards. Make sure your employees are aware of your vision and what your ultimate goals for the business are. This encourages everyone to work together to achieve better results. As well as this, regularly set clear and measurable goals that are framed by this vision so that you and your teams can track progress and they are able to see their success in a tangible way. This cultivates productivity and helps employees to feel valued and motivated.
4. Encourage teamwork
The best kind of companies are those where everyone works together cohesively. Encouraging and promoting teamwork boosts productivity because it makes employees feel less isolated and helps them to feel more engaged with their tasks. You can do this by regularly holding team-building exercises and opportunities for your team members to bond and get to know one another.
5. A healthy office environment
Our environment has a significant impact on our productivity, contentment and creativity. Healthy and happy employees are more likely to feel motivated and engaged. Create a space that is enjoyable to work in and an office where your employees want to spend their time. Be conscious of privacy, noise, air quality, natural light, areas to relax and the ambience. Encourage healthy attitudes by offering healthy snacks and access to exercise, whether this is in the form of a gym membership or participating in team exercise classes.
6. Give positive feedback and reward your team
The power of positive praise is sometimes overlooked but recognizing and applauding achievement inspires team members as they can see themselves progressing towards the goals of the company. When employees achieve results, put in extra effort or do outstanding work make sure to tell them that you’re grateful and be specific in your praise. For example, don’t just say ‘good job’, explain why it was a good job and how it helped to benefit the business. This will not only motivate your employee but help them succeed with future work.
7. Offer a Good Benefits Package
In addition to good compensation, benefits packages are a great motivator and another key element to having happy and productive employees. A large paycheck doesn’t mean that much if your star-player has to come in and work when they are ill. Having unreasonable expectations like that are a quick way to make people stop caring about the company’s wellbeing. Consider a strong selection of employee perks to help your employees feel valued.
8. Provide opportunities for development
Team members feel more valuable when they are learning and enhancing their skills. To motivate and inspire your team to achieve great results you should provide your employees with opportunities for growth and development. These opportunities should be tailored specifically to suit the individual employee and can be in the form of further training, setting challenging targets, inviting an employee to shadow you or spending your own time teaching and mentoring somebody. Focus on teaching your team transferable skills they could use in different positions and encourage them to set themselves learning goals.
Motivation is an essential part of any workplace and you should be constantly striving to make your employees feel motivated and inspired. If you do this, you’re sure to achieve the results that you need.