So when you are a leader of a business, be it the CEO, MD, a manager of sorts or even the owner, you will have a number of elements that your success or failure will be judged on.
These can include, but are not limited to results of a certain campaign or activity, the all-important bottom line as well as the growth of the brand. It is however, the success of the morale of your team , that your leadership is most often measured by. Are the people within your team happy, productive, and motivated? If you can answer yes to all of these (with confidence), these are signs of a good manager.
The question is, how do you inspire and motivate your team, so that they give their best effort every day? Here are a few methods that you can use to inspire and motivate in your team.
1) Show trust
A guaranteed way that you will be able to inspire others is to show that you have faith in their ability to get the job done. This can be done by assigning them more responsibility and the agency to make the necessary decisions to succeed. By doing this, it shows trust in them, which has a way of motivating people to keep doing their best and continue to strive for excellence.
Should you do the opposite and micromanage or hovering over their shoulders at every step of the way, is counterproductive because it will make them nervous. If your employees are too afraid to try new things for fear of failure, they won’t be giving you their best. Give them greater autonomy and responsibility and more often than not your team will rise to the challenge.
2) Incentivize
Incentives are a great way for you to motivate your team. Reward people for a job well done, and they’ll be more likely to repeat the performance and do what it takes to earn the reward. Make use of positive reinforcement as often as possible. You can incentivize your employees with rewards such as cash prizes, free lunch, an afternoon off, tickets to a sports event or show, or even gift vouchers should they achieve the targets. One of the best parts about utilizing incentives is that it can spark friendly, and healthy, competition in the workplace, and does wonders for the culture of your company.
3) Invest in your team
As noted, in point 1 (show trust), another way to inspire and motivate your employees is by investing in them and developing them into better employees. Offering, a mentoring program, one-on-one coaching, and job shadowing with people in higher positions sends a clear message: you care about their career and want to see them working for you in the future. Something as simple as having a meeting with your employees to discuss their career paths and make sure they stay on that track can work wonders. Aside from improving skills and increasing staff knowledge, this kind of investment in employee career pathing gives them a reason to stay with the company for the long-term rather than be on the lookout for another job offer. When your employees grow and improve, so does the company.
4) Give them a purpose
No matter what your job title and role is, all employees want to know that their jobs matter. As a leader you need to highlight to your employees that they matter to the business. Emphasizing the importance of all employee contributions (and giving people credit for good work) builds a sense of confidence and achievement, which in turn motivate people to keep working harder. In addition to this, it shows that you care as much about the people within the business, as the business itself.
5) Include them
It can be discouraging to your employees when they see big decisions made without knowing anything about them. It can leave the employees feeling isolated and undervalued. It is however simple to work around this issue. Step one, ask your employees’ opinions, input and thoughts on the matter. Do this and you can get their buy-in, as well as avoid huge negativity should employees not back your decisions.
In today’s highly competitive workplace, with many people switching jobs every few years, staff turnover can be a big concern for business owners. You can slow this down by placing some of your leadership focus on employee engagement, motivation and training. This will help to build a solid foundation for employee management and growth, ensuring your staff are motivated and inspired.
Crafted by Chris Midgley