Inspiring your team to perform at a high level is a deceptively complex process. While many assume that it’s a matter of word choice – that is, if you have the right words, magically they will become hyper-motivated – but the truth is, true motivation comes from within. No one will be inspired to do anything that they don’t already feel is necessary, so if you’re looking to lead your team, you have to create that internal drive.
But how is a leader supposed to appeal to their team’s internal desires? While there’s no silver bullet for this type of behavior, there are still a few ways that you can help manifest that motivation.
1. Communicate Regularly With Your Staff
Great communication is the backbone of an effective workforce. Your staff should feel open and encouraged to discuss matters pertaining to their own career goals, as well as any concerns they may have about their current work. While there are limitations to what’s appropriate, encourage dialogue between you and your staff to foster a stronger relationship.
A good leader seeks to understand their team so that they can later empower them. Once you recognize their unique struggles, you can then set about to help them overcome them, or help with their current career goals. Moreover, by getting to know your staff as a whole, you’ll be able to enlist the help of others to encourage the team as well.
2. Empower Them With Self-Management
Most people do not like to be micromanaged. They view it as overbearing, invasive, and at its core, untrusting. People like to feel that they are free to do their own work, which is one of the reasons telecommuting is on the rise.
But your employees don’t need to work from home in order to feel like they’re their own boss; empower your employees while they’re at work by giving them responsibilities that may be a step beyond their current job definition. While you’re doing that, encourage them with both words and actions: giving them the tools they need as well as support to accomplish the task. By allowing them to grow beyond their current capacity for work, you’ll empower them to reach farther and achieve more than even they thought possible.
3. Find Out What Motivates Them
Every person on this earth has something that makes them tick, and it’s usually not something as superficial as money or fame. While everyone likes a bonus, what really drives people is a sense of accomplishment, personal growth, or a project that they can sink their teeth into. This involves getting to know your employees’ core values and catering the work projects to their individual pursuits. One of the best ways to do this is to take them to a team building Denver, where they can grow as a team. For additional help in identifying these core values, here’s a quick exercise.
4. Have Clearly Defined Roles For Everyone
While you may feel like everyone should be able to step into everyone else’s shoes to complete their work, should the need present itself, not everyone is able to perform every task efficiently. Indeed, forcing them to fulfill job roles that they are not suited for will not only result in discouragement but possibly a mutiny as well.
When delegating tasks for a certain assignment, play to your team’s strengths and desires. If you have an employee that is a rock star in one area, assign them for that work. In addition to that, if you have someone on your staff that may not be particularly adept at that same job but desperately wants to learn, allow them to help.
Having clearly defined roles for people within your work allows them to know exactly what it is that they’re doing and to perform it most efficiently. A team that does everything will eventually accomplish nothing, so make sure that everyone knows their specific function and executes it accordingly.
