Key Points:

• Part of the responsibilities of a leader or manager is keeping your team motivated and encouraging positive morale.
• Other than pay and benefits, there are eight ways that a manager or leader at a company can motivate their team.

Part of being a leader is keeping your team motivated and maintaining positive morale. The more you can motivate your team, the better the results for the company! Of course, pay and benefits are a huge factor in keeping employees happy, but there are other ways that managers can keep their team motivated. Keep in mind that everyone’s productivity is different throughout the month, but if you have members on your team that is consistently disengaged, it may be time to try one or many of the eight ways below.

8 Effective Ways To Motivate Your Team

1. Transparency – Communicate with your team the goals and vision. Full transparency allows little room for concern about the unknown. When there’s uncertainty in the office, concerns increase, and morale decreases. By communicating with your team, you can keep their worries at ease and give them the information to keep working on what’s at hand.
2. Encouragement – Embrace your team’s different personalities and working styles and encourage individuality. Instead of focusing on weaknesses, allow your team to harness their strengths.
3. Shield – Protecting your team is as crucial as guiding them when motivating your team. By understanding the team’s workload and bandwidth, you can effectively shield them from low priority requests from other employees.
4. Teamwork – Provide opportunities for your team to collaborate and work together. Having your team work together provides new challenges to overcome individually and room for growth.
5. Appreciation – There’s always room for positive encouragement. Share your gratitude for your team’s hard work through compliments and incentives. Those that feel valued and appreciated will want to contribute more. Additionally, it’s important to celebrate small wins for the group’s morale.
6. Communication – Check in with your team regularly and encourage them to communicate with you. This way, you can understand the status of their projects, where there are opportunities, and support them with any concerns. Connecting with your team members is a great way to build on your work relationship and ask questions to understand better what your team members want out of projects and at the company.
7. Opportunities – Create challenging opportunities for employees not to get bored. If there’s a new project that you think a team member has bandwidth for, allow them to work on the project to switch up their routine. Opportunities could also include highlighting certifications you recommend to your team to further their careers.
8. Macro-Management – The last thing your team members want is your hovering over their shoulder as they complete their tasks or nit-picking their emails apart. Give your team members the guidance and information they need to get their responsibilities complete and allow them to work autonomously. If they know you’re there for support, they are sure to ask for it.

Remember that as a leader or manager, you can’t control all aspects of the work culture at your company, but you can make a difference with your team. If you’re looking for more articles like this, check out our article How To Be A Great Leader: 8 Actions To Start Now.