How to Motivate Your Team
Even teams that love the work they are doing can lose focus. Everyday tasks can make us forget why we love doing a job in the first place. This loss of meaning leads to a lack of motivation and procrastination. So, what steps can you take as a leader to motivate your team and get them excited for future projects?
Show Appreciation
This one may seem obvious, but compliments make a giant impact. When you give detailed feedback to your team, they feel valued. Tell them what you are impressed with. Being complimented sends off chemical receptors in the brain that make us feel good.
As a leader, you don’t want to manipulate. However, you want your team to feel good about their work, and regularly praising your team is one of the easiest ways to accomplish this. Keep in mind that giving specific compliments about things they are actually doing great at makes it much more genuine.
This is a great way to open the door for feedback in the future as well. Often we give out team things to improve on without telling them what they are doing well. When they are consistently reminded of what makes them a valuable team member, they will be far less defensive when receiving criticism.
Cast Vision
Make sure you are constantly casting vision. Share the reasons why what you’re doing is meaningful. A great way to do this is to share your school or company’s mission statement at meetings. However, keep in mind that using this too much can make the mission statement feel less effective with your team over time.
Another great way to cast vision is to give projects to your team and explain to them how this specifically contributes to the mission. This makes them feel like an important part of the organization. When they begin to feel unmotivated, they can remember what they’re doing truly matters.
Overall, the key method to motivate your team is to remind them of their importance. The day-in and day-out tasks tend to make us focus on the task rather than the outcome. This makes us feel like gears in a machine rather than valuable individuals. When we feel valuable, we are more likely to show that in our daily performance.