Motivate Your Team.
We are all part of teams at work - program teams, project teams, teams of those we manage, etc. If you are a leader of those teams, it can sometimes be a daunting task to try and motivate that team (especially when you, yourself, may not feel that motivated!). Without needing to don the pom poms, here are some motivations tips that, when consistently used with a team, will help improve the overall motivation and demeanor of the team:
1. Foster positivity: Even when you, the team leader, isn't super positive, it's important to have an optimistic outlook for the team. This doesn't mean you have to be bubbly, fake or overly excited (in fact, please don't be those things). If the team is facing tough challenges or difficulty with a task, stay positive and optimistic about the path forward. Keep their heads up and focused on the end goal by ensuring you have a positive mindset as the leader.
2. Communicate often: It's important that team members hear from you often to ensure they feel connected, which in turn will fuel their desire to be part of the team. If there are crickets between team meetings, it can be hard to stay motivated to a task.
3. Lead with transparency: Obviously keep confidential things confidential, but be as transparent as you can be when leading your team. Information that they need is crucial to provide, but sometimes additional context, other information that will help them connect the dots, and making sure they feel in the know about things - which I equate to leading with transparency - is important for motivation. Instead of only saying "we need to do 'X'", think about giving history, current context and other relevant and related information in discussions. This will also get the team to participate more and have better ideas and outcomes.
4. Empower & Give Autonomy: The most important ingredient to team motivation in my personal experience is empowerment and autonomy. I perform my best when I have this and I have seen my teams perform their best when they have it. Empower them to make decisions (depending on level of authority needed, you can ask to review decisions if it's policy to do so or a big enough decision that you need to be involved. But I promise that not every decision is big enough for you to be involved!). Give them the space they need to make mistakes as well. That's how everyone learns.
5. Feedback & Recognition: Give feedback often, and provide recognition in a way your employees or team prefer to receive it.
What have you done in the past to motivate your team?
