7 steps to create a highly motivated and productive team
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You are as good only as your team. Teams are very important to achieve success in business. As a leader one should be able to mobilize and motivate their team to perform to the best of their abilities. There is often a term used with reference to teamwork – Your team should be able to go through a wall if you want them to.
Are you able to motivate your team and get the best out of them? Or do you aspire to have a high- performance team who will always back you up? If not, let me share with you some tips on how to develop an environment where your team would be motivated to work for you.
1. Trust your team:
You have hired team members with certain level and expertise. They are there because they are good at what they do. Hire the best person for the job and trust them to do their job well. As a leader your job is to instil that confidence in them that they are good at what they are doing. I have seen many times, where some outsider commented something to a leader on a job done by a team member and leader in turn went back to the team member and criticised them. This will hamper the equation between you and the team. That’s said, if the job done does have a scope for improvement you may give them positive criticism.
2. Positive Criticism:
If a team member has not done a great job, please don’t shout at them, hurl abuses or criticize them too harshly in full public view. You can share with them the feedback about the improvement to be done and simply ask them, “How can we make this better? Or How we can improve this?” This makes the team member feel a valuable part of the team and also will create an environment of open communication.
3. Open Communication:
Normally, leaders misunderstand this aspect of communication. Open communication doesn’t just mean sharing all the goals and objectives with the team. I hear a lot of leaders say, “We have a very transparent communication process”. What I mean by open communication is do you also give weightage to the views, opinions, feedback of the team. Sometimes, you can get the best of ideas from the team members, because they are closer to day to day operations or regularly speak to customers. Listen to them, discuss with them their feedback and if good do not hesitate to appreciate it and implement it.
4. Value their expertise and hard work:
Always give credit where there is due. Don’t be that power hungry or attention-grabbing personality who feels that he/she is the centre of universe and is indispensable. Your team mates might be working just hard as you or at times even harder. Value the effort they put in. Appreciate the ideas they would have suggested. Give them credit for any positive outcomes that resulted due to their commitment or hard work.
5. Celebrate Achievements:
Another very important aspect in addition to valuing the contribution of the team is to also celebrate their achievements. Give them rewards whenever there is a major positive impact on the business due to their sincere efforts. Don’t just think that salary should be enough. If need be, give them a small token of appreciation from the company. Recognise their talent and hard work. Things like “Employee of the month” or a letter of appreciation or an email to entire staff informing them about a specific team member’s achievement, goes a long way in making the team member happy. Happy team will only be able to give you outstanding results.
6. Understand the core competency while assigning project assignments:
As a leader you should be aware about the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. Assign them projects which will enable them to use their core competencies to the fullest. If someone is not good at communication skills, do not give them an assignment which involves a lot of communication internally or externally. Understand their capabilities, assign them projects according to their capabilities and see them Rise and Shine.
7. Work Life Balance:
There will be times wherein you will require your team to give extra hours. But make sure that this is not the case always. Having a good work- life balance also will allow the team to work to their full potential. If the team member’s personal life is getting affected due to the long hours that he/she has to put in, very soon his/her productivity at work will also start getting affected. Make sure you give them some break after let’s say a big project has been completed that required more of their time than the usual. You can arrange for and pay for a mini vacation for his/her family. This small gesture can go a long way in terms of creating that loyalty among your team members for the organization.
Last but not the least, make sure you will deal with them the way you want to be dealt with. We all as human beings like to be appreciated, valued and be recognised for the efforts we put in. Just paying them well will not guarantee their support for you or the company. Take good care of them and they will in turn take good care of your business.
Have you in your organisation taken some steps to build a highly motivated and productive team? I would love to know what actions did you take to achieve it. Do write to us and let us know about the same.
Also, please do not hesitate to share this blog across with other leaders who you think can implement these steps.
