My Top 5 Strategies for Motivating Your Team

Great leaders know how to motivate others. 

Since the amount you can accomplish on your own is limited, it’s necessary to have the assistance of others. Someone that can motivate others to do their best has an incredibly valuable talent.

Here are my top 5 strategies.

1️⃣Be emotionally supportive. To help others shine, removing the fear of failing or looking foolish is critical. Most people are frozen by fear and prefer to remain comfortable. When fear is greater than motivation, nothing happens. Removing fear can be just as effective as instilling additional motivation.

2️⃣Ask for ideas. You might hear a few ideas that are better than your own. It’s easier for others to get excited about their own ideas than to get excited about yours. Using ideas from your team will create a sense of purpose and involvement.
⚠If you ask for ideas but never use any of them, you turn this into a demotivator.
🤐Also, if you use the idea and never follow up and tell them that you did, they won’t know!

3️⃣Be clear. Vagueness breeds confusion. Confusion saps enthusiasm. When the objective and the necessary steps are clear, motivation is easier to generate. Ensure that everyone is clear on their roles.
😵I’ve had the unfortunate experience to work in an organization that didn’t value this. As a result entire teams wasted hours and hours trying to figure out their specific roles instead of using that energy toward innovation or continuous improvement.

4️⃣Be publicly supportive. It’s one thing to support an employee in the privacy of your office. It’s quite another to be supportive in front of her co-workers.
💡 This also holds true for your peers. Nothing motivates a peer to get on board with your initiative than you publicly complimenting them or supporting them in front of the boss😉

5️⃣Deal swiftly with dissenters. It only takes one dissenting, charismatic employee to bring the whole thing crashing down. There’s often one complainer that tries to undermine the enthusiasm of everyone else. Don’t underestimate the damage this one person can do. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with them. They may have legitimate objections that you can address. However, if they don’t, then you will have to develop a plan to minimize their role.