Motivate Your Team!

     We are all familiar with how important motivating your team is. Motivation is critical to creativity and productivity. When your team is demoralized they will not be excited to find new ways of doing business. Your team will be going through the motions and performing under their capacity and ability. So how do you motivate your team?      We know the most common ways – empower your team, value them, care for each individual, treat each employee with respect to name a few. These are common to most managers, but unfortunately a high number of managers fall short of these. Before I move on to share with you the most successful method of motivating your team, I do want to highlight that these areas are important to successful leadership. Find out how to tap into them and practice them daily. But is there something that naturally and without much effort motivates a team?
     To answer this question, I want to start by asking a question. What’s it like to work with someone who is negative? What is like to work with someone who starts the day off complaining about their work and others? What is like to work with someone who is always expecting something bad to happen to them? What is like to work with someone who is always sick or in pain? This type of individual is not very fun to be around right? And it’s probably also safe to say that you don’t gravitate towards this individual. You may even intentionally avoid them knowing that if you run into them you’ll be forced to listen to how bad something is. As you can see, this type of behavior is very demoralizing. As a result, a leader who wants to motivate his team has to be the very opposite!
     A leader who wants to and needs to motivate his team has to exude positive energy! By simply being enthusiastic and optimistic people will gravitate towards to you. They will want to work on projects with you. They will want to be a part of your team because they know that working with you will bring them joy and excitement through the course of the day. Jack Welch in his book Winning says that positive energy people “start the day with enthusiasm and usually end it that way too, rarely seeming to tire in the middle.” He adds that “people with positive energy just love life.” Have you ever worked for or with someone like this? How did this person make you feel? Positive energy individuals have the ability to motivate others because they have the energy to motivate themselves. You will never be able to energize others, if you can’t energize yourself. Positive energy stems from your inner core. Its how you look at life, how you view your role in your job, in your family, or even on earth. Are you excited to be living the life you have or are you constantly depressed about who you are and what you have to do? You have to take a moment and honestly evaluate yourself and determine if you exude positive or negative energy. If you already exude positive energy then great, keep it up. You will notice your team will be more and more motivated to accomplish what is needed. People simply want to be around and work for individuals who have a great outlook on life.
     Once you have a positive outlook and exude positive energy, you can begin to energize others. In Winning Jack Welch states that “people who energize can inspire their team to take on the impossible – and enjoy the hell out of doing it.” This doesn’t mean giving fancy speeches or giving out mugs for rewards – it’s a combination of skills that vary from person to person. But they are derived from one common source – positive energy. If you have a desire to motivate others or you have a team that you have recently taken on and you know they need to be motivated – then lead by example. People who are motivated are energized. So lead that way. Arrive to work excited and ready to go. Don’t just slowly stroll into the office – walk with a purpose. Have passion for what you are about to do. Jack describes passion as a “heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work.” He continues to say that people with passion “love to learn and grow, and they get a huge kick when the people around them do the same.” Involve your team, point out the great aspects of your work or project. Praise people in your organization and those working directly for you. Have fun and laugh at yourself. By doing so, you will create an environment with positive energy which will energize your team. And when your team is energized, I guarantee they will be motivated to create and produce more than you could ever imagine!