Motivating Your Team

We understand how hard it is in the current economic climate to keep your employees motivated and working together as a team. But now, more than ever, it is essential that everyone believes in the company goals, understands his or her role, and is striving to tighten the team bonds.

So if you’re serious about improving your team’s performance then the following activities will help bring them on board, keep them focused, and can prevent many of the problems that undermine a team’s ability to perform effectively.

1. Help your team connect with the bigger picture by revisiting your vision and mission and ensuring everyone understands what the company is striving to achieve.

2. Share your long term strategic plan and shorter term business or operational plan with the team, show them what needs to happen within the next 12 months to fulfill the company’s objectives, and what their role is in that process. Clarity and direction are critical requirements for high performance teams.

3. Simplify where possible. Break your 12-month operational plan into 90-day short-term plans. This makes prioritisation easier and increases action and accountability. 90-day deadlines are more immediate, and will focus team effort and attention.

4. Review progress regularly. At the end of each 90-day period, review actuals against targets for that period, assess how that stacks up with your 12-month operational plan and with your long-term strategic plan.

5. Good decision-making relies on up-to-date information, so to be effective your teams need to know everything about your markets and your customers. Make sure your systems – formal and informal – support quality knowledge sharing amongst the teams.

6. Teams are dependent on quality communications, so make sure team meetings are held regularly and cancelled only in emergencies. Regular meetings will be vital to keep your team on track, motivated and focused. Use them to communicate priorities, identify any problems or concerns sooner rather than later, share ideas and look for opportunities.

7. Training is often one of the first budgets to be cut when cash is tight, but highly skilled teams will only remain highly skilled if you continue to invest in their training and development. Ensure the training and personal development is linked firmly to your business goals to get the best Return on Investment.

8. Regular appraisals should be part of your human relations strategy, but if not then you should schedule time every six months for one-to-one meetings with each of your employees. Assess their training needs, but take into consideration personal development needs as well; it’s a key factor in employee satisfaction and retention – you don’t want to invest a fortune training a key member of your team for them to leave and join your competitors.

9. Take time to build relationships out with appraisals and team meetings. Get to know your employees better. Having informal conversation will mean you understand workloads, or can pick up small problems before they become big ones. It will also make you more approachable and employees will feel more comfortable in raising potential problems or admitting mistakes.

10. Rewards and recognition are absolutely vital, both for the individual and for the team. It’s great for boosting morale and building relationships between team members. Involve your team in developing the reward and recognition plan, ensuring it’s linked to specific achievements. And don’t forget the personal touch; handwritten notes and verbal acknowledgements cost nothing, but are just as valuable.

11. And don’t forget to have fun!

This is clearly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to teambuilding and motivation. If you want to learn more, Sulis Enterprises offers bespoke team building programmes. For more information, please contact norma@sulis-enterprises.com

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