Success in business is rarely down to technical skill or knowledge alone. Knowing how to get the most from your team is a sign of being a successful manager and often leads to a successful business. The key to this is how you motivate people and give them space to develop themselves to their full potential.

Being able to motivate your team successfully starts with wanting the best for people. If you care to find out about them and their needs and ambitions, you will find what motivates them. This will keep them performing at their best.

These are some suggestions for motivating your team:

1. You have to be motivated yourself to motivate others.

2. Motivation needs to be focused on clear, specific, realistic, and achievable goals.

3. Seeing progress towards those goals gives a sense of achievement and helps revive motivation.

4. Motivation never lasts – there are always hurdles along the way that drain energy or distractions that take your eye off the ball.

5. Everyone has different motivations – you just need to find what they are. They may well be different from yours and will give you useful insights into what drives people. Ask your people what they want from their job, and for the business as a whole. Also, what do they want for themselves in life overall?

Your staff may say money is a motivator – but look closely and you will find that it is a stepping stone to another goal. For instance, a desire for power, recognition, early retirement, or travel.

1. A sense of belonging motivates – the smaller the group to which someone belongs, the stronger the loyalty, motivation, and effort.

2. Participation motivates – people feel more motivated when they feel their involvement in a project is important and valued. Often we exclude our greatest assets – the people around us, from decisions in which we could include them.

3. Challenges motivate and people often rise to the occasion. However, it can also be demotivating if they are unobtainable, or conversely, too easy to achieve.

4. Motivation needs recognition and reward – even something as simple as a thank you.

What causes demotivation?

1. Constantly moving goalposts – people lose sight of goals, or feel they will never reach them and so cease to care about them anymore.

2. Not knowing what is going on. If you do not bother to tell people what is happening, you can demotivate and possibly alienate them too. Uncertainty is a very negative emotion within a group.

3. Not showing faith or trust in people.

4. Arbitrary decisions are not consistent for all members of staff, and humiliate people in front of their peers.

5. Pay, work conditions, or available facilities can affect motivation and often small changes can bring large differences.

Some signs of demotivation

1. Increased absenteeism/sickness.

2. Incomplete or careless work.

3. Lack of concentration.

Motivate yourself

Before you can inspire others to extend themselves, you need to develop your own sense of motivation. Here are some tips to help you.

1. Build your confidence and develop self-belief. Success doesn’t always go to the strongest person, but to the person with the greatest conviction.

2. If you work alone, identify an understanding person with whom you can talk through business issues and who will encourage you. A mentor can help here.

3. If you feel overwhelmed by a daunting task, such as sorting out your tax or personal finances, it tends to affect the rest of your attitude. There are three ways you could deal with a large task:

4. Divide it up into smaller chunks and start immediately on the first chunk.

5. Use an independent specialist who can relieve you of the anxiety of dealing with the task and will have more knowledge on the subject.

6. Delegate the task to a member of your staff. Delegation can be a great motivator – but dumping an unwanted job on someone isn’t.

7. Assess, plan, act. Write a plan for yourself for the next year, both in business and personal terms. Set tough, but realistic objectives with timescales. We all react positively to these.

8. Also write down why you want to do something, even if the reasons hardly seem valid. Something as simple as ‘I want a clear desk so I don’t have to start the day in a mess’ is valid. Clean it up tonight and start tomorrow afresh.

9. Use picture power or imagination to ‘fix’ your goals. Have you ever seen something in a shop window and longed for it? It is easier to visualise having something that you can see, so visualise the result you want. Savor the emotions you will feel when (not if) you land that order. Also, collect pictures that summarise these emotions – your dream house, boat, car, or holiday – and pin these around your desk to remind yourself why you are doing it all.

10. Tell people what you are going to do – it will make you feel more committed.

11. Compile a record of past successes. When you feel you are achieving nothing, review your records to remind yourself what you have achieved!

12. Finally – give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it for having the strength of character to go out and make things happen.

Solutions guides

We have a range of solutions guides covering all areas of business. 

HERE’S A BESPOKE STAFF INCENTIVE IDEA FROM 2 NIGHTS

FIRST… Let us define the term incentive. – A reward bestowed on either an individual or a group of individuals (TEAM) as a sign of appreciation. This is how incentives work within corporate organisations.

THE THREE STAGES

Assuming that there are over 100 employees and all had decided to compete for the reward. The reward could be a 2-night expense paid for a weekend at a selected location. In order to qualify, individuals would need to do is beat their own given production targets in order to compete to be within the top 20 qualified. LET US EXPLAIN.

STAGE 1 – THE PRE-GAUNTLET. Always allow a minimum lead time of three months. There is a good reason for this. By introducing a three or even six-month track period, you allow individuals to digest the value of the prize being offered. (Examples of incentives shown below- scroll down). The only condition is that only the top 20 will be selected.

This above is known as the build-up-excitement period. This is as important as the event itself. Once an individual has been awarded a place, you would need a space between the time of being notified and the actual departure date. This time difference allows that key individual to have enough time to have told everyone he or she would know.

STAGE 2 – THE EVENT ITINERARY. This is what the 100 would be competing for. These are designed on client guidelines to determine the rewards being provided.  (SEE NOTE A BELOW).

STAGE 3 – ENCOURAGED TO ENTER THE NEXT INCENTIVE PROGRAM. On the first day back in the office. The gossip, the experienced excitement shared amongst the 20. Besides, the bragging stage often leads to envy and other employees to work harder in order to get themselves on the next corporate incentive.

NOTE A – All incentives are categorised as an allowable business expense and this goes towards helping an organisation grow. In turn, will help an organisation also reduce its corporation tax bill. (YOUR ACCOUNTANTS WILL CONFIRM THIS)

We are all aware that 100 originally participated, yet only 20 were permitted.

What about the 80 that did not qualify…  In fact, that cost for the 20 that are lucky enough to be awarded a travel incentive has been subsidised by the excess profits achieved by the 80 participants that fell short of reaching their goal.

Additional information is available through our office.