How to Motivate Your Team and Ensure It Remains Enthusiastic

Benefits of Keeping Motivation Levels Up

Motivated teams serve as valuable assets to organizations because they are highly productive, have low turnover rates, and focus on generating successful outcomes. Motivation also plays a role in creating a positive work environment because motivated employees view themselves as valuable parts of their organizations. The top benefits of keeping your team’s motivation levels up include:

• Increased productivity
• Higher levels of employee engagement
• More efficient consumption of resources
• Positive attitude
• Greater sense of urgency
• Improved creativity
• Focus on innovation
• Lower employee turnover
• More committed to organizational growth
• Ongoing personal growth
• More open to adapting to change
• Enhanced workplace culture
• Positive effect on business reputation

Types of Motivation at a Workplace

If you’re wondering “How does a leader motivate their team?” or “How would you motivate your team as a leader?” you need to start by identifying the two basic types of motivation that come into play at a workplace.

Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in a behavior or an activity because of the satisfaction that the result generates, and not because of an external reward. This is when someone looks at an activity as a source of joy or an opportunity to learn something to improve their knowledge. Intrinsic motivation can come in the form of:

• Competence motivation. Competence motivation refers to the desire to feel effective and competent. This can involve mastering new skills, improving existing ones, or completing tasks successfully.
• Achievement motivation. One may refer to achievement motivation as a drive to accomplish and reach a high standard of excellence. It’s a feeling that can push your team to set goals, work hard, and strive for success.
• Creative motivation. You may think of creative motivation as a fuel that can ignite your team’s desire to create something innovative and push it to think outside the box, experiment, and bring new ideas to life.
• Attitude motivation. This works in two ways. In the first, a positive attitude and self-belief can motivate your team to take action and persevere through challenges. In the other, you can motivate your team to develop a more positive attitude.
• Affiliation motivation. Employees experience affiliation motivation in different ways. Some crave close and intimate relationships, while others find fulfillment in belonging to larger groups or social circles. In both cases, building strong social connections comes with various benefits like emotional support, a sense of security, and an enhanced feeling of well-being.

Extrinsic Motivation

Fuelled by external factors, you may think of extrinsic motivation as a drive to act based on external rewards or punishments. It’s the opposite of intrinsic motivation, which comes from within.

• Reward-based motivation. Reward-based motivation focuses specifically on the use of rewards or external incentives to get employees to take action or change their behavior. Incentives may come in the form of performance-based rewards, bonuses, or even positive feedback.
• Fear-based motivation. Fear-based motivation harnesses our primal instinct of self-preservation to influence behavior, and works as a driving factor to avoid something due to the fear of negative consequences. This form of motivation can work as a double-edged sword at the workplace because while it can produce short-term results, it has the potential to harm employee well-being and overall productivity. As a result, it is better to focus on positive reinforcement, empowering employees, and promoting open communication.
• Power-based motivation. Power-based motivation involves leveraging an employee’s desire for influence, recognition, or status to drive performance. The pros can come in the form of increased productivity and achievement of goals. However, potential drawbacks include a focus on short-term goals, cutthroat competition, and unethical behavior/practices.

How to Motivate a Team to Improve Performance?

When it comes to motivating a team with the aim of improving performance, it’s common for business owners and managers to ask questions like “How do you build excitement in a team?” “How do you ensure your team remains enthusiastic?” and “How can you keep the team’s motivation high?”

As you can see through these questions, there’s a close link between motivation, enthusiasm, and excitement. So, what do you say to motivate your team and what else can you do?

Share Your Vision and Goals

Once you share your vision and the goals you wish to achieve with your team, it drives employees to work together to deliver desired results. Besides, it is much easier to motivate a team once it is aware of the goals it is working toward. It is equally important to set realistic and measurable goals based on your vision. If you support collaboration within and across teams, it can help employees feel valued, which can then lead to increased productivity.

Pay Employees Their Worth

When it comes to paying employees, you need to ensure that their salaries are at least at par with industry standards based on the location in which you do business. Bear in mind that while financially secure employees tend to be more focused and productive than ones who are not as fortunate, fair compensation also plays a vital role in boosting morale and engagement.

In addition to salaries, you should also consider providing high-in-demand perks and benefits while highlighting their value in the total compensation.

Offer Flexible Scheduling

The COVID-19 pandemic had quite a significant effect on how businesses from across sectors operate, and flexible scheduling has become the buzzword across different industries now. Besides, technology has changed the way we work, and it’s common for businesses to expect their employees to check and reply to work emails outside of conventional work hours. As a result, it’s only fair for employees to expect some flexibility in scheduling.

Data collated by Forbes indicates that 46% of a survey’s respondents said that they viewed flexibility as the most important factor when looking for new jobs. It also indicated that 35% of employees want more flexibility in their schedules.

Foster a Positive Work Environment

If you ask any successful manager “How did you motivate a team?” the answer, in all likelihood, will touch upon the importance of fostering a healthy work environment. This is because the environment of a workplace has a significant bearing on productivity, creativity, and contentment alike. In such an environment, there is an increased likelihood that employees will feel engaged and motivated.

A positive work environment encourages open communication and trust, which are essential for effective collaboration. It increases employee satisfaction and loyalty, reducing turnover. If you promote healthy habits, you give your employees the means to lower their stress and maintain their energy levels. On the other hand, a stressful work environment can lead to burnout.

When it comes to creating a healthy work environment, you need to pay attention to aspects such as air quality, noise, privacy, and overall ambiance. Ensuring that employees have suitable spaces to unwind is crucial. If you have adequate space, you may consider installing an in-house gym. Alternatively, you may offer gym memberships. If you’re unsure of how best to move forward, you may consider seeking advice from a reputable business consultant.

Offer Food

Having to spend long hours at work requires feeding the stomach, and it’s apparently better when an employer provides the food. Data collated by Seamless highlights the power of food in the workplace. It indicates that:

• 57% of employees say they would feel more appreciated and valued if their employers offered food-based perks.
• 50% say they would feel more satisfied with their employers if they received food-based perks.
• 41% feel they might hesitate to accept another job if their existing employers provide food-based perks.
• 38% say they will rate their employers high in “Best Places to Work” surveys if they provide food-based perks.
• 50% say they foster better working relationships with their colleagues by sharing meals with them.

The numbers don’t come as a surprise. After all, if you attend to the dietary requirements of your employees, they get the impression that you care for them, which, in turn, motivates them to do their best. Besides, taking care of your team’s food requirements at work can also help you attract the best talent. So, if you’re wondering what to say to motivate your team, tell it you’re willing to put good food on the table.

Give It Autonomy

Whether you’re a business owner, manager, or team leader, your main job is to set the right expectations, give your team the tools it needs, and monitor its progress. If you can do this right, you need to step back and give it the freedom to do what’s required. When you give employees the autonomy to make decisions, it shows you trust their ability to do their job right. This helps boost motivation and results in higher engagement. It also has a positive effect on confidence levels.

Steer clear of trying to micromanage your team because it can stifle creativity, erode trust, and increase stress. It can also make your team overly dependent on you, thereby limiting the growth of its members.

How to Motivate Your Team at the Start of the Year

Regardless of your industry, it’s important to use the beginning of the year as a launching pad for what follows. While it’s obvious you should not skimp on goal-setting or budgeting, you need to pay due attention to keeping your team’s motivation high. Here are three ways you and your company can start the year on the right foot.

Opt for a Change of Scene

Shaking off the winter chills with some time outside can be a fantastic way to promote team engagement. Derek Robinson of Top Notch Dezigns explains in a post on Inc.com, “We plan to take to the outdoors for a four-day team-building exercise at the start of the New Year simply because I have seen it work wonders in the past.” He adds that a large percentage of the agency’s team members swear by these events.

Plan a Kick-Off Party

This gets everyone in the same place to share strategies and goals for the next 12 months. In the same post on Inc.com, Kelly Woo of Profectus Financial opines that “This facilitates global understanding of our objectives among every individual involved, as well as a shared desire to help everyone — team members and clients alike — reach those goals.”

Put a Number on It

Scott Baxter of PlayYourCourse starts the year by requiring every employee to set tangible goals for the year ahead. According to him, “Each quarter, every employee sets a specific, number-based goal. For example, Jessica will drive 1,200 new users a month to our site with Facebook, or Keith will increase our conversion rate at checkout by 1% this quarter. It’s amazing what your company is capable of when each employee has a tangible, clearly defined goal they’re working to achieve. We then meet monthly to make sure we’re on track.”

Conclusion

How do you motivate your team so it looks forward to keeping the ball rolling? For starters, you can rely on intrinsic motivation because when the drive to perform well or excel comes from within, the results are typically better. However, this does not take away from the fact that extrinsic motivation can also help produce desired results.

Keeping teams motivated plays a vital role in the success of any business or organization, be it a digital marketing agency, a construction company, a hotel, or an architectural firm. What matters at the end is you should know how to motivate your team. You may then look forward to benefits such as improved morale, increased productivity, enhanced creativity, more commitment, reduced employee turnover, and a better workplace culture.