How to make sure your team stays motivated?

A team’s success lies in the hands of everyone and how they work together to achieve their common goals. It is every manager or CEO’s objective to put the people with the right skills set together. This is expected to result in high productivity and good quality outputs. However, in order to keep it like that, teams have to be kept motivated. As the years go by, employees can become lax, especially with mandatory overtimes, tight deadlines, and high expectations. When motivation fades, productivity falls and the company fails.

Benefits of having a motivated team

The benefits of leading a motivated team cannot be underrated because its effects are tremendous. Some of these include the following:

1. Higher productivity. When a team is motivated, each member’s output goes up. As a result, the costs of production are lowered, allowing a company to put their products in the market at a much lower cost.
2. Lower staff turnover rate. When workers are motivated, they like to go to work and will not be looking for other jobs. As a result, the turnover rate of the company is low.
3. Lower absenteeism rate. Anyone who is happy at work is always motivated to go to work every day. Motivation is equal to good attendance rates.
4. Good industrial relations. Motivated teams result in the company having good relations with the trade union.
5. Good reputation. Motivated workers always speak good words about their company; thus, creating a good reputation for it. Anyone who wants to know more about it can only hear positive feedback.

With this, how can organizations keep their teams motivated?

Ways to keep a team motivated

There is no doubt that money is one effective motivator. However, not all organizations have the financial capabilities to motivate their workers with money regularly. The good thing is that there are other surefire ways to keep workers motivated.

1. Set clear goals and keep members in the loop. Goals drive the direction a team takes. A study shows that 63 percent of workers weren’t aware of which tasks and projects were the priority. As a result, they felt like they were only wasting their time at work. Goals have to be set from the beginning and should be communicated to all the members for their own awareness. When they are aware, they feel a sense of belongingness to the company and will strive to work harder.
2. Provide a pleasant and safe work environment. One’s workplace is considered his second home. Therefore, managers can help keep their teams motivated by providing them with a pleasant environment. It should be clean, comfortable, and safe at the very least. Managers can also provide spaces and amenities that employees can use during their break time such as a gym. This may mean additional expenditures but the long-term impact is more important.
3. Offer activities aimed for self-improvement. Everyone wants to further their knowledge and learn new skills, even if they are already working. Offering training, seminars, and other self-improvement programs can help keep workers motivated.
4. Recognize and reward a job well done. People, regardless of age, will always appreciate being recognized for a job well done. But they appreciate being rewarded more. Recognitions and rewards don’t have to be expensive. A plaque, movie tickets, gift cards from Starbucks, and a small card that recognizes their efforts go a long way.
5. Provide teams with the necessary tools. If things need to get done, management should make sure to provide the necessary tools to get it done. For example, if the team needs specific software for a project, it has to be made available. In the same way, they should have access to tools that are constantly upgraded and are in tune with new technology.
6. Don’t punish failure. Failure is proof that workers are human. Even managers make mistakes. This is the reason why it shouldn’t be a reason to punish an employee who makes a mistake. Instead, it should be used as a learning opportunity to do better in the future. Managers should also encourage their team to try again and be better.

Mistakes and failures should be learned from

1. Make meetings count. According to research, the average professional wastes about 3.8 hours on attending unproductive meetings. Though important, meetings have to be kept brief and direct to the point. Managers have to make sure that they come in prepared by having the agenda set and given to attendees in advance. Those not included in the agenda should wait until there is time for them after everything else has been discussed.
2. Never micromanage. Supervision and management are part of the responsibilities of a manager. But micromanaging is not part of that as it brings more problems than solutions. According to 38 percent of employees that were interviewed, they would rather work unpleasant jobs than have a micromanaging boss sit next to them.
3. Offer good leadership. Leadership shouldn’t mean sitting behind a huge glass table and on an expensive swivel chair. It is more about being with the team and getting dirty with them if need be. They should not be afraid to show how things should get done. The good manager can make poorly performing employees great and not the other way around.
4. Keep happiness a trend that doesn’t end. Happiness is contagious but so is unhappiness. It’s a choice between which of the two should be proliferated. The happier the work environment is, the more productive it will become. Besides, being happy is healthy.

Conclusion

Keeping a team motivated needs work and attention. This is especially true since motivating people should be a steady and consistent activity. Sometimes, managers miss seeing the small and simple things that they can do which matter very much to their teams. What is important is that they always think of what is good for the team and not just for an individual. Again, the company’s success is the result of a concerted effort of the team and everyone in it.