Motivating Your Whole Team

Everyone is motivated in different ways.  As a leader of a team, you can improve the likelihood of motivating your whole team by following the steps below.

Manage Both High & Low Performers

As a leader, you are very likely managing a team that has a mix of high and low performers. Most teams start out that way and you’ll need to manage both to build an effective team. You can keep high performers engaged by giving them the freedom to do things their own way. Once you point them in the right direction, be there to help and provide support, but give them a chance to succeed or fail on their own. Setting objectives for them, not the specifics methods to accomplish those objectives, will be key to keeping them motivated.

Empower your team members who are ready for it to take appropriate risks and give them stretch assignments whenever you can.  You’ll be surprised what they can accomplish.  A word of caution is that when you empower your team members, you need to be comfortable that they can deliver. You’ll have to provide them air cover, support them, and own the results with them. Thus, you need to be careful to only empower team members who are ready, willing and able to take on that level of responsibility.

It’s just as important that you don’t avoid discussing performance gaps with underperforming team members. Be sure to take the time to explain your expectations and develop a picture of success. Coaching, training, and providing frequent feedback to these employees will give them the best chance to be a successful team member.

Motivate Them All Towards a Shared Vision and Common Goals

To be as effective as it can be, every team should develop a well-defined purpose. Involving the team in exploring and shaping a shared vision will help you gain their buy-in. As the leader, you can and should guide the direction of the vision. However, for the team to be fully engaged, it is important for them to have a voice in defining the vision. Further, no one person (not even the leader) is smarter than the team as a whole. Each team member brings different life experiences to the conversation and the team will almost certainly come up with good ideas that you had not considered as well as improvements to your original vision.

Once the shared vision is clear, translate your purpose into goals through shared goal setting exercises. Make sure to connect your team’s goals to the bigger picture.

Following these steps will improve the likelihood of motivating your whole team, including you as its leader.