6 ways to motivate your team

If you’re aiming to run a successful company, there’s one truth you need to know: you cannot do it alone. In fact, if you’re set on scaling and growing your business with purpose, you need a team that believes in what your company stands for. Your team needs to know how much you value them. And you need a culture that ensures they stay motivated.

Motivation is the key term here. While it may seem like hard work to make your entire team happy, there are a few simple ways to ensure it’s a priority in your business. The following 6 ways will help you as you work to motivate your team and help them find success that will also grow your business.

In a perfect business world, a company has clearly defined vision. That vision should be inspiring enough to not just convey your passion for what you’re building, but to make people want to actively be a part of it. That’s especially true of your employees.

When you are clear about what your business stands for and where that vision will take you, it helps your team understand the role they play. It gives them the opportunity to focus on their role, where they can help the company grow, and what the future will look like. The clearer your vision and the more frequently you discuss where the company is going and where your team fits within it, the more motivated they’ll be to help bring it to fruition.

Goals are an outstanding way to ensure your business is driving toward success. They’re important, not just for your business, but for your employees, too. When your company has clear goals in place, it allows your team to build personal goals that align with your larger plan. And it helps them know where they need to prioritize their efforts to achieve those goals.

As your team looks toward developing their goals, encourage them to set personal goals that meet the objectives of your company’s goals. Ask them to write them and refer to them regularly. Make sure they are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) goals that have plans in place to help make them achievable. This is a great way to keep them motivated throughout the year.

Data shows there’s an easy way to keep your employees happy: be transparent. In fact, when transparency is part of the culture of your business, they are not just more engaged. They also have a much greater job satisfaction. Transparency builds a culture of trust, creates innovation, and leads to overall job satisfaction much more than a business lacks in its openness.

How does one build transparency? It’s important to lead with empathy and be clear when you make mistakes. Listen, engage, and be open with your team. When you have this type of open communication, it builds trust, which inspires your team to be productive, comfortable, and confident in their work and their place in your business.

One of the best ways to motivate your team is to empower them to work together through collaboration. Think about it this way: members of your team all come with their own unique skills and talents. Bringing those skills together creates opportunities for problem solving and new innovations to come forward, and data from McKinsey & Company shows that teams with diverse backgrounds — such as gender, age, and ethnicity — perform 35 percent better than teams with similar backgrounds.

When you give your team the ability to work together, they’ll find creative solutions that can propel your business forward. And it will help motivate them to continue to bring new ideas to the table, which is always great for business.

You believed in your team when you hired them as individuals. Don’t let hiring them be the last thing you do to invest in them. It’s important to develop your team members and that you’re empowering them to be leaders within the organization.

Staff development builds your team’s skills in a way that can bring your organization up to date on the latest trends. What’s more, staff development tends to lead to higher retention, a happier team, and more revenue for your business. It’s also a great way to motivate your team to want to do more for your business.

One of the simplest ways to motivate your team is with a simple, “Good work.” However, offering incentives to your team can be highly motivating for them, and it can include anything from time off to a bonus to additional training.

The truth is your team members want to know when they’re doing a job well. The additional recognition helps them stay positive, moving forward, and ready to take on new challenges. How you want to tackle the recognition is up to you and your business. But it’s always a great way to show your team how much their work is appreciated.

Increasing employee motivation always comes down to building a great culture within your business. Without that culture as your foundation, you will have a harder time of motivating your team toward success. Do you have advice for what motivates your team? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Jim Allen is a business leader and entrepreneur who has built one of the top-producing real estate groups in the Triangle. He is President of The Jim Allen Group, which is consistently named one of the top real estate teams in North Carolina and even North America.