Easy Ways to Motivate Your Team

 

Written by Jenny Catton

 

If you’re in charge of a team, one of the most important skills you can learn is how to motivate others. With the right motivation, your team will be happier and more effective. Motivation can also help increase productivity and improve staff retention.

 

The first step to motivating your team is to remember that not everyone is driven by the same things. Quite often, when we hear the word ‘motivation’, we think of monetary reward but not all people are inspired purely by money.

 

Many people feel rewarded simply by having their hard work recognised. For others, the opportunity to learn new skills and develop themselves professionally may be a great source of motivation. So the key to successfully motivating your team is to consider the different personalities and find small ways to boost the team’s morale regularly. It’s often more effective to use quick and simple motivational techniques on a daily basis rather than promising a single reward sometime in the future.

 

Some companies prefer to implement a more structured rewards programme where staff are rewarded for hitting specific targets. Depending on the culture of the company, this can be incredibly effective but it’s important to ensure that the targets are achievable. It can be very demotivating to be set unrealistic goals. It’s also important not to create rivalry between staff members if you need them to work as a team. Rather than promising individual rewards, you might prefer to offer a team prize – such as a staff day out to help encourage teamwork.

 

Here are some simple ways to motivate your team:

 

• Recognise hard work – people like to feel valued, so a simple ‘thank you’ at the end of each day can go a long way to maintaining good relationships with your team.


• Give team members responsibility – when people feel that they’re being involved in the planning and decision-making processes, they feel more in control of their daily tasks and enjoy helping to contribute to the success of the team.


• Create a supportive environment – from time-to-time it’s natural for people to feel under pressure. If they know they can turn to their colleagues for help it will enable them to stay motivated even during difficult times. Simply having a twice-weekly team meeting where people can raise any issues or ask for help can create a strong team environment.


• Make sure people understand how important their role is – some team members, such as junior members or part-time employees may feel that their role isn’t as vital as others. By explaining what effect their involvement contributesto the long-term success of the company you will make them realise the importance of their role.


• Arrangingsocial activities outside work can be a great way to build motivation within a team.  You can offer nights out as a reward for completing a particular project, or simply make them a regular occasion to help your team members bond.

 

For more advice about leadership visit: www.businessleadershipadvice.com

Categories: feel, hard work, members, motivation, people, people feel, team, team members

Horrible Bosses: How to Avoid Being a Bad Boss

 

If you lead a team at work, or are in charge of one or more people, the relationship that you have with those that you manage is vital to your own success. You may hate the term ‘boss’ but if part of your job involves telling others what to do, that’s how your colleagues are likely to view you. So how can you ensure you are the kind of boss that people like and respect and not the type that gets labelled a ‘nightmare boss’?

 

Give Clear Instructions
Make sure people know what’s expected of them. Set realistic deadlines and let people know how you their work will be assessed. Working without clear instructions can make team-members feel stressed and under-valued.

 

Be Fair
If you manage more than one person, it’s important that you treat each member of your team equally. Avoid having favourites and make sure you share the workload when it comes to asking people to take on extra responsibilities.

 

Get to Know Your Team

If you only see your colleagues in a work-environment, it’s easy to forget that they have a life outside work too. Take the time to get to know people – simply sitting down for a coffee and a chat for 10 minutes each week can give you the opportunity to bond with your team.

 

Get Stuck In
If your team has to work late or do a particularly tiresome job from time-to-time, be willing to help out yourself. This shows that you don’t think of yourself as better than your team members just because you are in charge.

 

You’ll find more information about being a good manager at the Management Advisory Service website: www.mas.org.uk

 

Categories: boss, clear instructions, people, team, team members, time, work

The 5-Step Way to Deal with Employee Mental Health Concerns

It’s now commonly accepted that mental health issues are a concern. Therefore, as an employer you cannot keep your head in the sand; you need to take note of your employees’ mental wellbeing. Mental health issues have an impact on corporate wellness, not only affecting your employees on a personal level, but also your company’s success.

 

However, workplaces are still trying to minimise the issues relating to mental health of an individual as a strategy in order to delay action. According to a recent survey of ASX Top 300 companies, ‘over 40% of participants did not perceive mental illness as a potential risk to their organisation, and of those that did, close to half, said their organisation did not have policies in place to manage this risk. In addition, nearly 70% of those surveyed reported that they did not have a dedicated and properly trained resource to identify and manage an employee suffering from mental illness.’

 

According to Debra Brodowski, Manager of the Psychological Assessments Centre for Corporate Health, ‘From a broader workplace perspective, it is acknowledged that mental health issues do not only affect the actual individual in question. To this end, it is noted that there is a wider impact of the team members to consider when there is an employee with mental health issues. Team members may be supporting their colleague with a mental health issue, and as such this may take a toll on the team in relation to wellbeing, team workload, organisational morale, and workplace productivity.’

 

Therefore, it is vital that you address mental health issues in the workplace. In order to this effectively, you need to follow the five-step assessment process recommended by the WHS:

 

1. Identify the Risk: Brodowski explains, ‘An employer must identify any foreseeable hazard (read: perceived stressor) that may arise from the conduct of the employer’s undertaking and that has the potential to harm the health and safety of an employee or other person.’

 

2. Assess the Risk: ‘An employer must assess the risk arising from any hazard (perceived stressor) that is identified at the time the risk arises,’ says Brodowski. ‘Or before changes to work practices/ systems are made.’

 

3. Review the Risk: Brodowski urges, ‘An employer must review the risk when injury or illness arises (i.e. when stress due to work is highlighted) or when significant changes are proposed to work practises/ systems of work.’

 

4. Eliminate the Risk: ‘An employer must aim to eliminate the risk,’ Brodowski notes. ‘Or if not practical, control the risk.’

 

5. Control the Risk: ‘An employer must make attempts to control the risk,’ Brodowski asserts. You can do this in a number of ways. Firstly, you can isolate the person from the hazard or perceived stressor. Then, you could minimise the risk itself. Finally, you can take administrative steps, such as training, to reduce the risk.

 

Brodowski argues, ‘Under this risk assessment process, the duty of care for the employer shifts the focus from a reaction/ intervention model to one that is adopts a prevention/ elimination of risk stance. As an employer, to act appropriately to an individual who is presenting with mental health issue in the workplace, and therefore meet corporate responsibility under duty of care, there is a need to develop an appropriate framework to recognise, respond, and review each individual with a mental health issue as it arises.’ Indeed, there is a certain financial cost in doing so, but Brodowski urges, ‘The wider impact on workplace relationships, organisational culture and workplace productivity are much broader in nature and are considered to be more significant. As such, nowadays, effectively identifying and responding to mental health issues needs to be considered as a standard workplace health and safety practice for an e

Categories: assessment process, employees, health issue, health issues, Mental Health, perceived stressor, risk assessment, risk brodowski, team members, wider impact, workplace productivity