Leaders in the American workplace are often wondering how to increase motivation within their teams. Motivation is important for morale, productivity and overall cohesion of the office. However, some bosses do not understand the importance of motivation as well as their responsibility to worry about motivation.
However, since productivity and client-base ultimately is the concern of those at the leadership level, then workplace motivation should be as well. Luckily, there are many ways to ensure motivation is at the highest level and encourage it in the workplace.
1. Ask for Feedback
Give your employees a chance to express their thoughts and concerns on a routine basis. This can be done through a survey given monthly or quarterly.
Surveys offer a faceless way to share with leadership, feelings on the direction in which the company is going. Another way to solicit quality feedback and to increase motivation is to host one-on-ones with your employees, either weekly or monthly depending on the size of the team.
Both of these options provide leaders a solid understanding of the true state of their team and their employees. It also allows the employees to feel heard. Make sure after the results of the survey or after receiving feedback in meetings, that you address any concerns head-on.
This validates your employees and sends a message that asking for feedback isn’t just a gimmick by administration but rather stems from a real interest in what your employees have to say.
2. Give Your Employees More Responsibility
In order for professionals to feel motivated, they must first feel worthy of the work they are assigned to do. You can help them with this by delegating important tasks to employees you trust. Though it may feel strange at first, this is very much a winning situation for all those involved.
Many leaders may be wary to delegate work out. This stems from a couple of camps of thought. First, it takes a huge element of trust to give away control. In order to assign tasks you feel are important, you have to trust the employees to whom you are assigning them.
Secondly, some leaders feel self-conscience of giving away work. They don’t want others to view them as skimming their duties as a boss. While it is understandable that giving away work may annoy employees instead of encouraging them, it is actually exactly how to increase motivation within the workplace.
In addition to assigning and delegating essential duties to employees, you can also allow them to work on their own, naturally while offering help if needed. You’ve hired great employees that do their job well!
It’s important to trust them with this job and communicate this trust to them. These are your people – allowing them to shine can grow your team and motivate those around you.
3. Remind Your Employees It’s Ok to Make Mistakes
Making mistakes is a beautiful way to be creative and move forward. Everyone makes mistakes, but what makes these mistakes great is when they are used as fuel for success.
When your employees make mistakes, encourage them embrace it and use it to propel them forward in their creative journey. Ensure your employees don’t fear mistakes, always have their back and make the office a safe place to take risks.
Encourage your employees to take chances and to embrace their failures. Create a growth mindset within the office by learning from failure. Show this in your support for your employees and also by example when running into your own mistakes.
Another way to increase motivation is to offer constructive criticism. By giving constant and specific feedback to employees, it nurtures an environment of constant improvement. This takes away the fear of failure and builds the team up.
4. Celebrate Their Achievements
As a leader, be sure to praise good work and let your employees know your appreciation for what they’ve accomplished. When employers are asked how to increase motivation, they are many times thinking about complimenting and acknowledging achievements.
They are right to focus on this area…recognition goes a long way. By recognizing someone who has done great work, others can see this and work harder on their own tasks. Even more powerful, though, is the reaction of those receiving the positive feedback.
Success breeds success. When an employee feels as though he or she is successful at something, the likelihood of a second (or third, or twelfth) success, is high. When we say celebrations, this could mean a public acknowledgement. It may even mean a bonus.
It could be a private thank you or a thank you card. You could even consider giving gift cards or a “night out” for completion of a big project. You know your team best, but the important thing is to give out the atta-boys when they’re deserved.
5. Give Them the Chance to Develop Professionally
Professional development is what drives innovation. If you want a business of the future, you’ll only get there by staying on top of the current trends in your area. Not only for your business, but encouraging professional development for your employees has a direct effect on their motivation as well.
By providing development you can help your employees focus on self- and professional improvement. No one wants to be stuck in the same position. Allow, and encourage, your people to improve and move up!
6. Work Shouldn’t Be All Work All the Time
Of course you want your employees to use their time wisely, but all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Be sure to give your employees a chance to let loose and recharge their minds.
Organize work outings or, even better, select one of your employees to take on this task. This will allow your employees to get their minds off of their work and begin with a fresh start when they come back to their desk.
Another way to allow your employees to take a break is to provide a space. Make sure they have good quality coffee and healthy snacks to go along with a comfortable, visually appealing space.
7. Stay Innovative as a Company
When your employees see that the business is constantly growing, they will have more motivation to grow with it as well. It can be an exciting time for a company, when the leaders and the people both realize something great is happening.
Looking to increase motivation to an even higher level? Include your employees in the planning, testing and eliminating of ideas. By getting your people on board, you won’t have to sell the changes to them…it will sell itself.
8. Have Clear Milestones for the Team
Leaders should be sure to share the goals of the organization with the employees. Together, set objectives and then share those results.
Bring the team in and make everyone responsible for keeping up with these goals and meeting deadlines. A visual measurement is proven to provide motivation and keep individuals on track.
9. Maintain a Positive Relationship with Your Employees
A good relationship with your employees is so important. There needs to be trust from you to your employees and, probably even more so, from your employees toward you in order for there to be open communication.
In a workplace without a positive relationship from leadership to subordinate, there lacks a cohesive plan. Often, the employees lack the desire to do their best and resort to “bare minimum” work. You can prevent this mentality by supporting your team and creating a positive and safe environment.
10. Have Effective Meetings
No one likes the meetings where nothing is accomplished…including you! Make sure to provide agendas for all meetings and then stick to those agendas.
This will ensure the time spent away from other work is productive. Done well, this can actually increase motivation in your employees. If the items on the agenda can be sent via email or memo, be sure to do that.
Make sure your employees spend their time moving towards improving the company and themselves, and less time in unproductive meetings.
11. Offer Wellness Programs
Wellness programs can lower insurance costs and amount of time employees are out sick. It can also increase motivation for employees’ professional and personal goals. Give your employees time to relax.
In order to do this, some companies are even adopting more vacation time. Encourage travel, provide yoga, diet, or health programs. If it’s in your budget, provide an on-site gym or partner with a neighboring gym.
Focus on a smoking cessation program or even invest in standing desks. There are hundreds of ways to increase wellness in your employees. Look in to the ones that fit your needs best.
12. Encourage Participation
Encourage a culture of participation. Some employees may be more naturally motivated than others, but by creating a culture of involvement, this can help everyone develop new skills. Ask them to get involved in, or even run, meetings.
This makes people feel as though they are part of something. Spread out tasks and give several different important jobs to different people. Identify the strengths of the “quiet” employees and dig in to their skill set.
13. Be Transparent / Share the Big Picture
A great way to increase motivation is by being transparent within the workplace. Involve your employees in important decisions. It’s easy for people to focus on the nuts and bolts of their own jobs and their own lives.
By sharing the big picture of the company and the behind the scenes details it keeps employees involved and increases their motivation. It also decreases the grumbling of the tough decisions leaders inevitably have to make.
14. Have a Strong Office Culture
When asking how to increase motivation within your office, think of the saying, “If you love what you do you won’t work a day in your life.”
There is some serious truth to that. It’s important to create a strong office culture in your office. Think about what kind of culture you’d like to see. Funny, light-hearted? Full of grit and determination? Fun-loving and laid-back? Hire people to match your vision.
Fill your team with people who are like-minded so that they can work well together. This gives your employees something to look forward to when they wake up on Monday morning. This will make them eager and enjoy working.
Having a strong office culture allows employees to build more than just work relationships, they begin to develop deep friendships. This is a great way to increase motivation in the workplace.
15. Team Building Exercises
As cliché as they can sometimes seem, team building exercises are a great way to increase motivation within the workplace. These exercises can be anything from a day out at the local arcade to a simple and quick trust building activity.
Taking the time to step away from work and learning to trust one another really strengthens the teamwork vibe leaders love to see in their teams. More importantly, it increases motivation and morale.
16. Provide Energy-Increasing Snacks
It’s a great idea to provide nutritious and delicious snacks for your team. By providing snacks and coffee that are healthy and energy-boosting, you take away the likelihood that what they eat, will drain their energy.
Providing these energy boosting snacks will also send a message that their health and well-being is important to you.
17. Encourage and Promote Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become an extremely positive quality to have. Practicing mindfulness has been known to improve one’s overall perspective and mood.
This also allows stress to be managed much better, increasing overall performance and motivation. By practicing and promoting it yourself, you can encourage the individuals around you to do the same.
18. Remain Positive as a Leader
As a leader, setting the tone for the office environment is extremely important. Your positive energy will spread this mindset throughout the team.
By promoting this tone, you’ll find it becomes contagious throughout the workplace. What a great feeling to walk through the office and find cheerful voices and motivated minds.
19. It’s Ok to Take a Break
Encourage your employees to take a break! Provide a break room where people can walk away from the frustrations of work and take a mental break.
As mentioned earlier, make sure to stock this area with snacks and quality coffee. Make sure it’s an enjoyable space where your employees can go to escape the everyday hum of the work they are completing. Food and good coffee–who wouldn’t want that!
20. Provide a Good Amount of PTO Days
As mentioned earlier, many companies are experimenting with unlimited PTO days. It’s proven that this encourages work life balance. This policy can really increase motivation by refreshing employees and helping them get their work done and work harder.
If unlimited paid time off isn’t possible for your work environment, it is important to allow employees to take enough time off. Examine your current policy and reflect on what will work for your team.
At the end of the day, it is up to you to set the tone of the workplace. Is it a tone of stress, disappointment and fear or a tone of joy, motivation and desire? By remaining positive and following a few simple ideas, you can transform your work environment into one that is just what you’d like to see.
