Team Motivation: 15 Brilliant Strategies to Inspire Your Team

As much as you’d like to think you can, you can’t do everything on your own.

If you’re an employer or owner of any sort of business, you understand how important it is to have the right team on your side. You desire to have people with the best skills and experience to help make your business a success.

Even if the team is great and the job is even better, people will have moments of disinterest. It’s nothing against you a lot of the time, but you do have to remember people are also dealing with things outside of work.

When those moments of disinterest or lack of motivation hit your team, it’s your job to pump everyone back up. Below are 15 strategies for the best team motivation. Make sure to keep reading to get your team up and ready for the next challenge.

1. Give Them Independence

No employee likes it when their boss micromanages their every move. Micromanagement is a huge part of poor management.

If you have the right team, you should be able to trust this team. Don’t stare over their shoulders or monitor their every move. Present them with tasks, fully explain the goal, and give them the space to achieve these goals.

You are allowed to check in on things, but employees need space to work or they will come to dislike their job.

2. Get to Know Your Team

You don’t have to be best friends with your employees, but you should know about them! Take time to sit down with everyone individually and chat.

Ask them about their interests, have them explain their passions, and find out what gets them excited in life. Everyone has different things that make them tick. Figure out those things in individuals to increase team motivation.

If you know Deborah loves working with music, ask her about the playlist she’s been listening to at work. If Matthew loves organisation, comment on how tidy his desk looks.

3. Be Available

If you are constantly away from the office or keep your door closed, your employees will view you as unreliable and unapproachable. They need someone they can lean on and seek motivation from.

Try opening your door more or walking through the office to grab a coffee or snack to increase team motivation. While they may not have specific questions, employees like seeing their bosses face.

4. Challenge Them

While sometimes it’s necessary to assign tasks such as sealing envelopes or sorting files, individuals want to feel challenged every once in a while. If people aren’t putting their skills to the test, they will start to feel restless.

When people start to become restless or disinterested, that is when retention rates start to drop. The last thing you need is to lose a handful of employees.

Let’s say people have been commenting on the poor design of your company’s website. Set some people up with the challenging task of redesigning the website and improving online marketing.

5. Create the Right Environment

No one is going to want to come into work if the desks are old and broken, the windows are clouded over with dirt, and the carpet stains smell. Take some time and money to bump up the quality of work environment.

Allow sunlight to flood in and place plants around the office. Invest in stimulating artwork, grab a cozy rug, and have a comfortable couch. People will enjoy coming into work if it looks like effort was put into the environment.

6. Praise in Public

Compliments and praise make people feel good about themselves. When people are feeling good about themselves and the work they are creating, they become more motivated to keep going.

If someone has been consistently meeting sales goals or just secured a new customer, tell them how great they did. As a bonus, don’t be afraid to tell them this in front of other people.

Once someone notices another individual receiving praise, they will want to work hard to receive praise for themselves.

Even if it has nothing to do with work, don’t be afraid to hand out compliments. Tell someone their new haircut looks nice or how great their family portraits on Facebook turned out! People want to feel appreciated, and it’ll boost team motivation.

7. Critique in Private

There will be issues that come up, and they will need to be addressed. However, problems need to be addressed in private settings. No one wants to be punished in front of other people.

If you need to discuss an issue with someone, set up a meeting over some coffee. Come to the meeting prepared with notes, ask them for feedback, and try to reach solutions together.

8. Ask for Feedback

To make sure your employees are feeling confident in their jobs, give some time for your team to provide feedback on certain projects or initiatives. They may notice concerns or obstacles you don’t.

Being open to feedback also allows your employees to comment on the work environment, how they are feeling about their job, or how they feel about administration.

Remember open communication is key to maintaining a positive work environment. People want to feel like their voice matters too.

9. Create Games

Everyone loves friendly competition. Motivate teams by creating games that include fun rewards.

For example, if you own a coffee shop and have a specialty holiday drink, place one sticker on a board for every time an employee sells one of those drinks. Your team will be competing for stickers.

At the end of the week or month, give the person with the most stickers a special prize like a restaurant gift card. Small incentives don’t have to break your bank, but they make working a little more fun.

10. Have Weekly Team Time

Block out an hour or so each Friday to reflect on the week and relax a bit. This can be as simple as buying coffee for everyone and throwing on some light music for a calm social hour.

If you want to amp things up a bit, tell everyone to bring in their favorite dip and you provide the chips. Fun socials like this can bring people closer together, encourage collaboration, and increase team motivation.

11. Celebrate Reached Goals

While there’s always something new to work towards, make sure to take time and celebrate small victories. There doesn’t have to be a huge party, but even making an announcement and cheering on the office can do the trick.

If employees notice you acknowledging even the smallest victories, they feel more confident in their work. Therefore, they feel more motivated to work harder to reach another goal.

12. Offer Support

If someone seems to be lagging behind, it may not be because they are lazy or foolish. It may be a deeper rooted issue that needs to be addressed.

Take some time to chat with the individual and try to discover the problem. Maybe they are going through a divorce or recently contracted the flu. Whatever it is, hear them out, and try to offer a solution.

Once your employees notice a strong level of support in the office, they will feel better about the workplace.

13. Encourage Conversation

One of the best ways to increase team motivation is encouraging conversation among the team. There’s something awful about feeling like you can’t talk with other co-workers, especially during collaborative projects.

Not only do you need to maintain healthy relationships with your employees, you want them to maintain healthy relationships among themselves. These relationships include constructive criticism, praise, and healthy debate.

When hard times come along, you’ll want and need a team that feels comfortable working with each other.

14. Give Explanations

People may become disinterested in completing tasks when they don’t fully understand why they are completing the task. When delegating tasks among employees, explain to them why the task needs to be done.

Don’t just tell someone to create a new social media post. Tell them to create one and explain how exciting posts can boost engagement and result in sales.

It may seem silly to explain, but sometimes people are just too afraid to ask why they are doing something. Plus, explaining the reasoning behind something shows you’ve given great thought to tasks.

15. Say Thank You

Sometimes all it takes to boost team motivation is telling someone, “Thank you.” By showing gratitude, you are showing you honestly care about everyone’s efforts.

People’s moods are instantly boosted when they receive positive affirmation and feel like they did something good. It’s funny how far two little words can go.

Increase Team Motivation

While it’s simple to create a greater sense of team motivation, it’s also simple to lose a good team. Avoid that by following the 15 tips above.

Whether it’s creating a fun game for the office, praising a job well done, or hosting a team potluck, make sure you are encouraging your employees. Confident employees lead to great productivity and diligence in the workplace.

If you are interested in other tricks for your business or need employee recruitment help, make sure you check out the rest of our site. We are sure to boost your business to new heights.