Team Motivation Series Part I: Twelve ideas to motivate your team

Motivating your team at work isn’t necessarily a straightforward task. After all, offices usually consist of diverse combinations of staff from all walks of life. Of course there is no universal recipe to form the perfect motivating environment for everyone. However, as a manager, you can take reference from these twelve team motivation ideas to energize your team and generally improve the wellbeing of your colleagues. Let’s tuck in:

 

Get to know your staff

 

Idea one: Get to know your team properly!

Getting to know your team properly is the crucial foundation when it comes to being able to motivate your team in the first place! No matter which position you hold at work - you can only know how to motivate staff when personal relationships between managers and staff have been already set up.

 

Gain an understanding of what makes your colleagues tick and dedicate an appropriate amount of time to form closer bonds. This doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of a one-on-one meeting - a personal chit-chat in the kitchen or little conversations here and there show the employee that their opinions are important to you. Only this can make up the base of how to motivate your team.

 

feedback

 

Idea two: Praise and constructive feedback!

Your employees can only know what they are doing right or wrong by actually receiving signals for it. This can take up various forms - from a personal chat to a one-on-one meeting. If you introduce praise and feedback structures, your team can gain enough motivation to strive for specific goals or to learn from previously made mistakes - even mistakes can prove beneficial in the long run!

 

It is also worth introducing deadlines from time to time - after all, they increase motivation to get a task done by a certain point. You should however use praise and constructive feedback on a personal level within a team. As mentioned above, many advantages arise from such structures, from which the manager and employee-alike can benefit.

 

Smunch work benefit

 

Idea three: Relevant work-related-benefits!

To reward your staff for good performances, work-related-benefits are good ways to motivate staff. One idea would be a salary increase - however, there are many alternatives to this which save you and the team more money. These benefits, which are proven to increase work and team motivation are something we have already outlined in a previous blog post.

 

They cover transport allowances up to clever lunch delivery services, which managers can acquire to have their team’s lunches delivered right into the office from restaurants. Furthermore, these benefits show your team that you care about their individual needs - they pay off in the long run as your team will be energized and thankful!

 

Personality test

 

Idea four: Assign the right tasks to the right employees!

Everyone has their own unique little quirks and traits which define how they work. The impact of personal relationships on team motivation can not be overstated enough. You could perhaps do a personality test together as a team to find out how people tick. With this in mind, you can assign the right tasks to those best-suited to them.

 

Everyone is different - not everyone has the same affinity to quantitative Excel tasks, just like some aren’t cut out for writing tasks. So, identify your employees’ strengths as well as any room for improvements to structure their tasks around it!

 

Beers at work

 

Idea five: Form a free and dynamic company culture!

Experiencing a free and open working atmosphere is always an important factor for team motivation. Such atmospheres allow your team to develop themselves in a personal and professional way by taking on lots of responsibility. Office dynamics also play an important role for development opportunities as well as team satisfaction.

 

If your team shares close bonds with each other, work motivation will correspondingly rise. A company, in which colleagues feel comfortable to stay in the office on Fridays for a beer or two is also a company, where staff motivation tends to be higher. Therefore, it is worth striving for this type of atmosphere.

 

new

 

Idea six: Offer your employees something new!

People tend to work better when they are constantly learning something new and gathering new experiences. Therefore, versatile tasks as well as opportunities for growth should not be understated. This includes further vocational education, trips to other office locations or even spontaneous team-lunches or exotic snacks.

 

The possibilities are endless and are up to you - we are not setting any boundaries here! Ultimately, it is of course best to avoid a stale and dry working environment. Focus should instead be placed on the “new” and the “dynamic”.

 

work related benefits

 

Further ideas for work motivation

 

  • Strong salaries

 

  • Events during working hours

 

  • Leading as an example and being an expert in your field

 

  • New working materials, i.e. a new laptop or company car

 

  • Flexible working hours

 

  • Home-Office opportunities

 

Further motivation 

 

Increased team motivation to energize your team or opt for stress and boredom?

Not only is it advantageous to motivate your staff, but also very important nowadays when it comes to keeping your employees. There is little less motivating than a stressful or even a particularly boring working environment. So, consider shaping your working atmosphere in a dynamic and exciting manner, with corresponding tasks that fit to your team on an individual level. In the next part of our work motivation series, you can explore factors to avoid at work to keep team motivation high.

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