Team Motivation
Employees need and want two things.
- Money gives them the basic requirements to show up and perform at the minimum level.
- Money will not get them to perform to their maximum ability.
You must also provide motivators - things to get people to work with more energy, more effort, more enthusiasm, and allow them to fulfil their potential, accept responsibility, and become accountable.
Many old school bosses don’t offer motivation, praise, recognition, or encouragement. They often say their people continually complain about money.
When there’s no motivation to do a good job, more pay is the only thing that people can get to help them tolerate a bad situation.
Motivators that work
The top motivators to help people become the best they can be:
- Clear understanding of expectations
- Praise and recognition
- Understand the big picture
- Appreciated and cared for
In order for people to be effective, they must know what’s expected of them!
It’s pretty hard to stay on course if you don’t know where you’re going or have a map to get there.
Ask your key people the top three priorities they’re responsible for.
I’ll bet their answers aren’t what you thought they’d be.
Most poor performing people don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do and how you want it done.
For Example – in construction, a field superintendent says he’ll be ‘done’ with his project in three weeks. Three weeks later a visit to the jobsite finds the project has not been final cleaned, the trailer is still on site, the power is not turned on and the phones don’t work. Asked why he isn’t done and he disagrees saying he is done. He thinks ‘done’ means calling for final inspection. ‘Done’ means done with nothing left to finish. The problem is no clear understanding of what was expected.
In order to establish clear expectations, you must take time to explain exactly what you want, show visually how to do it, ensure they fully comprehend directions, and then reinforce with coaching and training.
As you work on ‘your’ communication problem, people will start to want to take on more responsibility and do more work.
Regularly recognise and praise
Your people have a sign hanging around their neck that says: ‘Make me feel important’ or ‘Show me some love!’
The second important people system is to provide regular appreciation.
People need positive strokes week so make it your priority to recognise at least one person everyday. Get out and catch them doing something right and make them feel good about what they do for you! Imagine a football game where the crowd only cheers at the end of the game. Or a company where the boss only praises at the annual review. People are like batteries - as they discharge, they need to be recharged at frequent intervals.
Motivation Motivators
- Keep recognition tracking checklists
- Make sure everyone gets recognized weekly
- Start the day with positive encouragement
- Be a motivational cheerleader
- Positive greetings make positive people
- Tell people you appreciate them
- “I appreciate your efforts…”
- “You did a good job on …”
- “Thanks, keep up the…”
- Give out positive strokes weekly
Top Incentives:- Personal thank you from boss
- Written thanks from boss
- Promotion for performance
- Public praise
- Morale building meetings.
- Look for the good
- Use words that wow!
- 3 words: I appreciate you
- 2 words: Thank you
- 1 word: (their name)
- Worst letter: I
- Show you care about them
- Ask them their dreams
- Follow their family
- Listen to their goals
- Tell them the big picture
- Hold company meetings
- Recognize accomplishments
- Share the future
- Tell them what’s new
- Tell them the good and bad
- Give time off for extra effort
- Give everyone business cards
- Spend 1 day per month with the team
- Take employees to lunch with you
- Buy staff lunch monthly
- Give people tools to improve
- Give everyone company shirts
- Provide home computers & email
- Praise accomplishments in public
- Spend 33% of your time with people
Train to retain
Most companies hire people with potential and then let them learn on their own.
Most Fortune 500 companies have training systems to insure they maximize the return on employees.
These companies invest in each employee on average forty hours of formalized training every year.
How much training do your provide? Could you improve your bottom-line by maximizing productivity and eliminating mistakes? You need to train to retain and improve employees.
Training involves doing and not just telling or showing people what to do. You can’t learn to ride a bike by watching others. I learned to win at tennis by playing a lot of tennis. All the books, lectures, videos, and meetings wouldn’t teach me the tactics to win. To build an excellent company, training must be on-going and continuous for everyone.
How to train others
- Tell them what to do
- Show them how to do it
- Let them do it
- Watch them do it
- Coach them through it
- Recognize them
- Follow-up and give feedback
As you train, ask if they completely understand. Remember they really can’t do things well until they’ve done it a few times and you have coached them through the process. Show your key people how you want things done and then let them train their employees. This will elevate their leadership skills and make them accountable and responsible for end results of their people. Identify what you need to train and then make your program train topics at least once or twice every year.
Start a training ladder to track your employees’ progress. This system provides a path for people to become more valuable and earn more money for you and them. List every task needed to learn along the way, a timeline, minimum standards required for each position, and then track their progress.
It is best to train every week for at least fifteen minutes. This minimum training program will keep people focused on doing things right. Every month or quarter, provide a half day training session to cover topics in a more in-depth way. Remember, training is not an informational meeting or a lecture from the boss. It involves doing the tasks so for field training, go to a jobsite to make sure everyone understands how to do it.
To build an entrepreneurial excellent company requires excellent people. You can try and get lucky by hiring and firing people until you get the ones you want. Or you can make people your top priority.
You can get your business to work by installing people systems and a training program. The choice is yours!
