Motivate Your Team! Eight Quick Tips to Motivate for Success by:Ed Sykes

Motivation is the key ingredient for success in any

organization. You can have all the technical skills in the

world; however, if you can't motivate your team, you will not

achieve success. As a leader, a majority of your job is to

motivate others to succeed so that everyone's goals are

accomplished.

The following are eight quick tips to motivate your team:

1. Everyone Has Motivation

Your employees are motivated on some level. It is your job

to find the level of their motivation and move your

employees to the next level.

2. Listen to WIIFM

I wake up every morning listening to a very important radio

station, WIIFM. I hope you do too. WIIFM stands for

What's In It For Me? To truly be a motivator, you must

always be in tune to your employees' WIIFM. Find out why

it is beneficial for your employees to do a task, etc. Once

you find out the employees' motives, you find out how to

motivate them.

3. It's about Pain or Pleasure

Motivate your employees toward pleasure or away from

pain. You motivate toward the pleasure by providing

recognition, incentives, and rewards for doing a good job.

You motivate away from the pain of a corrective action,

losing a position, or doing a poor job. The key to this

motivation is to be consistent with all your employees at all

times.

4. Give Me a Reason

Do it because I said so! Well, with our educated workforce

these days, that doesn't work anymore. Employees like to

know why tasks are being requested of them so that they

can feel involved and that the task has worth. Let your

employees know why doing the task is important to you, the

organization, and for them.

5. Let Me Understand You

Take time to show sincere interest in your employees as

people. Understand what your employees are passionate

about in their lives. What are their special passions? What

are their personal needs? What brings them joy or pain?

What are their short-range and long-range goals? Once you

understand the answers to these questions, you can move

them to a new level of motivation, because you cared

enough to ask the questions and show interest in their

success. Once you understand your employee's needs and

goals, they will take more interest in understanding and

achieving your goals.

6. Make Me Proud

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "A soldier will fight long and

hard for a bit of colored ribbon." Give your employees the

opportunity to be proud of their work. Reward team

members publicly for a job well done. Give them an

opportunity in a team meeting to explain how they

accomplished the job. Have your organization's Director,

President, Vice President, etc., give recognition to these

employees by personally sending a note, recognizing them in

an organizational or team meeting, or creating a "Hall or Wall

of Fame" recognition for employees that really have gone

beyond the call of duty.

7. Expect the Best

Expect the best and your employees will rise to that level.

How do you do this? You do it with the words you use. Are

you expressing positive expectations, or are you using

words (kind of, sort of, we'll try, we have to, we haven't

done that before, and that will never work) that communicate

negative expectations? What does your body language say

about you? Does it say, "I'm ready to take on any challenge,

and I expect you can also;" or does your body language say

"Please don't give me another problem. I can't handle it."

Do our recognitions and rewards move our employees to do

their best? Do we consistently communicate our standards

and expectations for the best? Do we coach our team to

always do better?

8. Walk the Talk

Our employees model our behavior. If we are confident

about a major change in the organization, our employees will

follow our behavior. If we come in late and leave early,

guess what will happen? Remember, even when you don't

think someone is watchingthey are always watching. Set

the example for others to follow.

Apply these eight simple rules of motivation and you, too,

will have the skills to motivate your team to be inspired,

innovative, self-directed, and highly productive employees.

About the author

Ed Sykes is a professional speaker, author, and success coach in the areas of leadership, motivation, stress management, customer service, and team building. You can e-mail him at mailto:esykes@thesykesgrp.com, or call him at (757) 427-7032. Go to his web site, http://www.thesykesgrp.com and signup for his newsletter, OnPoint, and receive the free ebooks, "Empowerment and Stress Secrets for the Busy Professional" or "Marvelous Customer Service Techniques for Outstanding Results."

POST COMMENT

7 Ways To Protect And Improve Your Credit Rating by:G.L. Bycz How To Hire Like The Fortune 500's: A Guide For Small Businesses by:Robert Burko Debt Management Plans - A Way To Survive The Debt And Come On Top by:Vishy Dadsetan Why Choose Delaware as Your Corporate Home? by:Jay Stockman Managing bank liquidity in real time by:Stanley Epstein Information Elements of an Effective Business Card by:Bruce Zhang How to Find Debt Consolidation Solutions by:Sanjay Johari LLC vs. S Corporation: Which is Better? by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA Do-It-Yourself LLC Formation by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA Should You Use An LLC For Your Small Business? by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA Does Early Mortgage Repayment Still Make Sense? by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA Three Rules of Thumb for Mortgage Refinancing by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA Picking A Small Business Accounting Program by:Stephen L. Nelson, CPA