subject: Non Traditional Project Management- Ways To Motivate Your Team [print this page] Are you looking for new ways to kick start and motivate your projects team? Does your team start off with a lot of enthusiasm, only to slow down shortly thereafter? If so, then you need to know several different ways you can motivate your team so your project can move forward, deadlines can be met and everyone is working as a team towards one common goal. Working on a project that takes several months to complete can often lead people to start being lazy, taking short cuts, and making you take the brunt of the load because they no longer have the energy or ideas to keep going. For these reasons alone, you need to learn new ways to motivate your team so your project wont be a train wreck.
Setting Goals That Are Realistic
One way to start motivating your projects team is to set realistic goals for each person and then as a group. When you set goals that produce results people can see and work towards, they will be more motivated to work on your project and to see through it to the end. Project managers who do not set realistic goals for the project team and for individuals often see projects failing and it does not bode well for the workers morale, not to mention the companys expectations from you. Set deadlines you can meet the goals in, and youll see a difference in your groups motivation levels.
Measure Your Projects Performance
A great way to motivate your team is to continually measure the projects performance as well as every team members performance. When you publicly broadcast everyones performance levels, it helps motivate their selves to be better and do better than their team members. If someone is experiencing difficulties in meeting the projects objectives and goals, then you need to sit down with him or her and figure out where the problems are and how you can help that team member to complete the tasks. There are many tools and measurements available you can use to measure your teams performance, which makes it easy for them to see where they stand in the group and in the project.
Celebrate At Making Goals and at the End of the Project
Everyone likes to celebrate and party for one reason or another. One great way to motivate your team is to create mini-celebrations when completing major goals in the project. You will see a boost in confidence, motivation and energy throughout your team when you create a celebration at the end of a project. Itll make them wanting to complete additional projects for you in the future.
Get To Know Your Team Members
Do you have a complex project and you need to assign team members to it? One way to keep your team and project moving forward and motivated is to find people who are right for the project at hand. You dont want to ask people who arent detail-oriented if its for a complicated and lengthy project. You also need to know who is an extrovert and who is an introvert because they use different ways to communicate ideas and concepts. For example, and introvert might want to pull you aside and tell you their thoughts or ideas; whereas, an extrovert will speak in front of anyone and everyone so their ideas are heard. The more you know your team; the better off your project will turn out to be.
Its important to find and explore different ways to help motivate your team when you are tasked with a project. Find some more ideas you can use to help spur some motivation in your team on the PMCAMPUS Facebook page.
