I have Mark Gilbert ATN founder to thank for just about everything I know abut the world of business and most importantly of leadership. Mark took me under his wing during my time at the Automotive Training network and would share some much knowledge with me that when I eventually launched my own business, I felt that I was completely ready to accept the challenge because of what he had taught me. Something which Mark was absolutely brilliant at was motivating people and I have watched first hand as he could turn people from looking lethargic to looking up for the fight, after just a couple of golden words. I watched and studied Mark doing this on several occasions and learned exactly how he was able to inspire, engage and motivate. If you are a leader and you want to be better at motivating your team, here are some tips on doing so.
Identifying
A common mistake which many people make is assuming that everyone gets motivated by the same thing, this in fact couldn’t be further from the truth. Some people are motivated by financial gain, others are motivated by personal success, some want to do well for their team or their company and others get motivated by competition. It is your role as a leader to identify what type of staff you have and what exactly would get them motivated. Once you are able to identify this, you can act differently with each team member to get them pumped up and ready to deliver.
More Than Once
So many people think that they only have to try once and that someone will be motivated for the rest of the day, week or month, but this just isn’t the case. As a leader you have be continuously motivating your team, reminding them to remain motivated and giving them reasons to do so. You know what many staff members are like, they are up for the challenge in the morning, then they go for lunch and they have forgotten all about it. This is where the leader needs to step in and once again gee up the staff and get them back on track. Motivation is an ongoing thing, not a one shot deal.
Updating
If you have a team member who is working on a project and you need them to stay on it, you need to keep them going by providing updates on how they are doing. If you consistently just tell them go, go, go, then eventually they are going to stop and ask why. If however you can tell them that they are making ground, and that they just need to push a little harder to the finish line, then they are going to remain motivated and working hard right until the end of the project.
The first step as a leader is to wind them up, the following steps are about keeping them on that path.
