How to Motivate Your Team

Team Motivation

Serving our clients requires a motivated and inspired team to produce great content. We’re fortunate to have a highly skilled team of digital experts at Jelly. We realize that our greatest asset is our team and their ability to get our clients seen and heard by the right people, all while being their energetic and driven selves! While it’s easy to say that we all know how to motivate a team, sometimes it’s easier said than done.

Need a little help motivating your team? Here are some of our top tips to help you along the way.

Lead by Example

It may be cliche, but it’s true.

One of the easiest ways to motivate your team is by leading by example. When the days are jam packed and there’s just not enough hours in the day, model the behavior that you’d like to see in your team: take a short lunch (or work through it), come in early, stay late, keep organized and on top of your email, complete tasks efficiently, pick up the phone to follow up instead of sending another email. While not all of this may be able to happen every day of the week, modeling this behaviour on a consistent basis will leave a lasting impression on your team.

Most importantly – stay positive and don’t complain! If it’s been a stressful or exceptionally busy day, try your best not to let it show. When people sense stress or chaos within leadership, it’s hard to ignore and can become infectious. Keep smiling and hustle hard.

Communicate

The sad reality is, when your calendar gets busy and emails keep piling up, it’s easy to fall into the trap of communicating with your team only via email or an internal chat software. While it can be efficient and necessary for some communication, at the end of the day, if you’re just a name in an email or someone sitting behind a desk, do you really think you’re inspiring your team?

It’s not surprising how a simple “good morning” or “great job!” can brighten someone’s day. Engage with your team and show interest in their lives, but always ensure that it’s genuine. Take note of things that they mention and remember to ask about them later. To most, it’s the little things that will make the biggest difference.

Self Development

Over the years there’s been numerous studies that prove that one of the top motivators for millennials is the opportunity for self development – both personal and professional. Most people are hungry to develop their careers in one way or another, so give the opportunity to do so! Whether it’s giving your team time in their schedule to update a certification or paying for admission into a conference, showing interest and investment for your team’s development goes a long way. It shows that you care about them, want to see them succeed and view them as a valuable team member that you want to see grow within your business.

Don’t leave it at that, though. Encourage your team to share their knowledge with the rest of your team. After attending an event or conference, make it a requirement to share their key takeaways in either a blog post or a presentation during a team meeting. Not only will it ensure that they’re present during the off-site event, making their absence worthwhile, but it will also give them the opportunity to work on their writing or presentation skills.

Allow Mistakes

Mistakes are inevitable, so let them happen. After all, they’re proof that someone is trying! We believe that nothing good ever comes from staying within your comfort zone, which is why we encourage our team to get messy, make mistakes and have fun. Trying something new can be daunting to some, but by helping to ease the fear of repercussions it gives opportunity to take that first step. By doing this, it empowers our team to try new things, push buttons and bring our services to the next level.

With that in mind, it’s also important to instill the idea that while mistakes when trying something new are encouraged, silly and repetitive mistakes are not. At the end of the day, mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating.

Don’t Micromanage

Nobody likes it when their calendar is jam-packed with useless meetings or a few hundred reminders or check ins popping up in their inbox. When you’re looking to motivate and instill greatness in your team, it’s important to understand the importance of giving your team the freedom to complete tasks independently, without a manager overseeing. Give your team the space to produce great content and shine on their own.

While meetings are great for face-to-face communication, they can also be a complete productivity-killer and can enable helicopter-management. When having a meeting, ensure that there’s a clear agenda and action items to follow up with. Give your team clear and measurable goals, but don’t look over their shoulder as they’re trying to accomplish them.