10 Steps to Motivate your Team for Success

Motivating your team for success is not a gargantuan task. It just requires you to turn the right levers at the right times and repeat the process again and again.

• Make a request
  • Put your request in front of your team. Do not assume they can read your mind by your actions.
  • As leaders, we often place ourselves on a pedestal and assume our team to observe and respond to our requirements. However, the truth is our unstated requirements remain unstated unless we put them across in an actionable manner to the team.
  • Clearly stating our expectations and needs to the team removes unnecessary friction that can often lead to bruised egos.
• Obtain their participation
  • Solicit their support, request their participation, beseech their involvement
  • Actively prompt the team members to participate when needed. Let them know clearly how their participation is adding value.
  • Let the message clearly go across that you value their participation and look forward to seeing their active involvement.
• Trust them
  • Gain their trust by allocating tasks and putting your faith in them to get things done.
  • It pays to let your team members know that you are trusting them to get the job done. Communicate expectations, deadlines and other constraints and give them a free hand.
• Identify their strengths
  • Identify and know clearly the strengths of each member of your team and accordingly task them.
  • Not everybody is of the same mould. Hence our measuring tapes must vary too. Do not compare two people one on one.
  • Identify the key strengths of each person and accordingly deploy them as the job-at-hand requires.
• Vitalize them
  • Energize them by giving them the confidence to fearlessly tackle the task knowing very well that you are backing them 100%.
  • Boosting the confidence and morale of your team from time to time helps them to continue building their beliefs in themselves and their ability to deliver.
  • Even if the job is routine, pick up those instances when the routine job was slightly different and highlight how they delivered in spite of the changes in the requirements.
• Award them
  • Reward them, award them and recognize their wins, however small.
  • Celebrate the successes of your team members as often as possible.
  • Get them to believe in not just themselves but also their other teammates. This is very important for a team as everybody should be comfortable knowing that each team member is doing their part of the job exceptionally well and their efforts have a direct impact on the final result of the team.
• Test their abilities
  • Keep pushing them to try new things. Their abilities might surprise them and you alike.
  • Push the boundaries of your team constantly. Only then will they start stepping out of their comfort zones.
  • This also helps reframe you as their mentor as they attribute a big part of their success to the fact that you pushed them to try something they
• Idolize them
  • Praise them in public, admonish them in private. Celebrate their successes along with the rest of the team.
• Notify them
  • Make it a point to let them know how their contribution at different times has had a part in the current success.
  • This trait helps as they know that even if they move out to other responsibilities within the team, their contributions will always be attributed to them.
• Guide their growth
  • Nurture people like you would yourself. Invest your time in their growth and it will come back to you multiplied.
  • Make each member feel that they have personally grown when they were part of the team.

Do these 10 steps repeatedly and you will have a supremely motivated team ready to take on any challenges you throw at them. Motivate your team for success and actually see them and yourself succeeding. Start now, Be consistent and see the magic unfolding before your eyes.