SSSMotivate

Motivation

Treat team members
as individuals

·	Understand your team members. How do they like to work? Do they prefer - variety or routine; detail or the big picture; planning or doing; support or being left alone? Are they motivated by status? Challenge?

·	Play to their strengths and preferences. This will motivate individuals and help the performance of the team.

Be a role model for your team

·	Set an example. People copy what their bosses do much more than they listen to what they say.

·	Be honest and direct. People like to know where they are with their boss. Uncertainty demotivates.

·	Act as their champion. Represent their interests; promote their ideas; when it’s necessary, take the flak.

Create the right
setting

·	Physical working conditions. Fix any unnecessary problems.

·	Bad working relationships. These affect the motivation of everyone in the team. Watch for them. Nip them in the bud.

·	Red tape. Some rules, regulations and structures are essential. Some just get in the way. Cut your team free!

Tell people how
they’re doing

·	Not just the bad news! Of course you can’t ignore poor performance, but trying to catch their people doing something right is behaviour shared by all the best managers.

Explain what jobs
are for

·	The purpose vs the task. Unlike machines, human beings only give of our best when we understand why we are asked to do something, and not just what to do.

·	The bigger picture. It is important to know how our job contributes to the organisation’s success.

Encourage ideas
and initiative

·	Avoid blame. Some ideas won’t work. If people get blamed for taking an initiative which fails, don’t expect them to do so again.

·	Encourage informal communication. This builds an ‘ideas culture’ and prevents the occasional bad idea doing serious damage.

Praise good work correctly

·	Immediate. Praise has a short shelf life. Do it as soon as possible.

·	Specific. Phoney praise is vague (and easy to spot). Tell people precisely what they have done well.

·	Public. Recognition of good work by colleagues as well as the boss motivates people.

·	Frequent. Make praise a habit.