Knowing how to motivate teams plays a crucial role in boosting productivity and performance within a company, as motivated employees are likely to exhibit improved performance, foster a sense of belonging and demonstrate loyalty to their work.
However, this is not easy to achieve: routine, boredom, problems among coworkers, and tension between employers and employees are decisive factors that can affect the group’s performance.
Summary
- Motivating teams directly influences the company’s productivity level. Therefore, the higher the motivation, the higher the company’s performance.
- The main reasons for lack of motivation are stress due to overwork, feeling underestimated and incorrect management of people who do not accompany the growth of the group.
- The leader must combine three major aspects: the construction of horizontal relationships among peers, respect for authority in vertical employer-employee relationships, and the personal aspirations of the employee in their individuality and, beyond the workplace, also taking into consideration their own personal goals.
What you should know about team motivation
Team motivation consists of the performance of positive actions that have a direct impact on the mood or morale of employees, thus achieving a greater sense of satisfaction in the work environment. These actions can be taken both individually, with their corresponding transposition at the collective level, and towards the group itself.
Why is important to motivate teams?
Team motivation has a direct influence on the company’s productivity level. Therefore, the higher the motivation, the higher the performance of the company.
This in turn leads to a greater amount of decisions or profits for the company and a heightened recognition for the leader who has the ability to achieve this. In addition, there are other ample reasons that make team motivation a key piece, such as:
- It reduces absenteeism levels: it minimizes the number of times staff take leave or makeup excuses, such as illnesses that are not such, to be absent from work
- There is less staff turnover: this saves the organization from the constant expense of recruiting and training new employees
- Improved level of customer service: a well-cared for employee will make others feel at ease
- Improves your reputation as an employer: this will allow you to attract and retain the best talent for your company.
Types of work motivation
According to Schultz (1995), significant progress has been made in the techniques of recruitment, selection, assignment, and employee training. However, none of these techniques will achieve the quality of work, unless the staff is motivated to give their maximum possible effort (3). Work motivation can be grouped into two main categories, according to its origin:
| Intrinsic motivation | Extrinsic motivation |
|---|---|
| It is the one that does not require stimulation from a third party, as it is closely related to our level of personal satisfaction. | It is the one that comes from outside, from a third-party stimulus. It is associated with the desire to receive external rewards or gratification. |
What causes teams to lack motivation?
The main reasons for a lack of motivation can be summarized in three: stress from working too much, feeling undervalued, and poor management of people that drags the group down. These three causes are often combined with each other.
Work overload, with its attendant stress, is sometimes unavoidable because there are not enough hands to handle the tasks and the company is not in a position to create new positions.
Work overload, with its corresponding stress, is sometimes inevitable because there are not enough hands to handle the tasks and the company is not in a position to create new jobs.
On the other hand, the employees will feel particularly undervalued if they work uninterrupted, without receiving even a “thank you” from their leader, or work on projects with colleagues who contribute little and at the end of the day receive the same recognition. These three causes, then, in sum with each other, lead to the demoralization of the employee and, therefore, to the questioning of the leadership capabilities of the head in charge.
See the most recent Work Stress Statistics
What are motivational skills?
Motivational skills are the abilities that the manager or leader has to make their employee feel valuable, reinforcing their self-esteem, gratitude, satisfaction, and, consequently, their commitment to the company. These motivational skills can be summarized in three pillars:
- Create a good work environment.
- Enhance the virtues of your employees.
- Stimulate continuous learning and growth.
How do you motivate teams to work faster?
This practical question is often the crux of the matter to which every employer or manager turns when they detect weaknesses in the performance of their team. This is due to the golden rule “time is money” and, for a company, optimizing work times means higher profit margins.
This motivation is the result of the interrelation between the individual and the stimulus provided by the organization in order to create elements that drive and incentivize the employee to achieve a goal. In this way, the employee strives to achieve the goals of the organization adjusted to the need to satisfy their own needs, because in this way they feels self-realized (4).
Recognition
Recognition is nothing more and nothing less than the transmission of gratitude or admiration to another person in which their performance, skills, or abilities are highlighted.
This is usually given, in general, for the quick resolution of conflicts or for the speed to manage the assigned tasks, and is perceived as the mandate “I see you, I notice you”. What this registration of the person does is to generate the expectation that in the future their opinion will be taken into account, and be worthy of an award or a possible promotion.
Balance in the division of tasks
Balancing the division of tasks does not simply mean distributing an equal amount of work among a certain number of workers. It involves assigning tasks to those people who show a special interest or internalization in this regard. That is, it’s not a matter of quantity, but rather of quality.
On the contrary, the mere assignment of tasks equally to the staff, without any consideration, causes those who do not have the attraction placed on it, to take longer to continue with the work. Meanwhile, those who do not have a full understanding of the matter and must manage on their own, without any guidance, will feel “under the microscope” and with extra pressure that may generate insecurity and weak work.
Fair pay
This has been an issue that, historically, has brought great conflicts and revolutions. Leading to legislation such as “equal pay for equal work”, in terms that capture gender doctrines. So that women’s work has the same recognition and value as that performed by men.
On the other hand, it also implies sufficient remuneration. That means that with it the employee can meet their basic needs and personal aspirations outside of work. In other words, it implies that the worker should not have to take another job or other jobs in order to be able to cover their basic expenses and those of their family.
The issue of remuneration is not a minor factor, as it directly impacts the company when the offered remuneration is not attractive for the hiring of new personnel or causes it to decrease because they seek other sources of employment.
Collaborative work environment
The leader must facilitate a proactive work environment, with active listening to the concerns and proposals of employees, facilitating a structure of horizontal relationships of collaboration among peers.
This strengthens the hierarchical relationship of the boss without resenting or putting an absolute distance from the workers because the workers will know how to value the good disposition of the superior and will also feel true respect towards the authority.
Check out: Leadership Principles
Empathy
Above all, it is necessary to remember that we are human and, therefore, we can have good days and bad days. Sometimes the problem that afflicts the worker may come from the office environment, and other times it may be something that worries them in relation to their family or other personal circumstances.
The leader must, above all, know how to put themselves in the shoes of their worker who is going through a bad time. Even if they do not want to share what is happening to them, it is possible to realize when a person is in a bad situation with their attitude and offer them some space to listen and even help, for example, allowing them to leave the workplace to resolve certain conflicts.
While the employee may choose to open up to the boss or keep their problems to themselves, in both cases, we should not demand the same level of productivity as when their personal issues are more balanced.
Training and growth opportunities
The worker must be fed that ravenous hunger to learn and surpass themselves. This is an anchor that motivates them to want to know more and more, and to be able to demonstrate that knowledge, both to their colleagues and to their superiors, who must experience it with active listening.
This reinforces the employee’s value and increases their self-esteem. They must feel that they find a space where their opinion counts and is taken into account, that he is encouraged to continue growing professionally, and that they are encouraged to always go for more.
This growth and desire to improve must always be accompanied by courses, training, and educational programs that open up new opportunities for the worker and thus value their workplace.
Facilitating family reconciliation and professional and personal fulfillment
We must first understand that people are not machines. This implies, on the one hand, that we have our own problems, whether work-related or personal, such as, for example, a sick family member, a child to be breastfed or the need to carry out a procedure at an office that is only open during our working hours.
That is why the worker must be respected the leaves of absence, so that they does not suffer from exhaustion or have their head occupied with their problems instead of being actively performing their tasks, and can thus have a better performance, as well as should be granted exceptional departures when a situation warrants it, such as an emergency.
On the other hand, this also means respecting the employee’s rest hours. Something significantly valuable for the worker is to be able to leave work on schedule, which they feel to a great extent an obligation and a weight on them, or to the extent that they pay an interesting sum for overtime.
The employees who are grateful and willing to optimize their working time they are those who, in short, have a balanced axis between their work time and their personal life.
New strategies to motivate teams
These are modern solutions for the employee to meet the objectives and goals of the organization and, at the same time, meet their own expectations and aspirations. These techniques seek to maintain a high degree of commitment and effort on the part of the workers, by valuing cooperation, effort and performance (5).
These motivational strategies are intended to prevent, correct, or overcome the large percentages of discontent and disengagement that workers feel about their jobs, the high job turnover, the mere interest in receiving a salary at the end of the month and increasing the seniority rate (6).
Conclusion
Team motivation is a decisive factor in increasing a company’s productivity or performance and thus increasing revenues or profits. To achieve this, the leader must create a pleasant work environment, where the worker feels part of it and with possibilities for growth so that they can then give value to their work that they deserve and deliver their full potential.
To achieve this, the leader must combine three major aspects: the construction of horizontal relationships among peers, respect for authority in vertical relationships between the employer-employee, and the personal aspirations of the worker in their individuality and, beyond the workplace, also taking into consideration their own personal goals.
References
1. Coromoto Peña Rivas H, Villón Perero SG. International Institute for Educational Technological Research and Development [Internet]. Work Motivation. Fundamental Element in Organizational Success; October 27, 2017
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2. Revuelto Taboada L. CEIPA journal portal [Internet]. A strategic approach to work motivation and job satisfaction; 2018
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3. Martinez Aleman LL. Daena: International Journal of Good Conscience [Internet]. Work motivation, a fundamental factor for the achievement of organizational objectives: Case manufacturing company; 2008
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4. García Correa DA, Londoño Bolívar C, Ortiz Pérez L. Psyconex. Department of Psychology, University of Antioquia [Internet]. Internal and external factors affecting work motivation; 2016
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