Motivating your team is very important and essential to keep the hardship to achieve the goal going. It is one of those leadership responsibilities that should be done often to keep the team going. Motivating a team or workforce is an ongoing challenge. It is a vital priority for any leader who wants to become a world-class leader.

One of the reasons why leaders need to motivate their teams is to improve and boost the performance of their employees. Motivation helps an employee think that his/her leader understands the situation they are into and knows how they can win in that situation.

But the motivational speech shouldn’t be coming from the online motivational source because when leaders look like they are just applying some motivational techniques which they read about then people can see right through the superficial. People choose to be motivated when they want to give their best or to go the extra mile or to offer sweeping ideas. In this scenario, the leaders can only do one thing which is to shape the conditions under which a team chooses to be motivated.

Very few managers know this which is why there are gaps between the manager’s efforts and their results. A study found that only 21% of employees agree on their performance which is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. Below are 3 ways the managers can motivate employees along with three-alternative approaches.

Drive-by praise

Recognitions are best when given in person or even great when given in front of the entire team, but when they are given just over a quick note or over the phone, it might look like impersonal, uninformed, and inadequate. Like – dropping a text for recognizing your employee, or just stepping by the office of your employee to congratulate them for good work.

Making stuff up

Don’t lie to your employee just to motivate them by saying that you have got their back when the truth is that you aren’t even aware of what all things they are working on. The employees know when the managers are being insincere or outright lying. No matter whether these made-up stories are well-intended or not, they erode the employee’s trust in the leader.

Guilt gratitude

There are times when managers forget to assign a task to his team and recall that only a day before its submission. In such a case the manager would ask his teammate to go an extra mile and finish the task that he/she could have done if he/she was allocated proper time.

The above points show that they all serve the purpose of a leader who’s giving the praise, not the acknowledgment. You might want to consider the points given below if you want to direct your good intention to a more meaningful expression of recognition.

Ask for the story

Nothing makes an employee happier than his supervisor listening to his story behind his achievement and encouraging and recognizing it. It makes the employee feel that you are really interested in how they did what they did, and you really appreciate their efforts. Also, listening to their story can let you know their problem-solving techniques, what are their doubts, what do they love the most about their work and what makes them feel proud. These insights will help you know what work makes them more passionate when you are to give them their new assignment.

Contextualize gratitude

Tell your employees how grateful you are about their performance which is not just helping their team grow and achieve the targets but also how it is helping the company to grow and achieve the targets. For example; acknowledge that they are always ready to accept change and they have always welcomed it with open arms rather than resisting change.

Acknowledge the cost.

Make some time to acknowledge your team members for the efforts they made to accomplish the goal. Be it sacrificing their time with their family, doing something new, or take some risk for a highly risky project. Many a times employees don’t talk about their struggle with their managers for they think disclosing that would make them look weak. That is why it is necessary to acknowledge the challenges they have faced and made it easier for the employees to be honest with you when they are facing troubles.

It is the job of a leader to create a recognition-rich environment where those people who lead choose to give their best.

Compiled by Faber Priyal & Faber Mayuri