Inspiring Your Team: Proven Strategies for Motivating and Engaging Your Employees

So you are leading a pretty good team, but you know they could be better.  And you tried to inspire them to dream big and work hard, just like you, yet they don’t seem to be moved by your words. We know how that feels. But don’t worry, in this post we’ll discuss how you can persuade your team members to up their game. 

Let’s start with an important fact: for most people a job is a job and nothing more: they punch in, do their work, punch out and expect to get paid. That is true about most of your team members; they will never see their job as a career, but as a simple transaction: they give you their skills and their time and get paid in return. Is that a bad thing? No, not at all. That’s reality and we need to accept it.

Here’s another fact: several studies show that most people don’t even like their job and that they would do the bare minimum if they could get away with it. And what is that if not a sign of human intelligence: the ability to get what you desire with the minimum amount of effort. You can’t get frustrated with these people, as you, the leader, are asked to do the exact same thing. So if you were able to inspire your team to do more than the bare minimum, then you did an ok job at being their leader. 

Ok, so we know that most employees won’t put any additional effort into their work out of the kindness of their heart. So if you want them to push harder, you need to give them something extra in return. 

And now is the moment when some of our clients say: “Wait, we already pay them to work extra hard. They’d better do the job they signed up for! I’m not paying them anything extra!”. 

Let’s take a moment to analyze this statement. What does it mean to work extra hard? Are your employees meeting the organization’s KPIs? Because if they are, then they are already doing the exact job they signed up for. And if you want them to do more, offer more.

Alright, so how do you incentivize your team? How can you convince them to do more, faster and better? Simple answer: give them what they want. What do employees want, you may ask. We’ll help you out: there are 4 things that employees want:

1. Bonuses
2. Benefits
3. Free time
4. Status

Let’s quickly go over each of these 4.

1. Bonuses

There are 2 types of bonuses that you can award to your employees:

• Individual performance bonus
• Profit share

Individual performance bonuses are calculated strictly on the employee’s performance and can be awarded monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually. Make sure that your bonus system is fair and transparent, and that the rewards are both appealing and achievable. So compare apples to apples, don’t change the rules of the game mid-game, make the reward worth fighting for, but don’t burn your team out in their attempt to achieve the goal.

The profit share bonus is leadership’s way of saying “Thank you” to those who worked hard and contributed to an increase in the yearly profit of the business. This bonus should be awarded at the beginning of each new fiscal year. The rewards that can be offered are an increase in the base pay and/or stock. Some of  the criteria that must be taken into account to ensure an equitable distribution of this bonus are: employee’s performance, role and tenure. 

The downside to bonuses is that employees may lose track of the reward as these are usually awarded after sustained performance over a longer period of time. So it’s the leader’s job to regularly remind the team what they are working for.

2.Benefits

Gift cards, vouchers and physical prizes can be used as rewards for great performance. So make a habit out of launching team competitions once in a while. These competitions should encourage extraordinary performance over a short span of time. You should see these competitions as sprints: have the team run really fast for a short time and then allow them to rest. Recent studies show that these “sprints” are the best way to increase performance.

The downside to these is that, given their common occurrence, the budget intended for prizes is usually lower, so there’s a risk that some employees won’t see the rewards as appealing.

3.Free time

Who doesn’t enjoy a longer break or more vacation days? So if your business allows it, use free time as a reward for good performance. You can award an additional vacation day every 2 years to your tenured employees, or maybe make a habit out of closing business on a Thursday once in a while – long weekends are the best. Allow your employees to rest, so that they can keep smashing the KPIs. And keep in mind that even approving  a longer lunch break once in a while will take the team a long way. So never underestimate the power of free time.

4.Status

Status, recognition and authority are some of the most powerful motivating factors. Employee competence and seniority should be recognized and celebrated through honorary titles. So create a tiered system to differentiate between your team members. The honorary title can be awarded at the beginning of each fiscal year and it must accompany an increase in pay. Evidently, have higher tiered employees involved with more complex tasks, have them act as mentors and subject matter experts to the team, and turn them into the manager’s right hand.

To conclude, remember that great performance comes at a cost, and that very few employees are willing to give the organization their best in the absence of an extrinsic motivational element. So if you want a top performing team get used to the idea that you need to invest in them time, energy and money.