5 Ways to Motivate Your Team
January 18th, 2010 Posted in Leadership, Newsletter1. Lead with Optimism - Negativity and fear are likely knocking your people off balance and it’s time to regroup, refocus, and unite to create a winning mindset, culture and positive team environment. Now, more than ever, is a time for positive leadership. Now is the time to uplift, encourage and inspire your teams. When your folks talk about the challenges, you talk about the opportunities. When others talk about why they can’t succeed, you give them every reason why they can. So often the difference between success and failure is belief and as a positive leader you need to inspire this belief and optimism in your people.
2. Jump into the Trenches – You need to be humble and hungry. Humble in that you seek to learn, grow, and improve every day, and hungry with a passion to work harder than everyone else. Now is not a time to be barricaded in your office. Now is a time to be in the trenches with your people, leading, working, and building a successful future.
3. Fill the Void - These are uncertain times. Employees are questioning how their industries and jobs will be impacted by the current economy. They’re unsure about what actions to take. Unfortunately this uncertainly creates a void and where there is a void, negativity will fill it. In the absence of clear and positive communication, people start to assume the worst, and they will act accordingly. Make transparency the norm, not the exception—after all, the more you communicate, the more you foster trust, and the more loyalty is built. Talk to your team members often, and let them know where they stand. Host frequent town hall meetings, host a weekly conference call, send out a daily email, and share your positive vision for the future. As a leader, you must continually communicate, communicate, and communicate.
4. Share a Positive Vision – Rally your team around a positive vision for the road ahead. Instead of being disappointed about where you are, decide to be optimistic about where you are going. Vision helps you and your team see the road ahead and it gives you something meaningful and valuable to strive towards. Discuss where you have been, where you are going and why you are going there. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream/vision and he changed the world with it. Share your dream and improve your organization with it. After all, if you think your best days are behind you, they are. If you think your best days are ahead of you, they are.
5. Teach Your People to Be Heroes, Not Victims - Heroes and victims get knocked down. The distinction between the two groups lies in the fact that heroes get back up while victims simply give up. Help your employees to realize that they are not victims of circumstance. Rather, remind them that they have a high locus of control—in other words, they have a significant influence over how things turn out. As I wrote in The Shark and the Goldfish, goldfish let fear paralyze them, but sharks choose to swim ahead, believing that the best is yet to come. Faith and belief in a positive future lead to powerful actions today! Life is a story, and the story we tell ourselves and the role we play determines the quality and direction of our life. The most successful people and teams are able to overcome adversity by telling themselves a more positive story than the rest. Instead of a drama or a horror movie, they define their life as an inspirational tale. Instead of being the victim (Goldfish), they see themselves as a fighter and over-comer (Nice Shark).
-Jon
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Which of the five ways to motivate your team do you agree with most? |
Tags: 5 ways to motivate your team, communication, jon gordon, lead, motivation, optimism, positive, team
8 Responses to “5 Ways to Motivate Your Team”
By Lisa Jansen-Rees on Jan 18, 2010
I think leading with optimism is crucial. There will always be fear. For the team to not be paralyzed by that fear, the leader has to remain optimistic and communicate that optimism - enthusiastically and often!
By Brian on Jan 18, 2010
Jon:
I want to thank you for your most recent newsletter. First I read the five bullets that lead off each paragraph. Without getting into the details I could already tell this was going to address my work situation. Things have been bad at our office for more than a year with few contract renewals and now lay-offs. I have always remained positive and handled what was in front of me to the best of my ability. I have tried my best to lead through example, even though I’m at the bottom of the food chain. I keep the energy vampires at bay by remaining positive and focused on my goals.
A few years ago I heard a story of an Olympic rower interviewed before the big race. The reporter, who was not very happy about having to get up and drive forty five miles to the site, asked the athlete several “what if” questions. Each if representing a calamity that could keep the athlete from achieving victory. “What if the winds head right toward you? What if it rains? What if…” To each question the rower answered, “That’s not in my boat!”
I have remained focused on what is in my boat, meaning what I can control. I cannot control the management and the decisions that are being made at my office. What I can do is agree to and complete the tasks that are asked of me. You’re coaching over the last five years has helped me get to this point. I cannot change the current management culture, that is completely fear based and scrambling to make up stuff to try to save a HUGE customer contract.
What I CAN DO, is print your newsletter and place it in the suggestion box. I have never been in an office with such chaos. Your methodologies have helped me survive much lessor calamities. I thank you for your weekly newsletter and reminder to remain positive. I hope that your message gets carried up the ladder from the suggestion box. As per usual, you have delivered the tools to survive a difficult working environment.
Forever Grateful,
Brian
By Natalie Tucker Miller on Jan 18, 2010
Thanks Jon, these were fantastic reminders and it dawned on me that there was an issue that arose yesterday which would behoove the team to be in the loop about. I might have overlooked it had I not seen this newsletter!
I especially loved the section re: hereos. As a leader in the certified coaching industry, addressing times we are in victim mode is crucial for both the coaches and their clients.
Kudos for another great publication!
By Craig Jennings on Jan 18, 2010
Like the management ideas.
Can they be responded or commented on singly?
cj
By Rick Gagnon on Jan 18, 2010
Number 3. Number 3. Number 3. Communication is where its at. Every Monday morning, I take what I have learned (or re-learned) from your newletter and share an aspect of this message that is relevenat to where we are, what we are doing and where we are going. I starte with a team of 7 that really had no interest in your bboks and now they are eagerly waiting for others to finish so thay can read them…again.
By Randy Bosch on Jan 18, 2010
To answer your question, I’m going with #4. Share a Positive Vision. That requires having “Vision” to begin! Too many leaders follow all the motivation/teamwork/optimism, et.al. techniques with great skill, but never, never have a Vision worth fulfilling.
It IS the “vision thing” that counts first and always.
By Jon on Jan 26, 2010
Jump in the trenches. Leading by example and empathy. You can’t take people where you are not going, or have not been.