Employees who feel inspired at work are always the most productive and engaged. You'll want to maintain employee motivation to keep your team happy and thriving, but that can be easier said than done.
If you're a team leader, you'll want to keep reading! We made sure to include all the best strategies to maintain motivation in the workplace. Let's get started.
1. Set Achievable Goal
You must set daily goals for employees. They'll better understand what you expect of them and can move from task to task as they complete them. Plus, having your employees create work goals will help them stay engaged in the business.
Your employees will see firsthand how completing their goals contributes to the workplace, allowing them to take note of their successes.
You can also break significant goals down into smaller, achievable goals. Then, discuss your team's roles and what each person is responsible for. Good communication between you and your team will help everyone meet their goals and build a long-term plan.
Having smaller goals also makes your employees feel a sense of accomplishment more often, helping keep them motivated.
2. Provide Meaningful Work
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Every employee wants to know that the work they do is meaningful. While everyone can have slightly different sources of motivation, if someone is proud of what they do, they'll feel more productive.
According to research from BetterUp, employees want to do more meaningful work. They'll even stay at a business longer and be more productive when they feel their work has an impact. However, it can be difficult for team leaders to know what qualifies as meaningful to their employees.
You can break the word ""meaningful"" into three parts to help determine what work it covers. Forbes describes meaningful work as tasks that ""focus on contribution, community, and challenge.""
Work might not always be meaningful, but you'll want to ensure your employees do it as much as possible. You'll notice the mood in the office is much more exciting and enthusiastic when you do!
3. Give Employees Thought Out Feedback
Next, you'll want to start giving your employees well-thought-out feedback. While praise is good, your team will enjoy hearing better-defined feedback. For example, someone will respond much better to a thought-out response than simply getting a ""good job.""
Doing so lets employees know that you pay attention to their work and what they do. They'll feel more acknowledged and motivated because of that.
Plus, you can also provide them with constructive feedback to help them improve at work. You can help them grow and develop new skills by offering methods for them to learn. Many people feel empowered by solid feedback.
That said, it's important not to overwhelm your team with negative criticism, or you'll bring down the morale at work. Instead, try to offer a mixture of positive and negative feedback, with plenty of details on how they can grow.
Many employees feel lost when they don't get feedback, which can drastically decrease motivation. After all, you want to know how you did when you met your goals and completed essential projects at work.
In short, your team will become much stronger with consistent feedback.
4. Build More Trust With Employees
Employees who trust their team leaders will feel much more connected with their work, helping them to stay motivated. They'll also feel comfortable coming to you when they encounter issues that could prevent them from meeting essential deadlines. So everything runs more smoothly.
An excellent way to build trust is to always keep your promises, be honest about your expectations, and admit when you've made a mistake. As long as you can do that, your employees will feel comfortable doing the same for you.
You'll need to be dedicated to earning your employees' trust, but doing so will shift the workplace's mood. Your team will complete tasks more efficiently when they know they can trust and communicate with each other.
5. Decorate the Working Environment
It's hard to stay motivated in a blank, dull space. Employees can feel stressed and stop being productive in poorly designed rooms. You can increase motivation and happiness in your employees by sprucing up their working environment. Start by upgrading the lighting, then add some fun decorations.
You can decorate with unique art, posters, and furniture. You can also let your employees decorate their working spaces as they see fit. You might also need to deep-clean the building or upgrade the paint job to make it look nicer. Plants can also completely change the mood of a room.
Employees will work much harder when they feel comfortable and relaxed in their environment. It can be extremely difficult to stay motivated in a boring space. So, you should create a place your employees look forward to going to each day.
If you're unsure what decor would be best, you can always discuss it with your team. You might be surprised to hear your employees' ideas!
Lastly, if most of your employees work remotely, you can talk with them about their working spaces and encourage them to decorate them with things that they love. It will help them feel happier and more engaged in projects, even if they're working from home.
6. Offer Flexibility
Flexibility at work is great for employee motivation. When your team can work when they know they'll be the most productive, much more will get done. They won't feel as stressed about completing their tasks and goals.
Flexibility can mean a few different things. For some businesses, that means allowing your employees to choose their own schedules and make changes as needed. For others, that means offering remote or hybrid opportunities.
Most people today don't want to work a typical 9-to-5 anymore. If you can be flexible, your employees will appreciate their work much more on their own terms, increasing motivation.
Don't Forget To Keep Yourself Motivated Too
It's much easier to stay motivated when you see the team leader is motivated. Many employees mirror their co-workers, so you'll want to be the energy you want to create at your business. The rest will follow naturally.