As the new year begins, employers are looking for ways to motivate employees to create a productive environment of engaged employees to kick-start 2018.
Being a manager is a lot like coaching a sports team. Most of us either have been on a team or had our children on a team, where there are those couple of stars on the team and everyone’s existence revolved around that or those individuals.
Consider how the remainder of the team felt in that environment — their confidence weakened as quickly as their motivation. The coach expected little in the way of production from them and then complained when they didn’t perform on a moment’s notice.
They weren’t ready or motivated to perform because the coach had taken away their confidence, and their motivation, and their ability to perform to their full potential. This team is not engaged and will not reach its full potential.
“It’s almost always a joint effort between people that makes those special things happen,” said Sam Parker, author of “Lead Simply” and co-founder of Richmond-based InspireYourPeople.com.
Sometimes, there’s a star performer or producer, but they rarely do it all on their own, Parker said. “As a leader, an important part of cultivating a team that feels deeply responsible to the work is cultivating a team that also feels deeply responsible to each other.”
Regularly recognizing and showing appreciation for the contributions of individuals is incredibly important, Parker said.
At the same time, it’s important to help everyone see how their contributions are connected to the contributions of others.
As the new year begins, managers should consider their team — the entire team, not just their top performers. Your best work frequently comes from your bench — those solid players who are willing to put in the grind every day, and are loyal to the organization and its mission. Are they ready, confident, motivated and valued?
Evaluate what each individual offers to your team, and determine separately what you can do to recognize and reward them and to engage them to perform to their full potential.
Finally, if any individual on your team is not contributing or adding value and you cannot envision a role for that person in the near future, the best step is to engage that person with honest feedback about what is happening.
Perhaps that person can be redeployed in the organization or given time to find work elsewhere.