Tips for Increasing Team Motivation
Team motivation is the most important part of managing a team. If your team is not motivated, you will not maximize
productivity. Your job as team manager is to ensure that each member of the team contributes to his/her full
potential. There are no weak links in a successful team, which is why it is so important to make sure all members
are consistently performing at one hundred percent. The following tips will help you, as a team manager, maintain
team motivation.
Create a Project Timeline
Every team project needs a beginning, an end, and a way to get from the beginning to the end. A timeline outlines
each step of the process in detail, and is essential to maintaining team motivation. It provides deadlines for
portions of the project, assigns responsibilities to each team member, and provides a point of guidance for the
project. Depending on the nature of the project, the timeline might never change, or it might change frequently as
the scope of the project changes. A detailed timeline is an essential tool for keeping the team members on the same
page and providing the organization necessary to maintain team motivation.
Set Realistic Goals
When working on a team project, it is important that all goals are realistic and obtainable. When a team member is
up against an impossible deadline, the team can start to fall apart, and team motivation decreases. A team member
can become under productive because he/she feels that the work is impossible to complete and loses team motivation.
Other team members then resent the fallen team member because they either have to pick up the extra work or fail as
a team. When goals and deadlines are realistic, the team can comfortably work together towards the end result.
Communicate
Perhaps the most important part of working on a team is communication. If any team member begins to lose motivation
for any reason, they must feel comfortable communicating this to the team or the manager. It is your job as a
manager to keep the lines of communication open and provide ways to team members to easily communicate. Team
motivation can be increased by encouraging communication of praise, as well as concern. Remember to share the
positive as well as the negative.
Hold Regular Meetings
Team meetings allow you and the members of your team to share progress, voice concerns, revise the project
timeline, and strengthen team motivation. Depending on the scope of your project, meetings could be held daily,
weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. As the manager, it is your job to make sure each team member feels comfortable
talking in this forum. If a team member seems lost or needs special attention, the team meeting is not the
appropriate place to talk. Set up a meeting with this team member alone to get them back on the right page. Another
important aspect of the team meeting is that the team member is able to easily see how his/her work compares to the
other team members. By sharing work and progress, all team members motivate each other, which then increases team
motivation.
Reward Team Members
Nothing increases team motivation better than a reward! Whether it’s a simple certificate, a free lunch, an
afternoon snack, or a gift card to your favorite store, recognition is always a motivator. Try to reward your team
as a group, not individually. If an individual truly does work above and beyond the other members of the team, and
it seems to be identified by the entire team, then it might be acceptable. But the idea of rewarding the team is to
identify that the team worked together to produce an outstanding result. Rewarding an individual takes away from
the strength of the team. On the other hand, if the team is doing poorly, encourage the team to work harder and
propose a reward that could be earned. Team motivation might increase exponentially if there is a prize at the end
of the tunnel.
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