How To Motivate Your Team By Getting To Know Them

Inspiring and motivating your team is one of the most important leadership tasks. You are a leader when you lead people. And in order to lead people, you need to inspire and motivate them. But how do you do this? People are so different. What works with one person might not work with another. The answer to how to motivate your team starts with knowing them.

Keep on reading to find out all 5 steps and practices to motivate and encourage people.

Know them before you lead them

Motivating and inspiring others, especially people you work with, is not an easy task. How can you be successful at it? 

The first thing you can do is get to know your team. Connect with them on a personal level. Learn about their desires, dreams, fears, skills, ambitions, etc. 

Be curious and really get to know your employees. We all want to be appreciated and noticed. The personal connection you build with your team is the first way to show appreciation and interest in your team. It is the base for the next steps you should take to be able to motivate and inspire them. 

How to motivate your team really comes down to seeing the full person in front of you. By building rapport and showing empathy.

Let them own and be accountable

After you know your people and what they are good at, it is time to let them own their projects and tasks. The sense of ownership creates a powerful dedication and increases productivity. 

Remember to end every single meeting with action items that have one accountable person and a deadline. By giving responsibility to your team, you show you trust them. This is also how you empower them to do things on their own.

Let them know they can come for you for support and questions, but ultimately, it is their task. Let them own it.

You will be surprised at the level of inspiration and motivation this simple approach creates in people at every level. 

Of course, the tasks and projects you assign to your team should be at the right challenging level – not too easy and not too hard. This is where the first step of getting to know people comes into play. If you know your team, you will be able to give them work that they want to do and find interesting enough. 

Connect to the bigger picture

Research has shown people want to feel like they are part of something bigger. Regardless of the personal goals your team and employees have, reminding them of the big picture and the mission or vision of the company will motivate and inspire.

We all want to contribute to something and know that our work is meaningful. That we matter.

An easy way to do this is to use the meetings you have to remind your team of the big goals and mission. The projects you have are all in support of the bigger picture of what the company stands for.

Just like the meeting has a purpose, this purpose has an impact on the mission and vision of the company.

A simple sentence to use is: “We are meeting to discuss meeting purpose, which helps us achieve company goal.”

Connect personal goals to the mission

How to motivate your team, how to inspire a team, it all comes down to a simple connection – connect their personal goal to the company goals.

If you take the time to get to know the individuals, as suggested in the first step, you will know what dreams and aspirations each of your employees has. This is where you put this information to use, once again.

Help your team achieve their personal goals so your team and company can achieve theirs. 

It is true we all want to be part of something bigger, however we all work for our own purposes. We all have our own individual goals and dreams.

If Sarah wants to buy a house with her fiancé James, help her achieve this goal through the work she does for your company.

When Adam wants to go on a 3-month European trip, find ways to make this happen while he is helping you and the company earn millions in revenue. 

Give feedback

Last but not least, give people feedback. Do it frequently and timely.

There is no need to wait until the end of the year to review the performance. Provide both positive and constructive feedback when you see fit. And remember to be specific and talk about the situation itself, not the character of the person. 

How does providing feedback help?

It shows you care about the person and want them to improve and grow. It also provides excellent motivation and inspiration for the recipient of the feedback.

They now know what they do well and should keep doing and what they can work on to improve even more. 

And don’t forget to celebrate and shine a light on the goodness you see.

How to motivate your team?

Here it is:

1. Connect: Get to know your team on a personal level. Who are they, and what do they desire?
2. Empower: Once you know what your team is good at, give them appropriate responsibilities. Let them own their work.
3. Show Why: Remind them of the big picture. Your team and employees are contributing to a big mission and vision.
4. Help Them: Help your team and employees achieve their own goals in the process of driving the team and company forward.
5. Feed Forward: Share both positive and constructive feedback with your team. Let them know how to improve.

You’ve got this, my fellow high-achieving leader!

Having trouble connecting with your team and inspiring them? “e-Leadership” can show you the way to get to know your team and start motivating and inspiring them.