Lead and motivate your staff
Inspire and motivate your staff to improve your chances of business success.
Strong leadership and a sense of direction are hallmarks of almost all successful businesses.
People are motivated not only by personal gain but also by feeling part of the business and contributing to its goals. Therefore, if leaders engage effectively with their workforce to build commitment, employees are motivated to improve the quantity and quality of their output, which improves the business.
Good leaders motivate their staff using a variety of skills, learned through training and experience. You can develop these skills to get the same results.
This guide shows you how to lead and motivate your staff in order to improve business performance.
It also highlights the range of leadership training and 91香蕉黄色视频 that is available in Northern Ireland.
Advantages of leading and motivating your employees
Improving productivity, innovation and your reputation among potential employees and suppliers.
For a business to be successful, it has to not only offer products and/or services that meet customers' needs and wants, but also have staff who are loyal and committed.
Staff motivation
However, to gain your employees' loyalty and commitment you need to do more than just pay them well. In a competitive job market, you also need to consider people's social and psychological needs - and this means leading and motivating your workforce properly.
Read more on what motivates employees.
Benefits of leading and motivating your staff
There are a number of benefits for businesses that lead and motivate their staff including:
- higher staff retention - helping businesses reduce staff turnover and leading to a reduction in recruitment costs
- absenteeism will be minimised leading to higher levels of productivity
- more innovation and creativity - staff may be more inspired to improve processes and quality of products you produce
- higher profits
- a better reputation - among suppliers, customers and potential employees, helping to make it easier to recruit the best workers
- improved industrial relations with trade unions - see work effectively with trade unions
Employee motivation
Varied tasks, flexible working, recognition, rewards, and other ways to motivate your staff.
Before you can create a motivated workforce, you need to identify if your staff are motivated or not. If your staff aren't motivated then you should take steps to understand why.
Identifying low staff motivation
Some of the indicators of poor employee motivation could be:
- high staff turnover
- low productivity
- a poor workplace atmosphere
- a lot of employee grievances
- conflict in the workplace
- high level of sickness
Low motivation among your employees could be caused by:
- monotonous work
- lack of praise
- individuals feeling ignored
- a poor reward structure
- little opportunity for promotion or advancement within the organisation
Motivation: job satisfaction
The way your employees feel about their job, the tasks they are required to complete and their workplace determines how motivated they are. There is a clear link between job satisfaction and productivity.
Job satisfaction depends partly on tangible rewards - for example, how much a person is paid and what benefits they receive. See how to set the right pay rates and implement staff incentive schemes.
However, job satisfaction also depends on the culture of an organisation. This means the things that make your business distinctive and make the people who work there proud to do so.
How to motivate your workforce
You can motivate people with:
Recognition and rewards
You should acknowledge and appreciate employees for their hard work by simply thanking them when a job is done well. You can also reward staff to further reinforce positive behaviours and actions. These can be monetary or non-monetary rewards. See recognise and reward employee contribution.
Varied and interesting tasks
Try to give your staff tasks that are interesting and varied. Doing the same tasks repeatedly will lead to boredom and disinterest.
Clear goals and expectations
Make it clear to your employees what is expected of them. Clear goals help to focus attention and effort. Set goals that are attainable but still challenging. Ensure success can be easily measured. See agreeing performance objectives with staff.
Healthy work-life balance
Help your staff to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Offering flexibility around working hours and location and 91香蕉黄色视频ing staff with personal commitments can help reduce stress and increase commitment and productivity. See 91香蕉黄色视频 employee work-life balance.
Career and skills development
Provide opportunities for employees to develop their skills and abilities. Offer training, mentorship, and career development opportunities. Staff will be more motivated if they feel you are invested in their personal and professional development. See staff training and development.
Positive and inclusive work environment
A 91香蕉黄色视频ive and inclusive workplace can motivate staff to perform highly and collaborate with others. An open and respectful working culture can encourage problem-solving, effective teamwork, innovation, and growth. See diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace.
Increased autonomy
Offer staff more control over how they do their job. Increased autonomy can foster a sense of ownership, making employees feel more responsible for the success of their goals.
Supportive and empathetic management
An effective manager or leader will be clear on the direction of the organisation and will make it clear how their staff contribute to this. Managers who are 91香蕉黄色视频ive, empathetic, and fair will help increase staff commitment and motivation. Be sympathetic to the needs of your employees. For example, you should have appropriate policies for compassionate leave and time off. See working time and time off policies.
Teamwork
Encouraging teamwork can make employees feel more engaged. When staff feel part of a cohesive team, they feel valued and are more motivated to contribute.
Two-way communication
Providing regular updates and feedback to staff keeps them informed on the progress of the organisation and prevents disruptive rumours from taking root. Employees should feel that their opinions matter. Provide opportunities where staff can offer ideas for problem-solving, improvement, and innovation. See staff feedback, ideas and forums.
Become an effective leader
Strategic focus, change management, and other leadership skills, and how to develop them.
Effective leadership is more than just management - it builds on managerial skills. A good leader offers direction to people, gets them to share their vision for the business, and aims to create conditions for them to achieve great results.
Skills you need to be a good leader
In order to lead your staff, you need to be able to communicate:
- a vision of what the business stands for and where you want it to be
- values and priorities across the organisation
- what you as an individual intend to do to realise that vision and reflect those values
- what individual employees can do to realise that vision and reflect those values
You can show leadership to staff by:
- involving them in decision-making
- providing personal encouragement
- recognising and rewarding good performance
- helping to build their confidence to use their own initiative
- inspiring them with a vision for success
- ensuring good two-way communication
The skills learned by effective leaders can be grouped into five main areas:
- planning/strategic focus
- customer focus
- self-management/awareness
- team management
- change management
You will need to use different skills at different times - there's no 'one size fits all' approach to leadership.
In addition, the right leadership style will depend on your business and your own character. A softer, mentoring style of leadership may be appropriate - or you may opt for a more directional approach.
Leadership and your senior management team
If you have a team of senior managers, it's important that it also shows leadership qualities and helps to engage staff.
In order to achieve this, the team must be unified. If not, being disjointed could put off anyone involved with your business, eg employees, customers, clients, or suppliers, and lead to the business' failure.
Having a strong management team is particularly significant if:
- your business operates in more than one location
- you are in more than one type of business/industry
- your business has more than one culture - or the culture is changing, eg following a merger or acquisition
See how to build and manage an effective team.
You may need to consider whether you - and other senior managers if you have them - could benefit from some kind of leadership training.
Competency frameworks
You can develop your leadership style by aiming for a recognised standard of competence. Competency frameworks use performance indicators to help you measure your progress.
Two of the most widely used frameworks are:
Sources of leadership training
Training available to help develop your leadership skills and where to access them.
If you manage staff, you could benefit from leadership training, ie training designed to help you maximise your own and your business' performance.
Benefits of leadership training
Leadership training will help you:
- inspire your team
- influence others
- bring about positive change in your business
Leadership training is as much about personal development as it is about learning set skills through formal training.
Types of leadership training
Mentoring
Mentoring is an informal, generally unstructured process in which a mentor, usually someone very experienced in business, spends time developing the inner resources of the mentee. It is not a teacher-pupil relationship. Rather, the mentor is more of a guide and somebody against whom ideas can be safely sounded out.
Networking
Networking is another important type of skill development for business owners and directors. A wide variety of business networks exists - including those for new businesses, young owners, and women owners. These allow you to learn from people running similar businesses and facing similar obstacles.
For both networking and mentoring, your local chamber of commerce and your local enterprise centre are useful initial points of contact. .
Lead your staff through change
Using communication skills to reduce disruption during periods of change in an organisation.
The ability to cope with change is a basic requirement for many small businesses. Mergers and acquisitions may be prevalent in your sector, and technology is changing the way businesses work all the time.
It's important that change should cause as little disruption to the business as possible. This means your staff should be prepared for it and not fear the consequences. If their concerns are ignored or mismanaged staff will feel vulnerable and demotivated and the quality of their work may suffer.
Helping staff adapt to change
Whatever the nature of the change, leadership during this time is built on good communication. Therefore you should try to:
- Eliminate uncertainty - be honest and upfront from the beginning of the change process. Give as much information as you can about the change, and the impact it will have on people and ways of working.
- Be visible - try to give the key message face to face. They'll appreciate hearing it from you in person.
- Match the mood to the message - the way you communicate is almost as important as the message itself. If you have got bad news, give it sensitively.
- Delegate - you can control the information you give by using managers who know their staff and know how best to communicate it.
- Encourage employee input - Give people the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. Make sure this isn't just a cosmetic exercise, they may just have the solution to your problem.
Try to see change as an opportunity, rather than a threat. Because it requires more leadership, it's a chance for you to grow in the eyes of your employees. If you earn more respect it will increase their motivation to work for you.
Read more on how to inform and consult your employees.
Read more on responsibilities to employees if you buy or sell a business and change management.
Five tips to lead and motivate staff
The following top tips will help you to enhance your leadership skills and motivate your staff.
The business benefits of strong leadership and motivated staff include staff retention, improved productivity and increased profits. Here's what you can do to enhance your leadership skills and motivate your staff to drive your business forward.
Tips to help you lead and motivate your staff
1. Recognise the signs of low motivation
Before you can create a motivated workforce, you need to understand why workers may lack motivation in the first place. Some indicators of low motivation could be: high staff turnover; low productivity; a poor workplace atmosphere and employee grievances. These could be caused by: monotonous work; lack of praise; a poor reward structure or little opportunity for advancement. See employee motivation.
2. Take steps to motivate your workforce
There are a range of ways to motivate people including: providing varied and interesting work; demonstrating you trust staff; good training and development opportunities; proactive and regular communication; creating a good work/life balance; fixed appraisals and feedback; and recognition and reward for performance. You should also have appropriate policies in place, including working time, time off and flexible working. See set up employment policies for your business.
3. Become an effective leader
A good leader offers direction to people, encourages them to share their vision for the business, and aims to create conditions to achieve great results. You can show leadership to staff by: involving them in decision-making; encouraging them; recognising and rewarding good performance; helping them to use their own initiative and ensuring good two-way communication. You will need to use different skills at different times and it will depend on your business and your own character. See become an effective leader.
4. Ensure senior managers show good leadership
If you have a team of senior managers, it is essential they also help to engage staff. This would be particularly important if your business is in more than one location, you are in more than one type of business/industry or your business has more than one culture eg following a merger. See becoming an effective leader.
5. Continue to develop your leadership skills
You could develop your leadership style by aiming for a recognised standard of competence eg Investors in People: see . You could also improve your leadership abilities through various mentoring and networking opportunities. See sources of leadership training.