How to Motivate Employees: 10 Tips for Leaders

Quick look: Highly motivated teams are happier, more profitable, and less likely to seek employment elsewhere. However, with employee burnout on the rise, many companies may find their workforces need an energy boost. Let’s explore 10 tried-and-true methods small business leaders can use to revitalize their staff and cultivate success.

Engaged employees, or those who feel involved and enthusiastic about their work, help their companies grow, retain staff, and recruit top talent. Additionally, employee engagement is associated with 18% higher productivity and 23% increased profitability.

However, according to Gallup’s most recent research, just 33% of employees feel engaged, and disengaged workers cost nearly $2 trillion in lost productivity.

To reignite enthusiasm and foster organizational success, team leaders and managers must know how to motivate employees when needed. If you’ve been wondering how to energize your team, the following 10 tips can help:

1. Get to know team members and their personalities

Teams are comprised of individuals, each with their own personality and communication style. And when one loses steam, the rest of the group may follow.

One way to overcome this is to get to know your team members and their personalities. Everyone has a different work style and preferred management method, and a one-size-fits-all approach can hinder engagement.

Becoming familiar with each team member allows you to learn how to best approach and manage everyone to help them reach their full potential. Managers should meet with each team member regularly and encourage not just talking about work, but hobbies and personal lives, if the employee feels comfortable.

2. Support continuous creativity

There are many reasons why teams lose focus, experience reduced productivity, or become burned out. And when deadlines are approaching, these situations can feel especially frustrating.

Managers can avoid these scenarios by encouraging employees to be creative and improve current processes. When staff feel their ideas are heard and they’re making a difference in the business, they become more invested in projects. Additionally, this dynamic urges the group to develop ways to enhance current operations.

This creativity helps boost productivity and employee engagement, which re-energizes workers.

3. Ask for feedback

Successful leaders consider their employees’ thoughts, concerns, and feedback.

Doing so helps individuals feel more valued within their team and the overall organization. In fact, employees who feel heard are nearly 5 times more likely to be empowered to do their best work. Asking for feedback also helps managers identify ways to improve engagement and morale.

Once managers receive responses, it’s crucial to take action. Ignoring input after seeking it can erode employee trust, while implementing changes based on suggestions shows staff that their ideas matter.

Teams that encourage an open communication style often feel more connected with their managers and know they can come to them with any questions or concerns. Encouraging this two-way communication helps reduce stress and potential conflicts while helping boost productivity.

4. Celebrate special occasions and milestones

Incentives and rewards play important roles within teams and businesses of all sizes.

Whether hosting a group lunch to welcome a new hire, enjoying a cake for someone’s birthday, or going out to celebrate the completion of a major project, recognizing these milestones can boost morale, engagement, and more. As a bonus, these gatherings are a great tactic for attracting and recruiting new talent to the company. After all, everyone wants to work somewhere with perks and recognition!

5. Learn from your employees

Many people think that in a manager-employee relationship, the employee should learn from their manager. However, the best managers also view reverse learning, where a manager or mentor learns from a direct report or mentee, as an opportunity to improve their team’s dynamic.

Everyone brings something new and unique to the group. Learning from others’ knowledge and experience is energizing and can help managers and employees alike develop new skills and problem-solving techniques.

6. Don’t forget the big picture

Sometimes, projects can stall, especially when team members lose focus. When this happens, leaders should remind their staff about the goals the team and organization strive to achieve.

Reminding staff about the big picture can help motivate and steer them back on track while also helping to overcome any concerns or obstacles preventing the project from advancing.

At times, a team simply needs to take a step back from their work and focus on the end result to boost creativity and productivity.

7. Be empathetic

It’s crucial that employers and managers show empathy in the workplace. Work is just one part of employees’ lives, and sometimes they experience personal difficulties that impact their output.

When an employee is going through a hard time, it’s important for leaders to be empathetic. Managers can reach out to workers displaying uncharacteristic behavior to offer support or assistance. This may improve the individual’s performance and show the entire team that their leader is understanding and available to assist in tough situations. Demonstrating empathy can boost employee happiness, loyalty, and retention and enable managers to help their teams overcome problems and become re-energized.

8. Shift strategies

So much of business (and life) is trial and error. During professional roadblocks, it can feel like there’s no viable solution, causing energy and efficiency levels to drop.

To avoid this, leaders should attempt to shift efforts and strategies to get the project back on track. Sparking a solution-focused conversation can allow team members to present ideas that solve the issue, improve productivity, and revitalize the group.

9. Be a role model

One of the most important things a leader can do is be a positive role model. Teams often reflect their manager’s leadership style and work ethic, which can directly impact their ability to accomplish goals.

During challenges, a leader’s ability to be a positive role model can instill a sense of calmness and relief among employees, helping them overcome any issues holding them back from reaching their goals.

Positivity begets positivity, and being an optimistic role model sets the tone and expectations for how the team should conduct themselves, boosting overall productivity and energy.

10. Always say “thank you”

Everyone enjoys recognition for their time and effort. By showing gratitude, managers can re-energize a group and boost team morale, especially during stressful periods. This appreciation helps employees feel their work is making a difference and helping the company reach key goals.

Additionally, research shows that gratitude strengthens employee retention rates: workers who received high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to leave.

PEOs: A resource for revitalization

Running a small business can be challenging. The labor market is competitive, employment laws constantly change, and inflation is stretching budgets. Luckily, you’re not alone when strategizing how to energize your team.

A professional employer organization (PEO), a type of human resource (HR) outsourcing provider, can assist. PEOs, like ExtensisHR, manage different aspects of their customers’ HR, employee benefits, payroll, risk and compliance, and more. Further, they can help companies boost morale by:

• Providing various leadership training courses on topics like motivating teams, optimizing performance, establishing and achieving goals, etc.
• Enabling you to offer a tailored benefits package designed to increase employee satisfaction and productivity
• Offering dedicated HR guidance across a wide range of issues
• Unlocking affordable access to 15Five, an industry-leading employee engagement and performance management platform
• And more

Ready to re-energize your workforce and boost morale? Explore ExtensisHR’s PEO solution, or contact us today to learn more.