Posts Tagged ‘motivating people’

If you are good at what you do and are the type of person who gets things done, sooner or later you will find yourself in the position where you have to manage others. While some make that shift from being the doer to the manager with easy, others find it a struggle.

So what actions could you take to become an even better manager?

Action 1: Be Honest With Yourself

It is really easy to fall into the trap of believing that because you are the manager you need to be the best at everything. The reality is you don’t and cannot be the best at everything. Stop pretending that you know it all.

Action 2: Invest Time To Save Time

One thing so many managers complain of is having too much to do and not enough time. However unlike a computer you cannot buy an upgrade in the amount of tome you have. So what’s the answer? Make a one off investment of time to train someone else and then assign responsibility for a task to them.

Action 3: Find Out What Motivates

On just about every management and leadership course I run people bring up motivation as an issue. When I ask them when was the last time they asked employees what motivates them, most acknowledge it was no time recently. If you don’t know what motivates others you are always going to find it a struggle.

Action 4: Don’t Avoid Problems

It might be tempting to avoid problems in the hope that they will somehow disappear into thin air. In reality this never happens. The problem just gets worse. Deal with them rather than letting them hang around like a bad odour.

Action 5: Show Trust

Trust takes time to gain and can be lost in minutes. Truth is the best way to gain trust is to show others you trust them.

Action 6: Never Forget What It Was Like At The Bottom

As people climb the career ladder it is easy to lose sight of what life was like when you were just starting out. Always try and stay connected to what it is really like at the bottom of the hierarchy when you had little or no experience.

Action 7: Delegate A Lot

Delegation is vital to your success and has many benefits in terms of developing and growing others. It also gives a huge message to others that you really trust them.

Action 8: Try Not To Criticise In Public

Yes this requires a lot of self discipline but when you criticise in public you run the risk of losing the respect of the individual and potentially your whole team.

Action 9: Praise and Acknowledge

When you praise someone it lets others know you are noticing and care about them. Remember too that you can acknowledge effort as well as results.

Action 10: Accept That It Is Ongoing Work In Progress

Despite what you might read you never reach the point where you are the perfect manager. You have to keep learning and growing in order to continue to deliver success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps highly rated professionals to become high performing leaders and managers. He invites you to sign up for his free management mastery course

Keeping people motivated is probably one of the biggest challenges that a manager faces. So what are the top tips to be a better and more successful motivator?

Tip 1: Set clear goals

Everyone wants clarity about what they are expected to deliver. Make a point of setting crystal clear goals.

Tip 2: Listen more and speak less

People understand that decisions have to be made. At the same time, they want to feel like they have had the opportunity to contribute. Listening to the ideas of others can be hugely beneficial to motivating others.

Tip 3: Praise regularly

Make a point of praising people, not just for achievements but also for effort. Sometimes just having a go leads to confidence and motivation being lifted.

Tip 4: Encourage others

Managers who take the time to encourage and support others get that time returned in bucket loads.

Tip 5: Show them they can count on you

Sometimes, when things are not going well, the team will find themselves under incredible stress. At these times, you as the manager or leader need to show the team that you can be relied upon to stand up for them.

The bottom line

The truth is motivation is rarely about money but about doing some simple things well.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. For more information click here

A pay freeze or even a pay cut is not unusual in tough economic times.  Given this situation it might seem that it is impossible to motivate people.

Yet study after study tells us that money alone is rarely a motivator in the long term.  So what are the alternatives:

1. Praise people regularly
2. Say thank you when people have gone out of their way to deliver
3. Keep people informed through regular communication
4. Give people challenging and rewarding work

What else would you suggest?