An uninspired team is a sad team. When your people are no longer excited or encouraged to come to work, their work ethic will suffer.
Zig Ziglar used to say, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” The same goes for inspiration.
Inspiration doesn’t last forever. Your team has to be continually inspired to stay inspired. To do this, you must be willing to help your team be and stay inspired.
Photo by Anastase Maragos on Unsplash
6 Ways To Inspire Your Team To Achieve More
How do you inspire your team to achieve more? You take action on the following six items.
1. Foster A Learning Culture:
A learning culture creates team members who are excited and encouraged to come to work. They know they’re going to learn something new, grow, and become more valuable.
You can help foster a learning culture. Provide access to leadership or training workshops, create a learning library, or present topics of interest to your team.
2. Lead By Example:
The next thing you can do is to lead by example. Your example sets the tone for the organization.
How can you expect your team to be inspired if you’re not inspired?
Find the things that inspire you. Attack them with gusto!
Your team will see you leading by example and follow suit.
3. Celebrate Success:
Your people begin to feel as if they’re not valued or valuable because their success is rarely celebrated. Find ways to celebrate their success.
You can celebrate success by
- Sending out a handwritten note
- Giving them a pat on the back and telling them great job
- Acknowledging them in a company-wide meeting
Find ways to celebrate your people and their successes!
4. Provide A Sense Of Purpose:
When people lack a sense of purpose, they go on autopilot. They no longer feel as if their work is making a difference.
Think about it. If you’re not making a difference, if your work doesn’t have a purpose, why would people want to give up their leisure time, time with family, and more?
They won’t want to.
Money is no longer the motivator it used to be. People want purpose. Give them a pathway to purpose, and you will have an inspired employee.
5. Set Challenging (but obtainable) Goals:
Everyone talks about BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). These are goals that can scare people.
BHAGs are great when used correctly. However, BHAGs can bring fear to your people because they don’t see a way of accomplishing them.
Set goals that will challenge your people but that they can also achieve.
It’s foolish to set a goal of generating $10 million in new sales this year if you’re sitting at $1 million in sales from the previous five years.
The goals you set will either inspire your team or scare them off. Make sure you’re challenging but not creating fear in your employees.
6. Encourage Risk Taking:
The risk of failure is great among your people. They don’t want to let you down, they don’t want to let themselves down.
This is why people often don’t take risks. They’re scared of failing and letting others down.
You can help alleviate those fears by modeling appropriate risk-taking and encouraging others to take risks.
You cannot jump on and belittle people who try something new. They’ve never done it before, you can’t expect things to go perfectly.
Instead, encourage and help move them toward solutions when they’re taking risks.
You’ll soon find your people doing more and better things than you could have ever imagined.
