50 Great Ways to Motivate Your Team

A motivated and happy team is a productive team. Do you feel like your team is becoming complacent? Have you inherited a team that seems listless and bored? Try a few of these tips and you may find yourself with a team ready to start knocking it out of the park.

1. Give recognition habitually.
2. Make goals clear.
3. Schedule one-on-one time to coach.
4. Make training a priority.
5. Show enthusiasm.
6. Give people more ownership.
7. Ask them to help solve a problem.
8. Be more informal.
9. Celebrate milestones.
10. Say ‘Thank You’ more.
11. Tell people what they do right.
12. Take them to lunch.
13. Listen better and remember what you hear.
14. Lead by supporting.
15. Make sure the right people are doing the right things.
16. Foster creativity.
17. Set achievable goals.
18. Lighten the mood.
19. Take the team’s pulse periodically.
20. Encourage ideas and consider them thoughtfully.
21. Be consistent and spread praise across the entire team.
22. Identify the team leaders and keep them positive.
23. Tie organizational goals to personal goals.
24. Incentivize based on the individual. Not everyone motivates the same way.
25. Let people know what’s ahead. Avoid mysteries.
26. Set career paths within your organization and promote from within whenever possible.
27. Use job titles wisely. They can be powerful ego boosters.
28. Get office equipment fixed/handled/replaced promptly.
29. Make the work environment attractive and professional.
30. Praise people on-the-spot and so everyone can hear.
31. Give your people leadership roles to reward their performance.
32. Take team photos and make them visible.
33. Set team goals, not just individual goals.
34. Get your people executive recognition as much as possible.
35. Plan outside events. Baseball games, barbecues, comedy clubs, etc.
36. Let people dress business casual or even wear jeans. You might save them hundreds of dollars in dry-cleaning.
37. Implement contests that earn time off.
38. Encourage (and pay for) outside professional seminars.
39. Be as flexible as you can with breaks during the course of the day.
40. Give gag awards (e.g. at one job I was proud to earn “The Golden Hammock” for going above and beyond.)
41. Buy the team a pizza once a month.
42. Once a month take the team into a conference room and watch an episode of “The Office.”
43. Demonstrate integrity every day. Be trusted.
44. Be flexible and gracious.
45. Ask your team to bring potential solutions whenever they have problems.
46. Whenever possible, make the team part of your decision-making process.
47. Explain decisions.
48. Ask your team to think big.
49. Give people time off during the work day to learn more about their craft or their industry.
50. Position your people as experts in the company.