Feel the heat and stay in the kitchen

If none of us is in a deckchair, or on a beach it seems that we still haven’t won the Lottery. (If you have won the Lottery, stop reading this and go immediately to the Seychelles. Do not pass Go, you don’t need the £200).
So we’ve decided to take a look at some tips for motivating your team, whatever the weather:

1. Invest time in your people. Ask them what they want, how they feel about their work, and what they think about the business. Value their opinions and commit to acting if necessary (arranging some training perhaps, or scheduling an hour or two to discuss an idea further)

2. Share information. You don’t have to tell everyone your problems, but information which will shed light on your decisions, or help guide the work you’re asking people to do, is worth sharing.

3. Create a positive company culture. Fear, loathing and suspicion are as dangerous as they sound. Think positively, speak optimistically, and trust people to carry out the work you give them.

4. Recognise and reward performance. You can be creative about the rewards, even if pay rises and financial bonuses aren’t possible. Perks, time off, and a round of drinks all count, and in fact, sometimes remembering to say ‘thank you’ is reward enough.

5. Conduct a team building exercise. This can be constructive as well as social. Encourage people to act as a team, divide into competitive groups, and challenge their traditional roles. Sometimes just asking one person to do the job of another for a day can be a real eye-opener all round. (Unless your small business is a dentistry practice or a driving instructor perhaps).

6. Clear up misunderstandings immediately, and make sure others do the same. Five minutes spent going over something again can save hours of fruitless work and resentment.

7. Create stages for your planned work goals and reward progress. ‘We want 25 new customers by the end of the month’ is a more effective motivator than ‘we want to be the market leader in five years’.

8. Discourage buck-passing. This means you as well as everyone else. It’s much easier and quicker to put a mistake right if the person who made it can feel confident in owning up, and being part of the remedy than it is if you have to wait until something goes really wrong before you find out, and then you have to spend too much time identifying the source of the error and repairing the damage. (But if you’re the boss, remember that to your customer, it was your fault. Internal discipline is for inside companies).

9. Own the results. Be honest about who has contributed to success, and take responsibility for yours. Most of us are reluctant to blow our own trumpet at work, but if there’s music to be played, toot away.

10. Have something to look forward to. A night out, a shared lunch, a team building cupcake course, an afternoon at the races, whatever it is, plan it, schedule it for some time ahead, attach performance goals to it, and bring your team together to get there.
In the meantime, we can all look forward to the weekend….