Having a team of employees that are motivated and determined to drive your business to success is what any manager or CEO dreams of.
Motivated employees produce success, and so does performing at a high level, whether that be in sales, marketing or customer service.
However, sometimes it can be tricky to motivate your employees and foster a high-performance culture (especially on a rainy Monday morning!).
To make it a little easier, we’ve come up with five ways to develop a high-performance culture and get your employees motivated and producing the results you want.
1. Set achievable targets
It’s important to set SMART objectives in your company – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based.
Following the SMART guidelines when setting objectives ensures they are clear and structured. Involve your employees when setting SMART objectives, as they will be able to give insight on whether they believe they’re achievable within the time period you’ve established.
Your key performance indicators (KPIs) should also be specified. Be careful not to overwhelm your staff by identifying too many KPIs you want them to work towards, 4 is plenty.
2. Recognise achievement
If you don’t recognise and reward your employees’ achievements, then what motivation do they have to continue performing at a high level?
Show your employees they’re appreciated and valued by setting out a reward system. One example could be giving your sales staff a bottle of wine each time they close a sale, or a bigger prize for a bigger value sale, such as an extra day of holiday.
This can also be applied to departments other than sales. For example, customer service can be rewarded for receiving a positive review from a customer and marketing for generating a lead through a campaign.
If you choose to implement a reward system, it’s important you stick to it and don’t allow it to fall off after a few months. Consistency when rewarding is key.
3. Give feedback
It’s important that as well as recognising achievement, you guide employees by giving them regular feedback so they know in which areas they can improve. If they feel that they don’t receive feedback, they may end up feeling disconnected from their tasks and performing badly.
4. Increase team spirit
There is no doubt that good relationship within a team results in a high-performance output. Having a team of colleagues that respect each other and actually like each other can help drive performance in your business.
One easy way to bring your team closer together is through team-building activities. This could be something simple in the office like a workshop, or an out-of-office activity like visiting an escape room. Anything that gets people working together to achieve results and interacting with each other is good.
5. Be a good leader
A study by Joseph Folkman, reported by Forbes, found that a team leader possessing good character traits like ‘inspiring’ and ‘trusted’ had better performing employees. Being a good leader is extremely important to have your team perform highly. After all, your team is a reflection of you as a leader and your behaviour.
A good leader is also one that helps to engage and motivate their employees. There is a wealth of information online about how to engage employees; this article is a great place to start your journey of increasing employee motivation.
