Is your goal to improve employee motivation and engagement? And do it in the way that makes them want to do it? A quality of a top notch leader isn’t it? Well remember this: good leaders are reliable and yet not predictable. And they should be consistent without being predictable. Not rocket science is it? But without these leadership traits, you will be losing the ability to motivate your team.
What skill matters most if you are a leader of a small business? Or perhaps for any business leader? We believe it is the ability to motivate and engage. For a small business, to develop the best motivational leader qualities is more critical to the daily operations than larger businesses. Why? Because there is much less leadership to be involved. And fewer employees so you need everyone fully engaged and motivated.
Can you change? Of course, you can. Everybody changes every day. But how versatile, agile, and quickly can you adapt yourself and your organization to stay relevant in today’s society?
Organizations are always evolving. What’s different now, is that we set new speed records of change on a daily basis. Technology gives us unprecedented possibilities. And this sea of opportunities is pushing the traditional bureaucratic, controlled and hierarchical organization into an identity crisis.
Your personality and attitude make a world of impact on those around you, don’t they? Making motivational improvements for you and your team should not be rocket science … it is usually the simple things that make you most effective.
So … you need to pay attention to the development of your own motivational leadership abilities if you are a leader of a small business. Here are some things that you need to do to motivate and engage your staff:
Improve employee motivation … providing challenging work
Wondering what the most important part of being social is? It is listening, hands down in our opinion. And listening means hearing. So if you don’t start with great listening, you will immediately turn off many of staff.
I learned this one quite early in my leadership and management career. Remember your first step in team motivation is making listening the backbone of your conversation. And then give everyone meaningful work tasks and cross train.
Storytelling in communications
Have you noticed how much employee motivation has changed in the last decade? Most people have. So when you use just traditional communication techniques, employees imagine you are stuck in time. Not a good thing.
One new communication technique we think is most important is storytelling. Think about the stories that you were told as children. They are etched into our subconscious. Use pictures and videos to communicate your stories in creative new ways. Ways that will be remembered and talked about.
Do you know your employees well and their likes and dislikes? If so, this in your guide to consistent personal conversational topics.
Always be consistent in the subjects you know your employees are interested in. Select the new variants but stick with their interests.
Show your personality
Everyone has a personality or at least 98% of the populace. Your business reflects the personalities of its leaders either by choice or by accident. You know which is best, don’t you?
Every successful leader has a specific tone of voice. One that relates to the personality of the business. And yes, of course, a business and its leadership have a distinctive personality. Decide what personality you want and let your tone reflect it in your leadership style … consistently. Employees love the personal touch.
Be flexible
It is often difficult to be flexible with all the decisions required in the marketplace. So if you want to be more flexible and still be consistent, you must pay attention to even the small details in dealing with employee decisions.
Make your employee interaction stand out with simple messages and involve employees in as many decisions as you can.
Listen and hear
A Chinese proverb once said if you don’t like to smile don’t open a shop. The same goes for being a person who doesn’t like to deal with people. Nothing is more damaging to a business.
Listen, hear, and observe closely. Find the unspoken messages. Make listening and observing your core competences. You don’t gain insights by talking. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight.
Leaders need to be good listeners for everyone, from customers to employees to business colleagues. They need to listen to what other people say and not just hear it. Listening also helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always listens to a number of different people. They know they own the final decision but always make sure they get input from multiple people.
Now more than ever, things are changing at blazing speed. Employees notice businesses that are stuck in time, refusing to learn.
There is only two ways to keep up. They are continuous learning and applying what you learn. Spend time understanding changing trends and patterns. Apply them as often as you can. And most importantly, solicit the help of your employees.
Communicate clear expectations
Don’t like networking either on or off-line? Not sure why you are in business, are you? This is true for employees and customers
Don’t be fooled by the deceptive simplicity of being social on-line. Building an effective network takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. Schedule time to make it happen and devote the energy required. Get your employees involved.
Always, always put employees first
Employees should always come first, they are your business. No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. They are the lifeblood of the business. They then will take great care of customers.
When you’re leading a business or an organization, you’re leading people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees. Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common, an important element in being a leader. Here are two additional perspectives from exceptional business leaders:
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
– Walt Disney
You have to treat your employees like customers.
– Herb Kelleher
Being socialable
Be social … walk around and connect on multiple levels. Connected leaders quickly become multiplier leaders. Multiplier leaders know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is not the lone genius, but rather the leader who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them.
Inspire and energize
Share your passion. Show compassion and share positive energy always.
A quality of great leaders is being able to clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and inspired about them. It’s not selling people on an idea, it’s inspiring them.
Getting a person to work with a leader when they’re not obligated is more than just inspiring them. It’s about ensuring people have fun and are energized with passion. Many charities get people to volunteer for them by inspiring and energizing a noble cause. They say that if you donate, you’ll be spending your time working toward something greater than yourself. This inspires people to take a few hours to work for a charity promoting a cause they believe in.
Coaching and mentoring
Mentor and develop self-esteem and a positive attitude. We have written on employees’ positive attitude on several occasions. Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It often trickles down from leaders, but it needs to happen more by design. Your business can never be what it can be if you don’t focus on employee happiness.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll have dozens of people criticize you. Customers, current and former employees (whether you know it or not), and family and friends may give you constructive criticism. It can be stressful to hear or read, and it can be easy to pass on criticism to employees. But it doesn’t help that much. As a leader, you should ensure employees have high self-esteem in their job.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your enablers for success for yourself and your employee team?
Need some help in finding ways to motivate and engage your employee team? Such as creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers? Or perhaps finding ways to work with other businesses?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your business learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
