Build a winning team in your business – how to motivate your employees to do more

It’s a well-known fact that staff productivity and efficiency are essential to the growth and success of any business. If employees don't enjoy their work, morale will fall and when morale falls employees end up chewing your money up rather than making it work for you.

If you can learn to motivate your staff and improve their morale, they will be inspired to return your faith in them with high efficiency and productivity.

Bob is the owner of a high school tutoring college and was having trouble motivating his staff. Because most of his tutors were university students they tended not to treat their jobs as “something serious”. They thought of their casual jobs as a place to hang out and earn “easy bucks”. They lacked the energy and motivation to excel in their positions, which Bob was obviously unhappy about.

The students taught math and science classes on the weekend to high school kids. In between those classes, they were slacking off and socializing when Bob would have preferred them to do something productive. This also set a bad example for the high school students who saw their tutors behaving irresponsibly and immaturely.

Bob also felt that he wasn’t getting the most out of his human capital. He had spent a lot of time and energy in handpicking these employees because of their excellence in particular subject areas and he was disappointed that they didn’t apply the same dedication to their jobs as they did to their university studies.

He wanted to motivate his staff but he wasn’t sure how. Bob’s business coach from Instant Business Success suggested meeting with the students in between their teaching commitments to discuss their duties. These meetings were scheduled once every week so Bob could receive feedback about how the high school kids were progressing. He also asked them questions about how they thought they could improve the service provided to the kids.

At first the students weren’t forthcoming with ideas but Bob persisted with the meetings. After showing the students that he was serious about improving the quality of service they provided and being completely honest and open with them, the students began to open up to Bob and suggest ideas they thought would provide students with higher quality services and make the business more money.

The students suggested marking the kids’ homework in class so they could get it back straight away rather than wait a week. That way, the kids would be able to correct their homework mistakes faster and allow them to move onto the next topic. They also suggested opening a resources center filled with textbooks on Math, Science, English and other subjects that the kids were studying so that they could access valuable resources while at the coaching college.

Bob was astounded by the response of his staff and gave the students full power and responsibility to get those ideas happening. The students were excited about the projects they “created” and worked hard during the time in between classes to get those projects finished.

This is exactly the mindset that the entrepreneur loves in his employees. When a team feels like “their idea” is being implemented, the employees are more motivated to take action.

And they did. The students finished those projects with great success that improved the efficiency of the business and provided a valuable resource that Bob could mention to parents wishing to enroll their kids in tuition. Bob continued his weekly meetings with the students because he realized what a valuable tool it was.

It helped him communicate with his staff and build up a relationship with them. It helped the team solve problems, organize events and suggest ideas to help the business. The team felt empowered and valued because their opinions were being sought.

It’s interesting to note that most, if not all, top companies hold weekly if not daily meetings with their staff. Funnily enough, few small to medium sized businesses have regularly scheduled meetings. The benefits of holding meeting are three fold.

Firstly, meetings are an opportunity to communicate and connect to your people and to brainstorm ideas for your business. Secondly, meetings give employees a sense of belonging or association with your company. Thirdly, meetings can provide an opportunity to recognize high achievers. In fact, recognition ranks higher in effectiveness in terms of motivation than increasing pay or giving time off.

Bob now has motivated employees who have been given even more responsibility to run the business. The students are now fully involved in the organization and managing his business and Bob is thinking about employing one of the students as a manager.

This means Bob can spend more time with his family and working on the business knowing that his staff are capable and willing to help the business grow in any way they can.

If you are looking for proven strategies on how to increase the productivity of your team, please call an Instant Business Success Coach on (02) 9411 1345 or email info@instantbusinesssucces.com