Guest Blogger of the Month

I am delighted to share with you today a Guest Post from Steve Davis in relation to leading and working with a team.  Steve is a highly motivated and inspirational individual and I would also encourage you to visit his empowering blog http://stevendavisuk.com/

Guest Post by Steve Davis

Hi, I am Steve. I write an increasingly popular blog to inspire and motivate people like you and me. My goals are to help others to get drive, hunger and some passion whether it is in their professional life or personal life. For many years I have been motivating different teams with different types of people with much success. Increasing attitude, productivity and results for those I have worked with. If you would like to engage with my increasingly popular blog, please visit http://stevendavisuk.com/

I wanted to share with you 3 factors that I find are very important when leading/ working with a team.

Lead your team by example

In order to have a productive team, you must be a productive leader. Role-modelling what the employees are expected to do creates great influence, not only on the team but on the work environment itself. It will also generate enthusiasm and will inspire everybody to work more productive and harder. Sometimes it’s simply because your employees are looking up to you. Small things like being on time or being energetic may affect your employee most. This is a massive part of my game as I am always smiling and full of the well, ‘joys of spring’. However, role modelling is sometimes easily overlooked. Be careful with what you do, how you say things, and what you say to keep your team MOTIVATED.

Give ‘worthwhile’ incentives

Celebrating success within the team is HUGE. Giving your team an extra incentive aside from what they are compensated for monthly can be considered as a ‘high impact’ motivation driver. This type of motivation often applies if the performance of the whole organisation is at par with its strategy and goals, be it weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. However, keep in mind that it is not only monetary incentives that count. My team often like vouchers, ‘Reach-and-Go’s’ and any form of companywide recognition. When this was introduced to numerous teams across my company it had a positive impact on results, activity and morale! Don’t forget, ask the team what they want and compromise where possible, so your incentives will DRIVE them to win.

Listen carefully

This may seem like the easiest thing to do, but you will be surprised how hard it is to actually take on board. I know many leaders who are somewhat successful but struggle to listen. We can all hear what others are saying but to listen is challenging at best. With all your worries about your business, its targets and operations, how will you have the time to listen about how Henry forgot his lunch and now has to buy food from local amenities? It’s tough, but make a conscious effort to give that time to listen. You might think that your employees’ problems are ‘insignificant’ compared to yours, but you can’t make that call on what is important to a person and what is not. Listening to your teams concerns will be greatly appreciated. They will feel more empowered and happy since they are talking to the leader of the team.

Inspiring and motivating your team is one of the most crucial job descriptions for a leader, you can teach skills, benefits and duties but lack of motivation to the team often results to decreasing productivity and declining results. Please keep in touch http://stevendavisuk.com/

Thank You

A very special thank you to Steve for sharing this post with us, I hope you found it as valuable as I did.  Clarabelle

If you are interested in doing a Guest Post for this Clarabelle blog, then I would really love to hear from you.  Please send me an email to claire@murraypeople.com noting your interest.  Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.