Teamwork Tips

If you’ve ever wanted to use your leadership to lead your team more effectively, or simply have more fun at work; the most effective way is by filling your team with energy and inspiration. Look no further than these Teamwork Tips. In the next week I’ll be writing about a few key strategies to enthuse the teams you live and work in. Today’s article is on the importance of talking in terms of your team mates dreams, and using this to enthuse them towards their goals. After all, members of your team won’t need chasing up if they believe they’re actually pursueing their own dreams! Here’s how to drive your team into that brilliant state of mind.

Speak in terms of their Dreams. A carefree retirement, running their own business, getting married. These are probably 3 of the most common long term goals of members of your team, and unfortunately, none of these seem quite in line with what the needs of the ‘team’ are.

As well as having these goals, your team mates will probably have some form of  ‘plan’ in their mind as to how they wish to achieve them – and you can bet this action plan won’t help your organistation…right? Thats where you’d be wrong. These ‘alternative’ goals can actually be used to benefit your team and increase productivity. You simply need to apply the technique below.

To start putting this Teamwork Tip into practise, you need to be talking to each member of your team individually and in your conversation, explain to your fellow team mates that their current task will take them one small yet significant step closer towards their dreams.

Easier said than done? Well read on for an example of this technique in practise.

Imagine that your team mates desire is to leave your company and take up a higher position in a rival firm. This is a fairly common vision, so would be helpful as an example. You need to look at the task in hand and examine which elements would help your collegue achieve his move. The answer of course lies in the transferable skills that they would gain from the current task. You could describe in detail how this would boost his CV and give them an edge over other applicants. The key action that will really cement this attitude in their mind, would be for you to visbily tailor the work they are set so that it would fit his transferable skill needs more closely. For example you could give him extra responsibility, noting that he would be able to directly refer to this in his CV. You see how you’d actually be doing the opposite of what most team leaders would do, namely isolate and discourage the employee’s move? You are taking the opposite action, and that’s why you’re getting the opposite result – motivation. The more you speak in terms of the other persons dreams, the more attention you will capture, and the more effectively you can manage your team.

To conclude.

• Understand your collegues long term goals
• Analyse what benefits in the current task are available to help them achieve the goal.
• Be seen to tailor the work you give them to better fit their needs

If you carry out all three steps, your team mate will without doubt become far more focused on their work. They won’t be working for money, or due to pressure, but because of their own internal drive to succeed at enabling their deepest desires to come true. And that form of motivation, is priceless.

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