Here's How You Can Ensure Your Team Stays Motivated Good businessmen know the secret to keep their teams happy

Every progressive entrepreneur realizes the role a good and motivated team can play in maneuvering successful business outcomes. People clearly assume an indispensable role in any organization, a much more important one indeed than any kind of processes or technology. It's essential for entrepreneurs to exercise caution when dealing with their teams since small matters can derail and hit their productivity. Good businessmen know the secret to keep their teams happy and ensure their best performance.

In that light, Entrepreneur India sought views from two individuals well equipped to share ideas on ways to ensure a team stays motivated.

The first one is Vishwapriya Kochhar, Co-Founder & Managing Director, BlewMinds Consulting. Her company is into people and organization transformation using sustainable, unconventional methodologies of learning.

Following are suggestions shared by her based on her extensive wisdom on the subject -

Nurturing A Sense Of Belonging

It's very important for an entrepreneur to make his/her team members feel like they belong. In order to ensure that the individuals feel motivated, they must feel happy and a part of the family with a purpose bigger than that confined by their job role.

Vishwapriya shared a very beautiful concept in this regard which she refers to as building a heart connect. According to her, "A heart connect is so important to help teams feel included, loved and mentored to stay together in the long run." In her opinion, a work environment should be like a fresh romance to ensure the relationship is breezy and going. She emphasizes on the importance to ensure that every member feels connected with the others at the workplace in order to be happy and productive, for happy workplaces always build an automatic sense of ownership.

Making The Team Feel Empowered

Individuals perform best when they're allowed a certain degree of freedom. It can be an extremely obnoxious feeling for a team member to be micromanaged for all tasks right from start to end. Keeping that in mind, one must allow their employees some decision making power as long as it's in sync with their role and scope of work. Responsible individuals are best motivated when they're recognized for their qualities and empowered with reasonable authority.

"I remember all those jobs I could not bear to do or workplaces I could not stand to work in. I also remember those few and far in between workplaces, which I missed when I was not there. The latter ones were enabling, freeing, not fettering at all. They worked on offering accountability, responsibility and also authority", recalls Vishwapriya.

Offer Growth Opportunities

Every individual joins an organization with the purpose and dream of achieving growth. Organizations that cater to this need are always fuelled with a motivated team. Kochhar pinpoints from her experience and research that "engagement, continual learning, career progress and enabling growth environments help teams stay motivated."

The second individual Entrepreneur India spoke to is Suuresh Ramachandran, CEO & CCO, Eye-Q Films. Eye-Q Films is a company providing 360 degree video support system for organizations. They work on multiple aspects of video production, necessitating coordination among a large number of specialized touch-points. In such a workflow mechanism, good team motivation is a must for timely work completion and success. Following are Suuresh's suggestions from his experience -

Winning Their Trust & Confidence

For most individuals, motivation is dependent on a feeling of confidence about the leader and the organization they're working for. Good entrepreneurs ensure that their team trusts them. Something as broad as trust could span several aspects. Say for instance, an assurance of receiving full payment at the end of the job, if the team member is not a full time employee. Many businesses work with their clients for only a percentage of the final amount as an advance token. This might delay timely payment to their contractual team members. Suuresh shares that one of the prime reasons he is able to execute his process is by involving different stakeholders smoothly is that they feel confident about their money being safe with him. He shares, "Additionally, they have the confidence that whenever I have a relevant project, I will come straight to them." Hence, building trust and confidence goes a long way to guarantee motivation and best performance.

Hiring The Right People

Besides managing people well, in order to harbor a motivated environment, an important area to get right is the hiring. Recruiting the right mix of people in terms of skill and organizational fit ensures a smooth workflow for the entire team. Bringing even one wrong candidate on board dampens the spirit and workflow order for all. A single wrong person can be the reason for others getting demotivated. Suuresh shares, "I follow a 3-step methodology in deciding who to work with. The first is obviously the work. Second is the pricing. Third is attitude. Only when a person meets all the three criteria, will I decide to work with someone."