A leader is a vital part of a team, but what should a leader be trying to achieve with a team? What is a leader supposed to bring to a project that wouldn’t have been there otherwise? Knowing exactly what it is you are supposed to be doing is the most important part of any job, but for a leader it is especially the case. Learn to lead a team on our Leadership Skills course.
Motivation:
This is one of the biggest parts of being a leader. You are there to inspire and support your team in what maybe a time of great stress. As a leader you should be constantly looking to bolster moral and maintain unity within the group.
Overview/guidance.
A leader is someone who others turn to when they need help. Your job as a leader dictates that you should be keeping a watch over the project as a whole, it is not your job to get too confined in the minutia of every little thing. There is no problem in getting stuck in, indeed it is encouraged, but do not get bogged down.
Direction:
A leader should know what had happened, what is happening and what is going to happen. If there are any decisions to be made it is the project manager or leader that should be addressed, or at least informed. Effectively it is a leader’s job to remain in “the loop” at all times.
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Posted by Colin Welch in Leadership Skills on April 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Silicon Beach Training offer a great staff motivation training course, as well as providing team building training and team leadership training.
Key motivational practices
Managers and leaders need to develop a skill set which will enable them to create the right environment within which a member of staff will be motivated.
Remember, people have to motivate themselves; managers can’t motivate people anymore than they can empower them. However, managers can and should set up an environment where they best motivate and empower themselves. This environment needs to include at the very least the following:
- Support and encouragement
- Access to training and development opportunities
- Feedback on performance
- Praise
The key for managers is knowing how to set up the environment for each of their team members.
How to Motivate the Team
Everyone is motivated by different needs but generally when staff feel good about themselves, the work they do, and the organisation they work for, it is much easier to gain their cooperation.
Here is a list of ways in which managers can extract the very best out of team members, which is of benefit to them, you and the organisation as a whole.
- Involve team members in the decision-making process. If not deciding what is to be done, then how it is to be done, or when or in what way and by whom. Let their participation increase over time.
- Keep people informed. e.g. on changes that can directly affect them such as policy changes, procedure or rule changes etc.
- Be aware of the morale level of your employees. Be sensitive to changes in morale. Know when and why it goes up or down.
- Maintain an open-door policy. Be approachable, available, and interested, not distant.
- Develop a caring attitude. A good manager trains, develops, counsels, guides, and supports their employees.
- Be sure to listen. Always listen to and try to understand what employees are communicating.
- Outline job responsibilities. Make certain that team members know exactly what is expected of them and how their performance will be evaluated.
- Always treat employees with respect. Be thoughtful and considerate of the person you are dealing with.
- Ask for suggestions. Be sure to invite suggestions and new ideas from team members concerning work. Be willing to put good ideas into action by making changes.
- Give feedback. An effective manager gives feedback on performance and achievements and does not criticise, blame or personally attack others.
- Give recognition. Give appropriate praise and recognition for a job well done.
- Maintain high standards. By involving team members in establishing high standards of performance, you will build their pride and self-confidence
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on April 19th, 2007 | No Comments »
The manager’s role is to organise resources and employees to achieve the best results for an organisation. How a manager perceives his employees will affect his skill at motivating staff. Consider these two approaches below.
The pessimistic manager
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
- People do not enjoy work; they will try and avoid it if possible
- People are not ambitious
- People do not like responsibility
- People prefer to be told what to do
- Most people are not creative when solving problems
- People are only motivated by basic needs for security
- The majority of people are self-centered, and so will need to be controlled in order to work towards organisational goals and objectives
- People are resistant to change
- Most people are not intelligent.
- People are gullible
This attitude towards management and employees assumes that people at work are motivated firstly by money closely followed by basic security needs.
In order to control employees the pessimistic management may rely on coercion, threats and tight control command. The pessimistic manager could be passive and simply hope for cooperation. Neither of these solutions are productive styles of management. The first will result in hostility, employees may purposely under perform, and workers may unite in opposition to management. The second approach does not motivate at all, it may encourage apathy.
The pessamistic approach assumes that once a need is satisfied it no longer motivates hindering the need to satisfy higher-level needs. More money becomes the only form of motivation. Employees will use work to satisfy this basic need only; their higher needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives) will have to be fulfilled elsewhere. As we will see later – employees can be most productive when their work goals align with higher level needs.
Pessimism in management that recognises only basic needs for motivation usually encourage employees to work without responsibility, enthusiasm or creativity, promoting an environment where employees dislike their work, avoid responsibility, have no interest in organisational goals, resist change, etc., thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Optimistic Manager
Maslow’s Hierarchy looks at mans basic needs for survival food, shelter etc. in a working environment money is the only currency that will satify these needs. Managers should also be interested in higher-level needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives), needs that are continuing needs as in seldom completely satisfied, such as self esteem and self actualisation. As these needs are on going and not so easily attained, the promise of more can more easily be used to motivate and reward employees.
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:
- Work can be fun/rewarding/enjoyable
- If employees are committed they can be self directed and creative when working towards organisational goals
- If rewards can fulfil higher needs such as self fulfilment, employees will be more committed to maintaining quality and productivity
- Enthusiasm, commitment and creativity can spread
- Most people can handle responsibility
- In the right conditions people will seek responsibility
Here there is an opportunity to align organisational goals with personal goals by using higher needs such as self fulfilment as a motivator.
There may be employees that are not as responsive when offered the promise of higher need fulfilment. There may be employees that will still need a level of control to make them productive. They may however develop as they work in an environment that encourages responsibility and creativity and control can be relaxed as employees develop.
Silicon Beach Training offer a Staff Motivation course.
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills on June 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off
