Lead And Motivate Your Staff

Introduction

Strong leadership and a sense of direction are hallmarks of almost all successful businesses.

People are motivated not only by personal gain but also by feeling part of the business and contributing to its goals. Therefore, if leaders engage effectively with their workforce to build commitment, employees are motivated to improve the quantity and quality of their output, which improves the business.

Good leaders motivate their staff using a variety of skills, learned through training and experience. You can develop these skills to get the same results.

This guide shows you how to lead and motivate your staff in order to improve business performance.

The importance of leading and motivating

For a business to be successful, it has to not only offer products and/or services that meet customers’ needs and wants, but also have staff who are loyal and committed.

However, to gain your employees’ loyalty and commitment you need to do more than just pay them well. In a competitive job market, you also need to consider people’s social and psychological needs – and this means leading and motivating your workforce properly.

In order to lead your staff, you need to be able to communicate:

  • a vision of what the business stands for and where you want it to be
  • values and priorities across the organisation
  • what you as an individual intend to do to realise that vision and reflect those values
  • what individual employees can do to realise that vision and reflect those values

In order to motivate your staff, you should:

  • ensure the work is as challenging and as varied as possible
  • establish a friendly, collaborative work environment
  • consider more flexible working practices
  • delegate tasks, allowing others to take responsibility

For more on motivation, see the level in this guide on what motivates employees.

The benefits of showing leadership and motivating your staff

Leading and motivating your staff helps bring about:

  • higher staff retention – leading to reduced recruitment costs
  • higher levels of productivity
  • more innovation and creativity
  • higher profits
  • a better reputation – among both potential employees and suppliers

Read more: nibusinessinfo.co.uk