How to Motivate your Demotivated Team

Myriad of factors can lead to demotivation among team members. A bigger factor could be a deteriorating economy that may lead to mass layoffs or a key client parted ways. Other factors could be bad grapevine within the organization, or could be inappropriate behavior of the manager with the subordinates. The list is long, but all will lead to one detrimental outcome.

To make work places a better and more productive space that fosters good behaviors and motivation, here are few tips that are going to come really handy in relevant situations.

Firstly, evaluate the issue

Demotivation can come from various factors. If your team is facing considerable demotivation for a longer period of time then a thorough check is required to get to the root cause of the demotivation.

You can roll out a questionnaire that contain questions that could uncover the main issue of demotivation among your employees. Ask targeted questions in the survey and organize a focus group meeting within your organization to encourage honest opinions and feedback. In addition to the survey questions, ask your human resource about their opinions on bringing improvement and motivation to the company.

Be practical

Make use of the information that you fetch by running a survey within your organization in improving your workplace motivation. Let’s understand this with an example: if a large number of your employees are complaining about the behavior of one specific manager who is very hard to work with, then investigate the issue that this manager has with his subordinates. If the subordinates are complaining about too much work load then there might be a need to hire more resources. Taking appropriate steps to counter problems faced by the staffers would make significant improvements and when the human resource starts feeling motivated is the time the company starts flourishing.

Create communication channels

Many a times it's witnessed that supervisors and subordinates go through a difficult kind of communication gap. A gap that hampers positivity from by passing walls and actually making the environment of the company positive. There is a very easy answer to the issue. Talk! Just talking to your staffers about a certain issue that is prevailing or something that could be a demotivating factor for them, like a financial loss that delayed the bonus should be communicated to the employees. And it’s not only communication. Motivational speakers have said in their speeches multiple times around the world that communicating a negative issue to people clearly actually builds positive reactions. Therefore if your company has witnessed a financial loss and is unable to give bonus for the fiscal year then informing your employees about it will only boost their morale and they will work harder to cope with the situation.

Keep monitoring morale levels

Employee morale monitoring is imperative to assess their motivation levels within your company. Morale building programs like employee appreciation awards or initiatives like a team get together helps in boosting the morale to unprecedented levels. Acknowledge your work force whenever you get a chance. Regular motivational exercises and feedback gathering exercises help in maintaining the morale and ensure optimal motivation level for your workforce.

Make an effort to know your employee as an individual

Every person is different in this world and so are their preferences. An organization is a mix of such different people that are working for the benefit of the organization as a combined entity. Make an effort to know your employee as an individual. How can you do it? Try discovering their likes and dislikes. A small introductory session at the start of the day will help you in getting to know each one of them in a much better way.

Invest in effective task management

One of the major reasons of employee demotivation rising is the inefficiency in task management and distribution. When company size increases it often gets difficult for managers to distribute tasks effectively and manage them efficiently. For this reason there are many online task management tools available that could really help managers with the issue of ineffective task distribution and management.

Dig out for assignments that appeal

As with the interpersonal element mentioned above, the nature of a project if delivered to a resource whose interests are coinciding with the nature of project can make a huge difference in the overall execution. Sometimes it is good to assign assignments to resources whose personality compliment the nature of the assignment. When people like something that they do, they do it with perfection.

Conclusion

Managing teams is definitely tricky and gets trickier when demotivation starts pouring in. Work on the above mentioned tips and you will be able to eradicate demotivation from your work force.