2+2=5 Team*WORKS

Reader Question: How do you keep each member of the team involved and motivated, while keeping morale high? What steps do you need to take to achieve this?

Our Response: Often times it is crucial for team members to be involved, but not only that, motivated to exceed expectations. More often than not though, team morale is crushed when deadlines and other factors loom over the team. It is essential through deadlines and teams needing to be productive, that team leaders ensure that the team morale is still at its highest.

Team leaders need to first, work hard to develop respect for each team member, and make them feel like important assets on the team. If team members don’t feel respected and don’t feel important, performance will not continue and team morale will drop faster than gravity allows. When team members feel respected, team leadership is respected and teammates are respected. This will keep morale high, but will want team members to want to help the team succeed. Also, it is important, as we have discussed before, to create team incentives, rather than individual incentives to allow for team dynamic and productivity to surpass individual achievement. Without team unity and respect, motivated and productive teams with a high morale are almost impossible.

Try to use the old saying to “Do unto to others, as you would have them do unto you”, which will help team leaders to know the kind of environment and respect that is needed to keep productivity and team morale high.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imcomkorea/3847294250/