7.3 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Using Small Wins to Enhance Motivation

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Motivating Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

There are many ways that you can motivate and inspire your team.  Among others, you can provide a positive, exciting workplace, with plenty of opportunities to build strong relationships, provide great support, and publicly recognize people's hard work.  Incentives, such as bonuses or other rewards, can also be used to keep your team focused.  Recent research has shown that the way that people complete their work can also have a significant effect on motivation.  Consistent progress in the form of "small wins" can boost people's motivation and performance.

When people consistently take steps forward, even small steps, on meaningful projects, they are more creative, productive, and engaged, and they have better relationships.  Achieving and recognizing regular "small wins" helps people have rich, engaged, and productive work lives.  Happy, engaged, and productive team members can achieve far more than unhappy team members.

HOW PROGRESS CAN BOOST PERFORMANCE Professor Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer six things to give people the best chance of experiencing and recognizing meaningful progress
1. Set Clear Goals and Objectives ·        people need to understand what's expected of them ·        need to understand the connection between the work and the value that it provides to others
2. Allow Autonomy ·        need some freedom to decide how they accomplish the goals ·        avoid micromanagement as it destroys morale and engagement
3. Provide Resources ·        make sure that your people have the tools and resources needed to do the job, includes technology, knowledge, support and supplies
4. Allow Ample Time ·        allow enough time to complete their work ·        consistently setting short deadlines will harm creativity, drive down work quality, and cause burnout ·        need to provide the right amount of pressure ·        set deadlines that create enough pressure to motivate good performance, yet still allow people the freedom to be creative and innovative
5. Provide Support and Expertise ·        Make sure the team has access to the help and expertise ·        foster a collaborative environment, where people can be creative and bounce ideas around
6. Learn from "Failure" ·        Support your people when they've done their honest best ·        discuss how all of you will move forward and grow without assigning blame ·        overcome fear of failure  , and allow them to take appropriate risks

It’s particularly important that you routinely recognize and celebrate success.  Encourage people to keep track of their achievements and successes.  Then celebrate these in team meetings, and reward your people   for their small wins.  Take the time to learn from people's successes.

 

Using Positive Emotions to Build Success

Most of us know intuitively that when we're in a positive frame of mind, we work better.  The positive emotions we experience do much more than cause us happiness, joy, and contentment.  According to The Broaden and Build Theory (by social psychologist and Professor Barbara Fredrickson in 1998), the more positive emotions we experience, the wider the range of thought-action repertoires we have.  The happier we are, and the more flexible and creative we are in the way that we work.

when we're happy, our broadened behaviors help us build rich work-related knowledge, skills and abilities (also called "personal, physical, intellectual, social, and psychological resources").  These resources last much longer than the initial positive emotions. These broadened resources also help us cope with stress, and unhappy emotions or situations – essentially, we have stronger skills, and these help us deal better with difficult situations.