Leadership

Motivational thinking

02.07.2009
Team motivation is central to the success of any business, particularly during difficult times, says Jim Miley. Where teams aren’t focused and motivated, it’s very easy to get subsumed in the negativity that’s around.

Communicating with the team is fundamental, particularly for businesses facing difficult decisions. Where tough decisions have to be made, keeping the team fully informed on an ongoing basis is the only practical course of action. Otherwise, you can sow an uncertainty or nervousness in the organisation that can be very negative.

It’s becoming apparent that the current difficulty is going to last for quite a bit longer than anyone might have hoped for, so the notion of just muddling through is not by any means enough. Now, more than ever, you need to create a very clear sense of purpose about what the long-term vision of the business is about. Ensuring that the wider team is engaged in that vision is a huge motivational factor because that, in turn, creates a sense of belief for people that they can get through this.

Where downsizing or redundancies are necessary, practical steps obviously need to be taken, but immediately following that you need to be back in with people working really hard to recreate that shared sense of purpose.

Sporting teams that have the winning edge are the ones that have that self-belief, and that’s also true in business. It’s not just about harnessing talent; it’s about creating a mood, a purpose, which in itself fuels a dynamic. If you do it successfully, it actually makes the business easier to manage because through sharing the sense of purpose and the responsibility, you also share the burden and that in itself lightens the load of management.

Good communications processes are absolutely fundamental. Having short weekly meetings to engage the entire team is vital for keeping information flowing and ironing out any problems. And, in times of crisis, there’s no substitute for one-to-one communication with team members. Having set the organisational goal, managers need to be sitting down with each team member and translating that into the weekly and daily actions that are required on an individual basis.

Jim Miley was co-founder of MyHome.ie which he led for nine years until he recently stepped down as CEO. He now provides business consultancy services and is chairman of Concern Worldwide.