Motivational skills are very important for manager to ensure that people give of their best .Motivation is powerful driving force it encourages action and right behavior in people to achieve desired goals. Motivate your people to shown interest, make extra effort to work hard and behave in a particular direction to achieve desired organizational goals. Motivated team can give of their best to achieve any challenging task and deliver desired results. When people are motivated everything will improves; employee engagement, productivity, performance, profitability, relationships, teamwork, and staff retention.

Motivation is like motor vehicle it does not propel without fuel. As Zig Ziglar rightly commented that, “People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily”. So to make your people want to do anything, you need to motivate them consistently. But everyone has their own reason for doing anything or behaves in a specific way so how to motivate people? Here are the 5 steps to discover the power of motivation to get best from your team.

Passion

First step you need to do to motivate individual or team is to understand what are the motives of the team members, what they like, what they want, what interests them ,what are their needs, their wants, aspirations, preferences  and very important their passion, what they love,  what they enjoy doing. What excites them once you understand their passion your job becomes easy. Michael Schumacher said “Once something is a passion, the motivation is there”. Similarly Napoleon Hill rightly commented that “The starting point of all achievement is desire”. So understand their passion, desire and inspire your people to motivate themselves by focusing on their passion and aligning their passion to organizations goals and assign the task to meet their passion to achieve desired objectives. As Benjamin Franklin rightly said that “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins”.

Opportunities 

Second step you need to take is to look out opportunities for your team member that matches with their passion and with the organizational objectives as Chris Grosser said “Opportunities don't happen, you create them”.  And Francis Bacon also rightly said “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”  So give them opportunities to apply their knowledge skill and competencies to excel. Providing opportunities to people is about getting them to move in the direction you want them to go in order to achieve desired goals. It’s about engaging both the hearts and mind of people so that they take opportunity available to them for increased responsibility to give their best performance. Dwight D. Eisenhower said “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it”. Provide them opportunity to develop, to advance in their career, for promotions, for their learning, development and growth.

Work environment

Third step to motivate your people is to create a positive work environment which can help team to perform at high level. Make work environment interesting, challenging and fun. As Dale Carnegie said” People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.  Create conducive work environment to excite people make extra effort, go extra mile, happy to stretch and ultimately positive environment help them to enjoy and love their work. Convey expectations for performance to achieve desired outcomes and make work environment engaging and communicating rewards and benefits. Promote spirit of teamwork and cooperation.  Identify the talents of all your team members and determine how they can complement one another by completing different tasks.  Give them regular feedback they will love the job and feel happy to work and deliver great results. 

Empowerment

The fourth step to motivate your people is to empower them. As Bill George said, “The role of leaders is not to get other people to follow them but to empower others to lead “. As a people leader give your team member power and authority to carry out the task, empower them to take decision and actions to achieve goals , delegate higher responsibility , allow them to exercise control,  allows them to work more independently, allow them to take risk , involve them in critical decision making and planning. Provide directions, guidance to your team and give immediate feedback to enhance their performance. Throw challenging task that makes work interesting and overcoming them is what makes job meaningful. Empowerment provides your team members greater job satisfaction, commitment, engagement and greater motivation to give their best. 

Recognition

Last and important step is to motivate your team is recognition. Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. Recognition means being appreciated; being treated with respect and dignity; and feeling of belonging and ownership. Recognize Special achievement, valued behaviors, exceptional effort of your team member. Timely recognition has lasting impact on employee to perform better and to take up additional challenging assignments. Shakespeare said “Praises are wages!” Sincere and genuine recognition in public is most effective way of motivating people; appreciating, acknowledging good work goes long way in motivating people. Recognition of employee achievements, along with encouragement and feedback, leads to increased confidence, commitment, and inspiration for further achievement whereas monetary rewards are temporary and short lived.

Motivation POWER in short

To get best out of your team first step to motivate your staff is to understand your team members’ passion and align them to individual and organizational goals. Second step is to provide a right opportunity that matches with your team members’ passion to advance in their career and helps them in their learning and development. Third step is to provide positive and conducive work environment where they can apply their innate talent for superior performance. Next step is to empower your team to take decision, action, provide higher responsibilities, autonomy, allowing them to take risk to be creative and productive and final fifth step is to recognize their special efforts, acknowledge and appreciate their achievements and valued behaviors.

As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe rightly said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do”. Once you discover the power of motivation and apply them you will get best from your team, ultimately individual and organizational performance, productivity and profitability increases you and your team derive success, popularity, status, money, excitement, enjoy the work and life.