Leadership Tactics for Creating a Motivational Work Environment

Motivating your team is, in many ways, the core duty of a leader. After all, you're only leading if people are motivated to follow you.

Some of the tactics you'll see recommended are very specific. Compensation, competition, positive feedback — I see these more as management tactics than leadership tactics. In other words, this is advice on how to do things right rather, than how to do the right thing.

To come up with something that works for your organization and your situation, you'll need to do a little more work. In this article, I'll talk about some of the key requirements for a motivational work environment — how you make it happen will depend on your unique style and set of skills.

Developing Your Soft Skills

One of the most impactful things you can do, especially to motivate those you have direct contact with, is to develop soft skills. These are the skills that make people want to follow you, but they're also the skills that help you diagnose a demotivational situation.

Being able to listen to others and understand their points of view is essential when figuring out what's draining motivation. Although these abilities seem natural, nobody is born with them. They're skills you can refine and develop with focus and effort.

Focusing on Your Vision

Sometimes, confusion and conflicting impulses are the sources of poor motivation. Vision can help in these cases.

Your vision is something everyone should understand, own, and work towards in everything they do. When a vision is open to interpretation, or when it's unclear, people come into conflict or lose focus.

Work on your vision until you can express it exactly in just a few words. Talk to others about it — make sure they have the same interpretation of it that you do. Make it big enough so everyone can strive together towards it.

Your vision of success is the core of your own motivation. As a leader, one of your jobs is to share that with everyone in your company.

Walking the Talk

Just like fuzzy visions confuse people, inconsistent application of company culture disappoints and demotivates them. If there are guidelines on how to do the right thing, everyone should be following them.

For example, let's say you value open communication and sharing throughout your company. What message does it send if the leadership team is always behind closed doors? People try to do something they think is right — they try to communicate with leadership — and they lose motivation when they come up against a reality that doesn't follow the company line. 

Openness is just an example. Any type of culture can build a motivational environment. The key is that everyone in your organization must walk the talk.

Making Tough Decisions

So, what happens when some people just won't get on board with walking the talk of your company culture? This type of resistance is more destructive than you might expect. Unfortunately, it also tends to happen frequently with top performers.

Having a consistent culture sometimes comes at a cost. If people won't fit in, they're probably better off somewhere else. You'll probably be better off, too. Even if you lose a former star, everyone else should be more motivated to come together and succeed as a team.

What is the style you’ll use to foster a motivational work environment?