For most entrepreneurs, a new year means a fresh start in a lot of ways. There are goals you’ve placed for the year that you’re hoping to accomplish. An entrepreneur may be ready to put their first product into production. A business owner might be putting the finishing touches on a big project for a client. There are a million new paths to take in the year ahead so entrepreneurs and business owners, as January reaches its last weeks, are likely to have perfected their foundation for the coming year. Motivating themselves is a key to making any entrepreneur great and any business owners productive. But as anyone knows, no business owner is an island. That is where employees and team members come in. A good employer knows that keeping team members motivated and driven is extremely important to the well-being of business. Keeping employees inspired should be a priority.
Sometimes making sure your team members are excited and motivated to make the new year great begins away from work. Making sure your employees or team members have the right tools they need to stay healthy, and keep their family healthy, can mean all the difference in the world. For Steve Anderson of Legacy Publishing, beginning at home is what matters. “Everyone on the Legacy team shares our common vision- making family relationships better one family at a time. We are absolutely committed to providing high quality, affordable, and accessible behavioral healthcare to families in the privacy of their own homes. The lack of healthcare is a trending news story but the conversation about a key component- affordable behavioral health is remarkably silent. This is especially troubling given that nearly 1 in 5 Americans struggles with a behavioral health issue in any given year. Our team understands the gap in the marketplace and is driven to connect families with programs that work for their situation.”
Another method for keeping employees happy and work smooth is to focus on making sure you are communicating effectively with team members. Being a boss on an unreachable pedestal means your team members feel disconnected from their leader. Mark Miller of Emergenetics International notes that knowing your team members fully is the key to cohesive teamwork. “The MOST important thing a leader can do is understand the preferences for work, action and communication on his/her team. You do this by working to the unique strengths of the team and empowering each team member to approach work in a way that corresponds to their own tendencies. When employees feel empowered, they are motivated. Then, create an atmosphere of mutual understanding where team members can realize the different approaches that others have and harness that cognitive diversity, which has been proven to increase team performance and effectiveness.”
Getting your team off to a great start and keeping them motivated for months to come is about making them feel included in the company and getting them excited. Ron Antevy of e-Builder commits to a kickoff meeting. “To get our employees excited and motivated for the year ahead, we schedule a two day off-site kick-off meeting for the entire company. On day one, we share the overall vision and company plan as well as each department’s detailed plan for the year. This ensures that each person, regardless of their role, learns about the entire business and how all of the pieces work together to achieve our goals. On day two, each employee develops his/her personal goals in a collaborative team meeting with the rest of their department to ensure that their goals are aligned with the department and company objectives. We also announce a team bonus at the kick off that is based on the company achieving its growth targets and each employee has an opportunity to determine how they can impact the goals and achieve the bonus. We begin the new year with lots of energy and excitement as a result of the meeting and bonus plan”
The methods for keeping your team happy and motivated are varied but they all boil down to the same thing – a happy team is a productive team. Whether your encourage drive by setting goals or making sure your team members are taken care of outside of work, any business owner or entrepreneur knows that without a good team there is no business.
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