When it comes to motivating your team members, you’ve no doubt heard it all:
- Pay them what they’re worth.
- Offer chances for self-development.
- Offer opportunities for promotions/raises.
- Set clear goals.
- Encourage “failure” (it’s OK to make mistakes).
- Don’t micromanage.
- Don’t hold useless meetings.
And on and on and blah, blah, blah.And while there really isn’t anything completely new when it comes to successfully motivating members of your team, we’d like to remind you of some motivation ideas you may have forgotten.
Turning the “Employee Motivation” Paradigm on its Head (A Bit)
So let’s talk about you, the manager, what changes can you make to motivate your team? Here are three ideas, below.
- Interact one-on-one with the members of your team.
- Build personal rapport.
- Encourage your team members to come to you with problems/solutions.
- Provides the opportunity to give informal feedback (for both of you).
- Helps a team member feel valued and heard.
- Back off.
- Talk less.
Make a point to – at the very minimum, and especially if you manage a large group of people – see each and every member of your team at least once daily. Even just a “good morning, Caleb” as you lock eyes and smile can work wonders.
Take members out to lunch one-on-one. Ask them what they hope to accomplish on the job, what their career goals are, what obstacles they may be facing and what you (or your company) can do to help them. Ask what they would do to help the entire team succeed.
These one-on-one meetings should not be to discuss something an employee did wrong, or needs to improve.
Meeting regularly with each employee will:
All managers like to think they don’t micro-manage, but all do, to some degree, at some times.
But constantly checking? Always asking how projects are going? Always making suggestions as to how something should be done? You’re asking for trouble.Especially so if you’re managing a team of Salesforce professionals, especially admins, who tend to be exceptional communicators, empathetic, good listeners, and out-of-the-box thinkers. Tell them what you want accomplished, give a deadline, be available for questions and stay away!
As manager, you may tend to feel your team members want to hear from you. And they do: regular team meetings are important because they still are efficient ways to get feedback, make announcements, plan, exchange information, etc.
When you meet with employees, either in team meetings or one-on-one, just listen. Encourage members of your team to bring ideas for improvement. And, even if the idea isn’t great (or has been tried before but failed), don’t squash the impulse. Together come up with ways to make the idea better, more successful, etc. Encourage employees and provide them time to experiment and the freedom to fail without negative consequences.
Motivating your Salesforce team members is much like motivating any other type of employee. It is harder, however, to find terrific Salesforce pros. When you need Salesforce admins and developers, contact Tech2 Resources. We recruit Salesforce professionals all the time; they are the only type of tech professionals we source, vet and place.
Call us at 919-569-5529 or send us a message.
