Motivating Your Team! By Bobb Biehl

Have you played on two kinds of teams? One was a highly motivated team and one was a team whose morale was at an all time low? Let me explain the difference between the ways those teams develop - and how you, as a leader, can motivate your team to have high morale.

If your team has high morale, you stand a far better chance of going to finals, reaching the goal, winning the championship, or building the company than you ever do with a team that has morale problems.

Team Dream
One phrase that’s the key to understanding team morale is team dream – their dream of what could happen someday together as a team. Once your team decides, “This is our dream, this is what we will be capable of as a team” - the second profound question is, “What are the ten critical steps needed to turn that dream into reality?” Just think about it for a minute... What is your team’s dream? What are you capable of as a team? What are the ten critical steps necessary to turn that dream into reality?

Primary Results
Secondly, what is your team’s primary measurable result? What is the leading measurable indicator that you are moving toward your dream?

I once saw an ad in a magazine that said something I just passed over as being “hype.” Three days later, however, I realized that it was deep wisdom. That simple statement was, “Nothing motivates like results.” Don’t ever forget this statement.

If the morale on your team today is down there’s a simple reason: you’re not seeing the results you want to see. If your morale is the highest it has ever been there’s a simple reason: you’re seeing results that are above what you expected to see. That is very profound. Identify your primary result and keep that ever visible to your team.

Goals -- Problems -- Opportunities
Thirdly, encourage your goal-oriented members to set goals, your problem-oriented members to solve problems, and your opportunity oriented members to grab opportunities. One of the most insightful things I can tell you about life is that everyone is not like you. What motivates you may not motivate individual members of your team and vice versa.

The goal-setters are your team’s offense.
The problem-solvers are the defensive part of your team.
The Opportunity oriented members are like the special teams.
You need to have a strong offense, a strong defense, and strong special teams to win the championship.

Wrap Up
In summary, the keys to motivating your team are:
1. Crystallize your team’s dream and identify the ten critical steps needed to get there.
2. Define the primary result, because nothing motivates like results!
3. Encourage the goal-setters to add goals. The problem-solvers to fix problems. And, the opportunity oriented members of your team to grab opportunities.

If you will do these three things, your team is far more likely to stay highly motivated.

(c) Bobb Biehl – www.BobbBiehl.com – 1-800-443-1976

Note: This article adapted from a “fog cutting” C.D., Focusing by Asking!.. available at www.BobbBiehl.com.
___________
Bobb Biehl is an executive mentor. He is the founder of Masterplanning Group International. As its president, he has consulted personally with more than 400 clients. In that time he has met one-to-one with over 2,500 executives (board members, senior executives, and staff members) and spent an estimated 35,000 hours in private sessions with some of the finest leaders of our generation. You can visit him at www.BobbBiehl.com.

*brought to you by GoalsSuccess.com