Coaching is one of the most reliable ways I have found that leaders use to boost employee engagement. However, no matter how extensive your experience is with leading and managing teams, strengthening employee motivation isn’t easy, especially since you’re constantly dealing with different people with varying needs and goals. Employee motivation is crucial since it affects work performance, team collaboration, and job satisfaction.
Great coaches can boost employee motivation by uncovering what inspires them and their personal goals. They can work together through collaborative action plans and progress evaluations. Motivation can also be enhanced with team-building activities, incentive schemes, and reward systems.
This article will discuss how a good coach can enhance employee motivation, including setting realistic goals, launching reward systems, and engaging in team-building activities. I’ll also discuss the benefits of getting to know your employees more personally and providing them more autonomy with their tasks. Let’s start!
How Does Coaching Motivate Employees?
Coaching motivates employees by making them realize their value and indispensable organizational roles. It makes them want to develop their skills and experiences to contribute more to the organization. Proper coaching makes employees more efficient, happier, and more satisfied.
Below are some of the most effective ways to boost employee motivation:
1. Uncover What Inspires Your Employees
People are motivated by different factors. To effectively lead and manage an engaged team, you must discover what drives each of your employees to perform, excel, and push beyond their limits.
Try to break free from the limitations dictated by the manager-employee relationship and get to know your team members more personally.
Here are some aspects you might want to discuss with your team members:
- What are their interests and hobbies?
- What are their personal aspirations?
- What skills are they most proud of?
- What skills do they feel insecure about?
- What are their core values? These principles guide a person when making decisions, acting, or interacting with others. Ideally, they’re non-negotiables that a person will never compromise in exchange for anything, no matter how tempting.
Core values may include:
- Integrity
- Excellence
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Honesty
- Charity
- Kindness
- Loyalty
By discovering these details, you’ll get a better grasp on what your employees are like as individuals rather than just members of your team. This knowledge can arm you in mapping out a more practical approach to coaching, which they’ll appreciate since it’s designed with their unique perspectives in mind.
2. Set Clear, Manageable Goals
Imagine getting in your car and driving under clear, blue skies on a breezy Saturday afternoon. Everything is pleasant, but you don’t know where you’re going, so you drive all day, your frustration and weariness rising with each passing hour. In business, if you don’t set clear, realistic goals for your team, they might eventually feel as uninspired and disgruntled as this driver.
Setting concise and practical expectations will make leading and managing your team easier. Tailor-fit goals to each employee’s unique needs and desired career path. Align these goals with each employee’s personal objectives, so they can maintain a healthy work-life balance in their daily lives. Your team will undoubtedly appreciate this effort since it shows you’re invested in their careers yet mindful of their private lives.
3. Devise an Action Plan Together
Coaching involves providing guidance and support to employees to help them enhance their skills, improve their productivity, and advance their careers. For it to be truly effective, it must be tailor-fitted to the individual’s unique needs, circumstances, and goals. You can do this by considering each employee’s perspective on how they’d like their careers to advance.
Include your employees in mapping out an action plan to help them achieve their goals. People are more likely to respond positively to leadership guidance if they’re amenable to the processes and objectives involved. Consider one-on-one meetings with your employees to add a more personal touch to the experience.
Here are some pointers to help ensure your employees feel involved in planning for their future:
- Take advantage of personality assessment quizzes. These will come in handy in helping you determine the ideal approach for your employees’ varying dispositions.
- Listen actively. Encourage your employees to speak up about their concerns and ideas before offering your insights.
- Ask about their projected timeline. Ask your employees where they see themselves x years from now. This will give you a clearer view of how best to coach them to help them achieve their personal goals.
4. Make Time for Regular Progress Evaluations
A great way to motivate your employees further to aim for excellence is by showing them that you’re aware of their efforts and acknowledge their progress and accomplishments. This simple yet powerful gesture can quickly boost your team’s productivity and morale. Make it a habit to regularly check in with your team to monitor their progress and help them navigate through obstacles, if any.
Keep communication lines open. Make sure your team members can easily approach you whenever they need to. This means you must make yourself approachable and comfortable to talk to. Team members who can easily approach their leaders are bound to be more inspired about their work since they know they’re valued and supported.
5. Give Your Employees Space To Thrive
Leaders who micromanage their team can quickly dampen their employees’ spirits. It suppresses their creativity and keeps them from devising their own tactics to get things done. In the end, you, as the coach, might start feeling overwhelmed with all the responsibilities on your shoulders, making you feel resentful toward your team.
Learn to trust your employees and allow them more autonomy with their tasks. By doing so, you inspire them to be more ingenious, strategic, and efficient in reaching their objectives. Encourage them to work as a team; you’ll see them discover more customized and streamlined approaches to doing their work.
6. Promote Teamwork
Organizations function better when team spirit is alive, and everyone works harmoniously to achieve common goals. However, this ideal setup isn’t always easy to create since teams are made up of people with distinctive personalities, characters, likes, dislikes, and behaviors. Activities promoting teamwork are highly recommended to uplift the environment at work.
Schedule periodic team-building activities to help foster camaraderie and trust within your team. Out-of-town trips where they can unwind and relax after particularly grueling months will be much appreciated. You can also attend Friday night-outs to cap intense weeks and celebrate small achievements.
What’s great about emphasizing employee motivation is it allows you to develop more meaningful relationships with your team. Aside from helping them develop their skills, advance their careers, and achieve their full potential, you’ll also allow them to appreciate you more as their coach.
7. Reward Your Team
Make it a habit to acknowledge and reward good effort and excellent performance. This helps make employees feel seen and valued. It also helps them realize how significant their roles and contributions are to the team. Be clear and specific with your praise so your team members know exactly what they did well on.
Below are some ways you can show appreciation and reward your team:
- Cash incentives
- Gift checks
- Job perks and benefits
- Promotion
Organizations with leaders who are loved and appreciated by their employees typically have high retention rates. This helps create a more synergistic, steady work environment within the team, allowing for easier attainment of short and long-term goals.
Creating this harmonious, stimulating working atmosphere will also help inspire you as a leader.
