Motivating Your Team At Home

As our days amid the COVID-19 outbreak go on with more uncertainty, it can be hard to stay motivated. Most of us are now working from home. We are dealing with new schedules, family/housemates consistently around and a new work/life balance. Motivating yourself can be difficult. Motivating your team from home can be an entirely new challenge to take on.

Truth is…it’s not all about motivation.

Motivation comes in many shapes and sizes. What your team needs now is support, empowerment and understanding. Your team needs to know that you’re not just trying to push out content and make sales. They want to know that you are there for them. That you have their back through all of this. By doing this, they will have your back too. 

To do this, make sure you are staying in contact. This is a two-way street, but putting the effort in first, can make an employee want to stay in contact. The contact doesn’t just end with your team though. Reaching out to stakeholders and clients via social media creates a virtual connection. This is the time when everyone is online. People are looking for interaction. 

If you log into Facebook or even LinkedIn, you’ll see people sharing their work-from-home tips. You will also see dozens of pictures of their home office spaces, what working with kids actually looks like, fundraisers and playlists to help you get through the day. We are all in the same boat. By sharing the similarities, it makes this a little easier on all of us, knowing that we are all going through the same thing. 

Motivation is caused by a chain of reactions.

 

Motivating your team with transparency

It’s better to be up front with your team, rather than to sugar coat what is happening. When your team knows what is going on, they can react better. If things aren’t going well, let them know. You might just spark inspiration in someone to create new content to help you get back on track. Let your team know how much you appreciate their work – not just during this time, but all the time. 

A team doesn’t necessarily want to hear a long-winded speech about how we’re still going to crush goals during this unprecedented time. They want to hear what they can do in the short term to make a difference. They want to still feel part of a team. Check up on them. 

Be honest about how things are going. During this time, things are messy. We all know that. Transparency is the motivation to keep going. To see change.

 

Keep company morale up

Share the good that has happened. Whether this is personal or professional, hearing good news can make someone feel more motivated. When we hear good during bad times, it motivates us to keep going. 

Offer fun virtual company events. Many companies are hosting happy hours over video chat on Zoom, Skype or Microsoft Teams. Others are hosting book clubs, 15 minute relaxation sessions and celebrating the wins that they’ve had so far. Even if this win is as simple as a new sale, content that did really well or the fact that everyone made it to the virtual team meeting with no issues. Some companies are even hosting virtual family events to get everyone in the house out of the monotony.

Everyone is getting used to this new current reality. It will take a little time. Let your team know that you are getting used to it just like they are. Make jokes. Laugh. Don’t fret over the small things like your mic cutting out, a dog running into your shot on Zoom or little technology issues. These are things that we all will encounter. These things we can laugh about and connect with. 

 

Listen to your team and address their concerns

Everyone has questions right now. Schedule time to hold a meeting to address your team’s concerns. As part of being their leader, they come to you with questions. Be creative when answering them. 

Can you make a fun video that they can refer to? Want to write a quirky, but informative blog or email? Let your creative juices flow. Yes, it might be a busy time and making a video or a blog is time consuming, but it shows your team that you care about them. Taking this time now will pay off in the long run. 

Your team will have questions related to working at home, their mindset right now and expectations. Send a survey out that lets your team write in their questions if scheduling a meeting for it isn’t possible. Make sure to organize and answer as many questions as you can in the email, blog, video or meeting.

Getting used to our new current reality

We can learn a lot during this transition. Motivating your team during this time is key. Evaluate your’s and the company’s ability to truly support your staff. Our lives and schedules have completely changed. We no longer are in an office where our colleagues are a couple feet or a shoulder tap away. We will spend more time typing, reading and in silence.  

If there is one thing we know for sure, we are in the middle of a global health crisis. Taking the well-being of our teams as one of our main priorities is most important. As human beings, we are naturally social. We crave interactions and partnership. We support each other. Learn to support each other from afar and over computer screens right now. 

Stay connected. Keep your team on track, set up fun virtual optional events. We have to make the effort to keep our team involved, inclusive and continuing to be productive. Motivating your team is about caring for your team.

 

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Interested in booking speakers for virtual events for your team? Want to discuss more about the possibilities and pros of virtual events?

Visit EaglesTalent.com or call 1.800.345.5607 for more information.

Email us at [email protected], or use the contact form on our website to let us know what you need.

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