How to Use Motivation to Engage Your Team

While at the bus stop with my boys this past week I was speaking with a neighbour. During our chat she mentioned how eager and motivated my boys seemed to be every day to get on the bus and get to school. To give you some context my boys are between the ages of five and eight, and my neighbour was about fifteen. I suggested that their motivations were likely different then hers on account of their age (from my experience most teenagers place sleep as a priority in the morning, rather then getting out of bed to play with the dog). I got to thinking however after our conversation that the motivation my boys had in greeting each day and getting to school really set the bar for how interested and engaged they would be during the day.

In essence, their motivation was a precursor to their level of engagement.

When I think about this as it pertains to the working environment, the same rule apples, essentially motivation precludes engagement. It goes without saying then that for an employee to be engaged there is a significant responsibility on the leader of a team to ensure employees are motivated. This might seem like a complex task initially, after all you can’t send employees to their room if they aren’t listening (like I’ve done a few times with my boys!), but in my experience it isn’t as complex as you might think.

[Tweet “There is a significant responsibility on the leader of a team to ensure employees are motivated.”]

In this weeks video I outlined five critical points every leader must understand and apply if they are going to motivate their employees. In fact I specifically put this video together because after a recent interview on the topic of leadership I realized I had only covered four of the five essential skills.

Take a few minutes to watch this video, and then when you are done send me a quick note if you think there are any others that I might have missed.

© Shawn Casemore 2017. All rights reserved.