How to energize your team

Managers want teams that are energized and willing to produce peak performance and ready to run that extra mile. However, most of them do not put in the effort to produce this energy and performance.

Contrary to popular belief, energizing employees takes very little effort on the part of the manager. Most managers tend to think that a salary raise or a bonus are the only means of energizing employees but that is a misconception. Since the effect of a bonus quickly wears off and you are back to square one. Focus on the upper pyramid of Maslow's needs hierarchy when you as a manager needs to keep your employees at peak performance.

Dont spend unnecessary time in your office, get out of ur office and walk around, be visible. In the process,  you will learn a lot about your team and facilitate open communication. It doesnt take much to bring out the best in your team. Keep the following in mind constantly:

1.  Solicit opinions from your employees. You can make the final decision but always solicit opinions to guage the trend and make your employees feel important. They will feel that you are involving them in the decision making process and in return will feel proud to be part of your team and will strive to give their
very best.

2.  Instead of just focusing on assigning work and expecting status updates, provide timely info to your employees on what is happening around the organization and what major decisions are being worked on by senior management.

3.  Walk around the work area telling your employees how much you appreciate them. Be genuine and look for real, however small accomplishments that are worthy of appreciation. This will show your interest in them and provide feedback on their contributions leading to greater performance.

In these tough economic times it is difficult to reward good performance with money, so come up with creative ways to show their contributions are being appreciated. For example, give out humourous certificates of recognition to acknowledge individual accomplishments. When possible allow flexible working hours, this will be well appreciated and will signal to the employee that you focus on the results and not the mere presense of the employee in the office.

As you do these simple things, you will better connect with your employees and they will in return give you that extra degree of performance you will need on critical projects. At 211 degrees you only have very hot water, but with the addition of 1 extra degree you have steam that is powerful enough to move heavy locomotives.