Motivating your team is important if you want your business to be a success. Staff and business partners who are motivated are more productive and harder working. They are also less likely to leave. So read on for our suggestions on how to get your business moving by focusing on recognition and development.

Recognition is the process of highlighting an important achievement and thanking someone for making it happen. Here are our 3 simple steps to getting recognition right.

1. Recognition should be earned

Recognition should pick out an individual achievement and meaningfully acknowledge it. Try to avoid thanking everyone every day as it will become impossible to make real achievements count.

2. Consider how to deliver the message

Not everyone wants to be recognised in a public space. Make your message of thanks even more meaningful by tailoring the method you use to communicate it to your audience. Remember that it may be important to share the news. For example if you have an accountant who has gone above and beyond, you could send a letter to his accounting firm sharing your experience and explaining why you value the accountant so much. This will really enhance the motivational element of your praise.

3. Be specific

There’s a big difference between saying ‘great job’ and actually calling out an achievement and showing that you understand the specifics of it and why they are important to your business. We recommend that you do the latter.

Recognition is an important part of motivating your team, but don’t forget that developing your staff is also a key ingredient to your success. Developing skills and capabilities sets your people up for future rewards. Here are 3 simple steps that can help you to focus on development to motivate your team.

1. Find out what people want

What do your team want? What does this mean for their role and their relationship with your company. A simple conversation can set this out and your desire to help them on their career journey will be incredibly motivating to their relationship with your business.

2. Promote internally

Where possible you can use your understanding of your team to develop and recruit from within your business. The knowledge that hard work could be recognised with promotion will also drive your team to achieve more.

3. Grow personal skills
You will need to support the growth of your team by helping them to develop their personal skills. Again it is important to work together with your team member to identify these areas for development and find the opportunities to make them happen.

Motivating your people is an investment of time that can yield great rewards. If you want the best growth and success for your company then it could be time to embrace recognition and development and the opportunity to inspire your people to achieve even more.