Your business team is incredibly important; with their success, yours also grows. How can you help motivate your team as it grows? Here are four important ways to motivate your team, drive growth, and build a team that will really go places!
Get Newbies Started Right Away!
We mean right away. As soon as someone enrolls as a member of your team, you want to shower them (but not overwhelm them!) with inspiration and resources. If you can do this in the first thirty minutes or hour after sign-up, you’ll show your new team member that you’re organized, responsive, and there to help them succeed!
If you don’t have an onboarding process, create one. It doesn’t have to be fancy; maybe it’s a simple three step process of offering your congratulations (in person, ideally; if not, pick up the phone!); sending them a bundle of initial resources and guide to first steps; and announcing the new team member on your social media platforms to help them launch to a bigger audience.
What are these initial resources?
This will depend on you and your business, of course, but things to consider include:
An invitation to any regularly scheduled or upcoming webinars, team calls, or coaching events
Cultivate a Team Culture
Companies worldwide – Google to regional banks – have instituted the Chief Culture Officer as a member of the leadership team. Why spend so much money and pay a premium salary to this person? Because culture is critical.
The same is true for your business team, whether you’re just getting started or you’re established in your business. It’s tempting to focus your limited time on building business activity or training on the nuts and bolts of doing the work, but it’s also important to take the time to invest in your team’s culture.
This might look like a monthly “just for fun” video call where you can share what else is happening in team member lives — celebrating a new baby, an engagement, or a breakthrough business milestone that helped someone get closer to their Why. If your team is local, you can take these celebrations offline, and literally toast each others’ success and support each other through your setbacks. Whatever this looks like to you — because your culture will be a natural expression of your personality & priorities — make sure it’s an intentional practice.
Do The Work Yourself
Don’t let managing your team take away from your own time running your business, connecting with new prospects or customers, and inviting new team members on board. Let your team see you doing the work yourself! It’s easy sometimes for new business partners to look at leaders and assume they’re just coasting along; if you’re right there in the trenches with them, sharing your updates as you meet your daily call goals, or your frustration when a prospect you’ve been cultivating blows you off, your team will see the ups and downs aren’t just on their end.
Even better, when you’re doing the work, you’ll continue to learn and be best positioned to give your team actual, real-life, real-time advice. Stay active and stay connected!
Connect With Your Whole Team
As your team grows, you’ll be mentoring and inspiring people you didn’t personally recruit to the business. While their sponsor will always be their best point of contact, these people are still on YOUR team. Make them feel like part of it!
This doesn’t have to be complex Create a welcome email that you can send to any new members — and make sure you recognize their sponsor too! This is your chance to welcome them to the team, reinforce any critical parts of the team culture, and make sure they feel seen and connected. You should also be sure their sponsor is following a consistent process for onboarding new team members, and providing resources and information to help the new team member succeed.
As the team leader, you won’t always have time to personally mentor everyone; but setting a precedent of engagement and connection will help your entire team feel like a big family.
What are your best tips for motivating your team and keeping your team’s culture consistent as you **grow?**
