A plan for positive influence

Improving Team Motivation, Satisfaction and Performance

Creating a Plan for Positive Influence

For many organizations, team are extremely important in the success of the organization and thus they need to be well motivated and team members should be satisfied in order to bring good performance of the teams. In increasing the motivation of the team, there are several factors that need to be considered. These include the attitudes, emotions, personalities and values of the team members which play a key role in defining the team and the abilities of each of the team members. Thus the first step would be to recognize that the team comprises of diverse people and as a result there are bound to be differing perspectives from the team members. In this way, the team diversity generates real potential benefits for the organization by giving differing views of the task of the team. At the same time, however, Simpson, Gould, Hardy, and Lindahl (1997)

argue that it is important to keep the team members focused on the information that is common to them. This helps to capture the diversity of the team and keep the team focus on the goal and objectives that need to be met. Through this the team members will be able to communicate what they uniquely know but at the same time focus on leading the team towards success. The diversity in the team will also affect the team processes since each team member will have their own way of dealing with issues. Diversity will also influence the input given by team members since they have different ways of looking at the aspects at hand. Thus the team leaders should recognize the diversity of the team and thus remember this when assigning tasks to the team members.

The second most important consideration in improving the team's motivation, satisfaction and performance is that the roles and responsibility of each of the team members should be clearly stated and that they should complement the abilities of each of the team members. After recognizing the diversity of the team members, the team leaders need to know each person's skills and abilities and provide them with roles and responsibilities that complement their abilities. In this way, the organization creates a participative environment where the employee uses their skills to fulfill their duties and responsibilities. The team members will be motivated since the team leaders will show them that they recognize and appreciate their skills and abilities and this will improve the performance of the team members. After the team members are provided with their roles and responsibilities, they should be treated as professionals and left to do their duties with minimal supervision. This will prevent the team members from feeling the team leaders are meddling in their activities and will also serve as a motivation factor since the team leaders will show that they trust the team members to fulfill their assigned roles and responsibilities.

In increasing the motivation, satisfaction and performance of a team, communication is an important tool. Communication should be two-way where the team members are able to communicate between themselves as well as with the team leaders and the team leader is able to communicate with the team members. The promotion of open dialogue among the team members through team meetings as well as in general project communication allows each of the team members to provide their input into the project. This also helps to recognize the diversity of the skills and abilities of the team members since each of them will be able to give the input which best complements their abilities which will leads to increased respect between the team members as they accept all constructive inputs given. Communication will also help to build good camaraderie in the team by promoting a participative environment where the team members feel they are a crucial part of the team and this will help to build a sense of team loyalty Flannes & Levin, 2005()