Free «Keeping the Team Motivated having Different Personality Types» Essay Sample

It has been well said that “Tap into people’s motivation and you will find yourself striking gold”. (David Cottrell, 2009).The greater the professed value of oneself higher will be his motivation level. Following is a plan to keep the team motivated which has been currently assigned the project for one year. It lists down the basic outline to keep the team members motivated and satisfied producing premium quality work. The general steps of the plan would be as follows:

Ensuring the basic requirements of the team are fulfilled.

Open communication sessions should be held bi-monthly consisting of the team members and the managers where the managerial staff should be available to talk about the team’s concerns, problems and requirements. It would be the responsibility of the respective managers to keep a track of the training requirements of the team members and ensure that they are fulfilled in order to expect outstanding performance. Following is a sample template for such a session:

Keeping the morale high by appreciating

A monthly all-hands meeting should be called upon which would be chaired by the managers. The purpose of this meeting should be to appreciate the team’s effort in achieving the goals and to boost their levels of motivation by telling them what the project actually aims for. A better approach is to let the team know how important they are and how important their work is for the company. They should be assured that due to their exceptional performance, the managers expect more from them in future. They should praise good people in front if everyone and announce a reward for them (David Cottrell, 2009).

Building companionship among team members

Instead of dealing with complains and concerns privately, the managerial staff should bring a sense of camaraderie among team members by getting them together to share their experiences and issues regarding the project. Hold monthly lunch or tea time sessions informally to discuss and bring together the team. If the members consider them as part of the team, they will never let the team down.

Giving more responsibilities

People performing well should be given more responsibilities as a gesture of appreciation and trust on their abilities as experts say that usually people respond better who have responsibilities.

Understanding personality differences of team members

Since a good team comprises of team members with diversified skills, mentality and background, it is important to keep the team motivated making use of these differences positively. All the members of the team should be categorized according to the following behavioral differences and diverse values:

Openness: It is the extent to which every individual is intellectual, sensitive or imaginative versus down to earth and crude. People having this trait can be useful for the team to assign tasks which require innovation and ideas. They are good for creative and imaginative tasks but not for a routine work (Anthony T. Cobb, 2011).

Steadiness: This is the level of measuring how calm and composed a member is and how much enthusiasm he shows in his tasks. These people are not easily depressed. These kinds of people can contribute to the project in the areas of perfect and well-organized work like preparing reports and gathering information.

Agreeableness: This category would comprise of members who are cooperative, gentle and forgiving. These team members cannot fit in areas which require difficult or objective decisions. They can be very good followers. Tasks which require persuasion or any other socially related dimensions can be performed well by these members.

Conscientiousness: This is the extent to which every individual can be careful, responsible, well-organized and self-disciplined. Higher the level of conscientiousness better will be the performance of the team. A variety of tasks can be performed by people having this capability.

Extraversion: This is the extent to which every member of the team can be talkative, social and assertive. Members with this ability can perform well in the areas which require creativity or imaginative thinking but they me inhibit team performance if they are assigned tasks of precise nature or logical behavior (Anthony T. Cobb, 2011).