Boosting Team Motivation: Strategies for Success

I'm not doing Q&A tonight . I'm doing 10 tips . To let me find out the title again , I forgot what the title was 10 tips or 10 ways to boost your team motivation . Can't hear me ? What ? Why can't you hear me ? What's up with that ? Audio issues audio issues Swipe to the left to closed . Why is it ? Can they not hear me ? Let's do this .

Let's bank out and then come back in again . Yes , this is what happens . You know , there's a guy who attends every single live stream and his name is what the heck is his name ? Murphy Murphy , because he messes up every single one that I'm doing every single time . So let me jump back out and flip back in and let's see if it works this time .

Right , there we go . Now let's try it again . There we go , ciao . 10 ways to boost your motivation . We're not doing Q&A tonight . Tonight's really about leadership . So if you're watching this show and you're a technician in the field , you're probably leading somebody . If you're a project manager , I know you're leading people .

If you're an area manager , you're leading people . If you run a project manager department , you're leading people . Even if you are not leading people , why not learn the skills ahead of time ? Why not learn them ? Skills ahead of time ? Right , that's the best thing to do .

So every Thursday night 6 pm , we always do these live Q&A things , but we always start off with what are you drinking ? Look at that . Knowledge is power cup . Yes , knowledge is power . That's one of my slogans . So tonight I'm drinking Earl Grey tea with a little bit of honey and some cream . Tell me in the chat box what are you drinking tonight ?

What are you drinking tonight ? So let me have a sip of my tea . Oh , I love tea . Oh , man , I should have been more in a Brit . I should have been more in a Brit . But yeah , there you go . Now the podcast and the episodes . Yeah , they're always free .

I don't ever charge for people watching these shows , but if you find this content valuable , right , and you would like to support us , would you mind clicking on the where's that QR code ? There , it is right there , scan that QR code right there and then buy me a cup of tea Earl Grey or something right ? Yes , buy me a cup of tea .

You can even schedule a 15-minute 1-on-1 zoom call with me After hours . Of course I don't do that stuff during my day job . My day job , they got me from 8 to 5 . After that , I'm wide open for the podcast . Wide open Yep , I worked on the podcast last night till probably 11 , 30 , 12 o'clock last night .

Yeah , and for those who may , or new , may , not know , the podcast is let's Talk Cabling , where we educate , encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry . So , yeah , let's go turn off that QR code . So you know . Next step is we always do the acronym challenge , the acronym challenge .

I'm known for the acronym challenge , so tonight's acronym is SOP SOP . What does that acronym stand for ? I have to give you a hint . It has nothing to do with cabling . This has something to do with something with leadership . What does SOP stand for ? Sop ? I'll give you a few seconds to type in the answer , do-do-do .

The first person answers that correctly , we'll get a let's Talk Cabling sticker . Yep , what is that stand for ? Standard operating procedure . Yes , bob , you won the sticker . Good job , my friend . Yes , standard operating procedure . Oh , I remember how to turn off this stupid thing . Now I'm working with a new platform . I'm still trying to figure it out .

It's kind of messing me up a little bit there . So there you guys , we turned it off . So SOP . So let's talk about the podcast for a brief second before we get into the 10 leadership tips I've got for you tonight .

So I just I'm in the middle right now of a two-part series on how to sell your low-voltage company , how to sell your low-voltage services , with John Apilucci from JPI Associates . He managed a rep firm in the low-voltage industry for 30 years . Part one episode was aired just Monday this week . Part two will be Monday of next week .

We also have shows coming up on single-pair Ethernet , how to do a wireless survey and a bunch of others as well . We've got lots of stuff in the park . I'm trying to get ahead in my content ahead in

my content . So , before we start talking about the top 10 ways to boost your team motivation , this is a conversation for everybody . So , as I'm going through and I'm giving you these tips , if you can think of a tip that you want to add . Please tell me in the TikTok feed , tell me in the chat feed . Okay , this is a conversation for everybody .

This is not a conversation just for me to talk to you . All right , so there you go . So the very first thing and this is one that is , I think , to me at least in my opinion this is the best tip of all when it comes to a good way to boost team motivation , and that is to set an example . Set an example .

People don't like working for somebody that they perceive as being lazy . They don't like working for somebody who has a bad attitude . They don't like working for somebody who just they seem to be marching to their own drum and they don't really care about meeting the team's goals . Be the person who's in every morning before everybody else .

Be the person who's there after everybody leaves . Okay , you've got to be able to demonstrate dedication , right Dedication to the company , dedication to your work . More importantly , dedication to your team , dedication to your team . Put in the extra effort Now .

At first it's going to go unnoticed , and that may be a couple of weeks , it might be a couple of months , it might even be a couple of years , but put in the extra effort . Eventually you will build a track record and , next thing , you know people will know that .

The second thing and this kind of falls under set the leadership example is demonstrate a strong commitment to the company's values and the company's mission . So every , all good companies have mission statements , right , know what that mission statement is and be proactive , have a positive attitude about it , especially if it's your company right .

So embrace that company vision and don't just embrace it just when it's the going is easy . Also , embrace it when the telling it goings tough . My dad always just said you know , integrity is what you do when nobody is looking right , what you do when nobody is looking . So same thing here .

Right , always have a good attitude , even when the , even when you know you might be working for a supervisor and this is not me by , I'm just saying , but in the past I have you might be working for a supervisor that just you just don't , you don't feel the need to give them your all . Well , you know what you are .

You are a , your work ethic is your brand , your brand and you always do the best right . So remember , even in the challenging situations , always rise up , always don't let those things kind of bring you down right .

And then also because when you do that , you're going to find that you're going to inspire your team members , the people that you manage through those difficult times with your optimism right , because it is contagious , it is absolutely contagious . The second one is share your team vision . Share your team vision .

Let me change over to the graphic there Bingo , share your team vision . So what you need to do is you need to be able to clearly articulate the vision and the goals of the team , the short term and the long term . Okay , short term might be hey , let's get through this estimate , let's get through this project .

The long term is hey , we want to make I actually say this midterm . Actually we want to make , you know , $100,000 as a company this year , $1 million as a company this year , $10 million , whatever that goal is , If you don't have a goal , why even play the game ?

You know , I'm pretty sure when they play football , I'm pretty sure when they play basketball or baseball , they keep score , they keep score . Otherwise it'd be just a bunch of old , grown-up paid men just running around on the field . You have to have a goal right . So be able to clearly articulate that to your team .

Now , this might be fellow technicians in the field , this might be a if you're a manager of a department , might be your subordinates . Right , share that vision . You know , we in the communication I've said this million times , especially on the podcast we work in the communications industry . What do we suck at ? Communicating , communicating .

So yeah , communicate the vision , communicate the goals , and if everybody knows where to go , they are gonna do their best to work to get to that point . They truly , truly are .

And then , on top of that , especially if you're managing more than one person , explain to each team member how their contribution is going to help play a crucial role in achieving that vision . It gives them ownership ownership . They're more likely to go ahead and try to get to that goal with you .

So and you can do this in a group meeting I always found it best to do it in a one-on-one session . Some people don't like to talk about that kind of stuff in front of other team members . Know your team members right . Some people like to be the forefront , some people don't . In the fire part , we used to call those knob men .

Knob men because the end of the fire , the end of the firehose , is called a knob and the person who had that position was usually a glory hunter , because they knew when the media was taking a picture for the front page , that would be the person who'd be on the front page , the person who was on the knob . That's called a knob man , right , a knob man .

So make sure that you can demonstrate not demonstrate , but you can communicate those goals to that person . Explain to each one how their work , because everybody's got a special , a good in one area or another so explain to them how their skills , how their talents , are going to help the team make its goal . Make the goal , communicate , communicate , communicate .

I can't say that enough . I can't say that enough . The third thing that you're gonna wanna do is establish appropriate goals . Now again , if you're running a project and you're running a crew of technicians , tell them our goal is to do pull 10,000 feet of cable a day . Our goal is to terminate 500 jacks a day .

Our goal is to test 250 work area outlets a day , because if they have that goal , they will work towards that goal , they will try to achieve that and if it's somebody like me , I will try to surpass that goal . I remember one time I was doing I had to go in for some stress tests . This is like 10 years ago .

I had to go in for some stress tests and they put me on the old treadmill and the treadmill was facing the wall and they had a poster up on the wall . And on the poster it said okay , for this age rage , you should be able to achieve this heart rate for this time . Blah , blah , blah .

So I looked at my age and I said , okay , there's my heart rate and there's my time . I was like , okay , I'm not gonna meet that goal , I am going to exceed that goal . And that's exactly what I did . I kicked it up and I was almost in a jog and then , when I got done , I promptly threw up everywhere . That's how goal oriented I am .

I will make myself sick trying to meet a goal . Meet a goal absolute . So accept that goal . Give those teams the goal . If you're managing a staff of project managers , tell them look , okay , your goal is to bring in a certain amount of profit you are supposed to have . Your number of your projects have to be a certain percentage over or under budget .

Give them those goals . Give them those goals right and then , when you give them , make sure that those goals are aligned with the company's aspirations and the project's aspirations , right ? So ? And that's why I said , don't , just don't give them a goal like , yeah , you gotta watch 10 webinars , what's that to do with me ? What about your terminating cables ?

It's got to tie in with what they're doing . Now , if those videos explain to them how to terminate cables more efficiently or estimate projects better than absolutely , absolutely do that right . Number four switch back over to my captions . Number four build a positive work environment .

Again , if you have some hints , make sure you put them in the TikTok feed box , make sure you put them in the chat box down here . Build a positive work environment . So you really , as a leader , you really want to foster a culture of respect , a culture of trust .

If your team doesn't trust you and the way that you do that is open communications with your team be willing to tell them the good , the bad and the ugly , right .

That will build that trust and that will get you respect , because they realize you're a straight shooter and you're gonna be doing what you know , you do what you say you're gonna do and you're gonna be able to take them through those hard times . Encourage that open dialogue , right ? So you hear a lot of men say well , I have an open door policy .

No , okay , why wait until they come to you ? Why not go to them ? Go to them and ask them how they're doing right Now . You can do this from hosting team meetings , right , we can do like a weekly tailgate , a monthly tailgate , whatever . And if you really want to achieve something , serve food .

There's something about the human spirit that when you break bread with other people , you feel more connected to them . Let me know if you're the same way . Are you the same way ? If you are breaking bread with somebody , you feel more connected to them ? Cause I know I am . And then during those meetings those weekly meetings , monthly meetings , right ?

So listen everybody's input . And if you see somebody in the group who seems to be pretty quiet , ask them . Ask them . That might be , they might be shy , and if they don't answer , then maybe , maybe you might warrant an individual meeting with them , right ? So he's really .

You want to create that workspace there where it's everybody's gonna feel comfortable and and it's also gonna be conducive for productivity , right ? So that way they feel comfortable , that they can say what they want to say without any repercussion , and that and that's where a lot of leaders fails because they will like to be people up over stuff .

They will , they'll , they'll . They're afraid to tell that if they tell their manager that you know they went , you know , 5% over under hours , that their manager is gonna read him the riot act , you know . Make it a training thing . I will talk more about that in a minute .

Actually , right , so you want to create that , that workspace where people are comfortable enough to come to you with the problems . People are Comfortable enough to come with you with suggestions . Because , as a leader , I'm gonna tell you now , you do not know everything . You do not know everything . You just don't . You absolutely don't .

A good leader is gonna surround themselves with People who have strong skill sets and stuff that they're weak . Yet , and since you brought these experts to surround you , what good is it gonna do if you don't Listen ? Gotta listen to that input . Don't let your ego get in the way , right ? Don't let your ego get in the way .

The number of the fifth tip is going to be share performance Feedback , share performance feedback . I'll get put on the caption there Do , do , do , do . Share performance feedback . It's kind of ironic because right now we're doing Performance feedback evaluations at work , right , but instead of waiting to only do it once a year , why not do it once a month ?

That doesn't be formal , right . Just meet regularly and then talk to them , say , hey , how you doing , what challenge you having . And One of my , one of my pet peeves about a supervisor I worked for once , I Would . I was out in the field working for you know I don't know eight , ten years , and he never came out to see what I did .

He relied on my performance , on what I told him . He relied on my performance of what other people told him about me . Why not go out there to see what you ? Because if you as a leader , if a leader comes out to where I'm working to see what I'm doing , I know that they care enough To come to see exactly for themselves if I'm doing good .

So , yeah , you don't have to wait for that . That once a year performance evaluation , you know the , the formalized thing , me with them , you know , once a month , months , every two weeks , right . And then ask them hey , give them first off , give them constructive feedback . Don't again , like I said , start off by praising them .

Hey , look , you doing this really good , you're doing that really good . Here's some theories where I see we can improve upon . So let's try this , let's try that . Remember it's all about the words that you choose . All about the words you choose , and the close out the before . A shared performance , feedback encourage , encourage a growth mindset .

I was teaching a class last week I won't say where and I was talking to the guys during one of the breaks and I happened to mention something about . We were talking about how one type of connector Doesn't really perform better than another type of connector .

Now told me , yeah , I took a hundred foot piece of cable and I cut the ends off and and I terminated it , test it , cut it off time again . He goes man , you must be really bored if you doing that . I Don't know what you're doing . That I no , I did it because I'm curious by nature . I want to learn .

I don't take at face value what most people tell me . I have to do some kind of test to prove it myself . Right , I'm always looking to grow . Now , that's one way I do it . Other way I do it is I take , if I find a way to take a free class , dude , I am all over that .

And if you're taking time to find a free class and you're trying to encourage that growth mindset . If you think one of the people on your team would benefit from that , why not share it with them ? Why not share it with them ?

And if you encourage the growth mindset , then they are going to be more likely to watch that , that training thing that you gave them . Sorry , my mind put a blank there .

Number six express appreciation . Express appreciation is another one too . I was talking to a recruiting officer once , many , many years ago when I worked for a contractor , because he was the recruiter for the company .

When he would hire people and they would come in , they always felt the connection to him because he was the first person that they interacted with within the company .

So they would always come in and give him feedback on how like , for example , if they were leaving right , you always do that exit interview , but they would always come to the recruiter and talk to him because he be nourished , that relationship with them .

And the biggest complaint that he heard wasn't not that people didn't make enough money or that they had the titles . The biggest thing that they regretted or not regretted , but they felt that the company didn't nourish them with was the pat on the back once in a while hey , good job , good job . So acknowledge the performance , acknowledge the performance .

And here's a good thing if you can acknowledge that performance in public , in front of everybody , yeah , make sure that the people hear you saying hey , this is John . Man , john did he brought that project in 10% on the budget that we thought we were gonna lose money on . Blah , blah , blah , blah . Praise in public , praise in public , highlight their .

You know the achievements they did and if they hit a certain like milestone . For , let's say , for example , you know , when I got my RCDD , my registered communications distribution certification , I tried for that thing for a little over a year and for those of you who are in the ICT entry , you know that that's not an easy thing to get .

When I got the phone call from Bixie that I achieved it , I went to my boss and said look , I passed the test . And you know the boss at the time this thing was David . He got on the speaker at the office and he said ladies and gentlemen , please congratulate Chuck Bowser , he just got his RCDD .

At first I was kind of a little bit embarrassed about that , but you know what that just showed me , that he was celebrating in my milestone and my success as much as I was . So learn to how to do that , learn how to embrace that and get into that . So somebody asked me will I see me at the Bixie show in Orlando , orlando , the Winter Conference ?

The answer is I don't know yet . I don't know yet . I wanna be there . I might have training that week Trying to . I don't know , we'll see , we'll see . My goal is to be there . My goal is to be there . Pay , watch the channel and I will certainly let you know if I am going . I was .

I did have an opportunity to speak at Bixie this year , but because of my training schedule and some other things going on , I had to kind of back out of that because I wasn't 100% positive that I could have done that . But my goal is to be there though . My goal is absolutely be there . Okay , let's go to tip number seven .

For those following along , provide learning opportunities . I kind of already touched base on this already . Right , knowledge is power . That's my motto . Knowledge is power . Right , let me take a sip of tea while I'm here . The more knowledge you have , the more valuable you are to your employers , the more value you are to customers . So invest in training .

And then you don't not every class you take you have to pay money for it . I mentioned that . Oh , there's free classes Like cable installation and maintenance magazine . They do free webinars every month . All the manufacturers do free classes . And then there's a bunch of classes out there that are , like you know , 25 , 30 bucks .

I'm gonna put out a couple of myself . Make sure you pay attention . I got my fire stop in class . I'm gonna be putting it out on video next month , yeah , so you can actually go there and watch that . And I got some other ones into work as well .

So , yeah , you make sure that you learn and then also know what areas of weaknesses your team members are and suggest training specifically for them , right ? Just to kind of tie in with what the person just said on the screen , am I going to the Bixie conference ? Encourage your team members to go to those conferences ? Right ? But we're talking .

There are , there are technicians , there are our point cable , so what ? And you know how much stuff you can learn as a technician by going to a Bixie conference . Oh my gosh , oh my gosh . My favorite thing to do the Bixie conference is to go through the exhibit hall and see all the new products . You don't think technicians don't want to do that .

Yes , absolutely do that . Encourage to your people that you're leading Continuous learning , especially in our industry , because our industry moves at the speed of light . At the speed of light . If you're not always learning , you will get left behind . The way we're doing K-Link just 20 years ago has changed from the way it is now .

Try to create maybe like an internal sharing platform , maybe , if your company has like an intra-web , create a webpage where people can suggest hey , I found this free study thing , corey and Steve , to help people get the RCDDs . I know this study group here on Discord .

Right , create that culture of learning , the inclusive culture , and my wife will love this one . She will absolutely love this one . Avoid micro-management . Micro-management yeah , one of the bosses she used to work for . He used to say that , oh , I trust my members , I'll tell them to do it .

But he would micro-manage down to where , if he asked them to write a letter for something , they would write letter , but he had to see it first and then he would change something and send it back . And then I mean , micro-manage it down to the point to where it was frustrating . Don't micro-manage your teams . That's a killer , right there , of motivation .

Give your team members the autonomy to take the ownership of their work , right , because if they have ownership of their work they will do a lot better right ? So , example maybe you might wanna trust that certified technician to manage that low-voltage project independently , right , trust , but follow up . Who said that ? Was it Colin Powell , I think ?

Maybe , I don't know . Trust would verify . I think that's what he said . Yeah , yeah , so you know if they got that certification . I did a project . I was running a team at the Supreme Court building yes , that Supreme Court building and so my lead foreman , there was a Bixie certified tech , and I went out to do a QA inspection on it .

I noticed that he was using Sharpies for all the faceplates and I said what are you doing that for ? You know that's not a well-known , that's not a best practice . Because , yeah , chuck , I know I tried to explain that to the customer , but the customer didn't wanna listen to me .

So I met with the customer and I explained to him and , of course , because I was the project manager , the time was like , oh , okay , but they didn't trust that technician .

Had that technician felt like he had the open avenue come to me , we probably could have saved us some time on the project because he had to go back and relabel about 25% of one of the floors , right , yeah , so yeah , when you get that autonomy , that helps them take ownership of their work .

The best way to do that is delegate tasks and responsibilities , say , look , it's your job to run this project . If you're running a crew , your project manager running a crew , okay , you four guys , your job is to pull the cables for this quadrant . You four guys , your job is to pull the fiber optic background .

You guys , your job is to run the copper background . And I expect you to pull , you know , 40,000 feet of cable a day . I expect five fiber optic runs again , again , you give them , you're empowering them . Yeah , you can go back and check it later .

And here's the thing when you check , go back to check up on somebody , you don't necessarily have to let them know you're checking up on them . You can check on them in silence , because then they say you know , realize , yeah , he told me to do this and I did it and he didn't have to come back and check on me .

All right , number nine allow for flexibility . Allow for flexibility Now . For example , if you got a crew out in the field again kind of ties in with the previous one we were just talking about where you you know you're not my manager giving them autonomy .

If a crew out in the field says , you look , I want to run down a different hallway and again you've built that trust with them , give them the flexibility to do that , make those decisions on the fly right , because that's gonna help them , that's gonna help them . And then and here's the thing you know allow flexibility .

They're kind of ties in here that a lot of people don't think about and I wish somebody had done this with me . Acknowledge the importance of work-life balance yes , I really wish that I had had a better work-life balance when I was a younger worker , because I felt my family suffered because of that and that's one of my biggest regrets .

I mentioned on a podcast not too long ago , up at six 30 already . Oh boy , we're almost done . One more 10 , cultivate a fun workplace . Cultivate a fun workplace yes , people are gonna be happy when you're doing things with them right . So for , like a team in the field , I used to create competitions amongst the crews and whoever won the competition .

I would maybe take them out for a couple drinks or maybe buy them pizza or whatever , and then also foster that sense of camaraderie . They work better when they work as a team , right ?

You even do , like , have somebody come in and say , if somebody's really good like let's say , you got a guy on the crew who's really good at terminating fiber maybe have that guy just teach a couple 20 minute class , 30 minute class , so the people don't and then make it a fun thing to have it and say look , whoever does the connector the fastest or has the

best test results , you get XYZ right . So have a good way to have a fun workplace

. And that's one of the things that we really miss out on as leaders in our industry . Let's go check the chat box before we done . So there we go . Networking yes , absolutely . Networking is a good one as well . So there we go . That's our 10 tips for motivating your crews . Until next time . Everybody remember knowledge is power .