Don’t Lead, Inspire: 8 Strategies to Get More Out of Your Workforce

Are you an inspirational leader? Even if you lack the oratory skills of a great politician or the impeccable grace of a royal figurehead, you can stir your employees’ souls and inspire them to produce transcendent work.

Not convinced? Perhaps it’s time to rethink how you motivate your team.

“A well-motivated team makes all the difference,” says George Otte, a Miami-based entrepreneur who partners with hundreds of clients in a variety of capacities. “Motivated, inspired employees actually want to come to work each day and tackle new challenges. For entrepreneurs, that’s an absolutely invaluable resource.”

Use these eight motivational, inspirational strategies to get more out of your workforce without pushing them beyond the limits of their capabilities.

1. Push Your Employees to Be Their Best Selves

Don’t ask your employees to be who they’re not. Instead, ask them to realize their best selves — and never stop asking them what they can do better. When team members fully inhabit their potential and feel free to let the strengths shine, the workplace is better for it

2. Set Aspirational Goals

Doing just well enough to get by is a recipe for survival, not resounding success. If you want your team to produce truly surprising and excellent work, you need to push them beyond the limits of the ordinary — and, perhaps, beyond the limits of what’s actually possible. As the old saying goes: “Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

3. Lead by Example

Inspiration starts at the top. When you lead by example, you show your team the way forward. When you take the “do as I say, not as I do” approach, you open yourself up to charges of hypocrisy. Subordinates who doubt their superiors’ sincerity aren’t likely to produce excellent work.

4. Embrace the Positive, Let Go of the Negative

Positive reinforcement is the lodestar of employee morale. You don’t have to maintain relentless positivity in the face of obvious breaches of ethics or clearly insufficient work. But you also shouldn’t fall back on negative feedback as a default response to undesirable outcomes. Coaching your employees is key.

5. Foster (and Demonstrate) Trust

Employees are more likely to do well — and to go out on a limb for your company — when they feel like they’ve earned the trust of their superiors. Go out of your way to demonstrate this trust by carving out spheres of influence for as many employees as possible, assigning ownership of high-value processes to high-potential individuals, and regularly soliciting input on projects and goals. Your trust will be rewarded in kind.

6. Incentivize Performance

Even if you offer performance-based compensation already, there’s much you can do to strengthen the correlation between the success of your company and its employees. Go beyond the obvious: vested options, cash bonuses for reaching sales goals. Try out novel incentives instead: company- or department-wide contests, process ownership, fringe benefits, gamified rewards. You’re limited only by your own creativity.

7. Demand Transparency from Everyone

This is an extension of leading by example: you must foster a transparent, honest workplace culture, starting first and foremost with your own office. In workplaces dominated by secrets and mistrust, it’s difficult to prevent schisms that threaten productivity or waylay organizational goals. Your employees shouldn’t be expected to share everything — just what’s necessary to keep their work on track.

8. Show Willingness to Listen

Even if you don’t seriously countenance them, the mere indication that you’re open to new ideas is a powerful motivator. What better way to communicate to your employees that you value their input and take seriously their concerns? Start by enforcing an “open door” policy and commissioning periodic anonymous surveys.

What are you doing to get the most out of your workforce?